Israeli commandos intercepted a boat carrying Jewish activists who hoped to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip on Sept. 28. Israeli navy boats blocked the catamaran Irene—dubbed the "Jewish Boat to Gaza"—which was carrying 10 passengers and crew, and diverted it to Israel's Ashdod seaport. The boat's cargo of medical equipment was intended for delivery to the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. Activists on board say they were shoved, manhandled—and in one case shocked with a Taser by the commandos. Yonatan Shapira—a former Israeli helicopter pilot who is well known locally for refusing to carry out his military duties—received Taser shocks while passively resisting arrest by sitting down and embracing another passenger, his brother Itamar Shapira said. (AP, JTA, Sept. 30)

From Human Rights Watch, Sept. 26:

Israel: Extend Settlement Freeze
Renewed Construction Would Have Severe Human Rights Consequences
JERUSALEM — Israel should make permanent and total the partial "freeze" on construction in West Bank Jewish settlements, Human Rights Watch said today. Israel's construction of settlements and their infrastructure violates its obligations as an occupying power and the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, including unjustly limiting their ability to build homes and access their lands, Human Rights Watch said.

Ecuador's military staged a rescue late Sept. 30 to free President Correa, who was holed up in a hospital for more than 12 hours by the police uprising. As TV cameras rolled and pro-Correa crowds at the scene cheered, some 40 special operations troops who arrived in two trucks entered the hospital, and hustled Correa out and back to the presidential palace. Sporadic gunfire could be heard and five soldiers were reported injured. A defiant Correa appeared minutes later on the balcony of the presidential palace, where he told the crowd: "It's a day of profound sadness that I never thought would happen during my government. The police have been infiltrated by well-known political parties that want to conspire."

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency Sept. 30 as the National Police launched a rebellion over austerity measures that cut their benefits, erecting roadblocks with burning tires on the highways, occupying their barracks in all the major cities, and seizing the landing strips at the Quito airport. When Correa approached a police barracks to attempt to negotiate, officers shoved him and fired tear gas at him. Video footage showed men, including uniformed officers, manhandling the president and attempting to yank a gas-mask from his face. Correa, who recently underwent knee surgery, was still walking with a crutch. "This is a coup attempt," Correa said in a TV phone interview from a hospital, where he was taken for the effects of gas inhalation. "They're trying to get into my room, maybe to attack me. I don't know. But, forget it. I won't relent. If something happens to me, remember my infinite love for my country, and to my family I say that I will love them anywhere I end up." Correa later appeared at an upper floor window, shouting to a crowd of supporters who had gathered below, "I'm not taking one step back!" Ripping his necktie loose to reveal his chest, he added, "Gentlemen, if you want to kill the president, here he is—kill him if you have the guts!"

Indigenous organizations from the tri-border area where Peru's Madre de Dios region, Bolivia's Pando department and Brazil's Acre state come together met in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, Sept. 28, and issued a statement declaring a "state of emergency" throughout the Amazon rainforest due to the "intense promotion, approval and execution of mega-projects by the governments of the three countries." The Fourth Tri-national Encuentro of Indigenous Peoples especially demanded cancellation of the Inambari hydro-electric plant in Madre de Dios and the Cachuela Esperanza hydro-dam in Pando. The meeting was called by the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA). (La Republica, Lima, Servindi, Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources, Sept. 29)

In the village of Ascensión, in northern Mexico's Chihuahua state, some 300 residents beat to death two 17-year-old boys who reportedly had kidnapped a 17-year-old girl on Sept. 21. Federal police were sent to the area to respond to the incident and to calm the angry mob. The incident began when the girl was abducted from a local restaurant. The girl's father alerted the authorities. In a car chase with police and army troops, the vehicle in which the kidnappers and the girl were in rolled over. The girl was released ans the two abductors arrested. But two others apparently involved in the kidnapping were seized and beaten by residents when their vehicle fell into a canal. The mob also blocked paramedics and emergency personnel from the scene. Two other suspects in the kidnapping remain at large. (El Paso Times, Sept. 22)

NATO forces in Afghanistan launched two airstrikes against Taliban fighters on the Pakistani side of the border, killing more than 30 people on Sept. 24 and 25, military spokesmen confirmed. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) initially denied that its forces had launched the airstrikes, although they were confirmed by Afghan police officials. On Sept. 27, however, a statement from ISAF confirmed the attacks. Initially, a base close to the border in Khost province, known as Combat Outpost Narizah, came under fire from insurgents. When what ISAF described as an "air weapons team" responded, they came under fire from the insurgents across the border in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area, and returned fire. When two ISAF helicopters returned to the area the next day, they were again fired on from the Pakistani side of the border, and again returned fire.

Several thousand Israeli settlers and supporters celebrated to mark the end Sept. 26 to a 10-month moratorium on new construction in their West Bank enclaves. "The building freeze is over," Danny Danon, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, declared as balloons were released into the air at the West Bank settlement of Revava. "Today we mark the resumption of building in Judea and Samaria!" Netanyahu had urged Israeli settlers to show restraint as the limited building freeze expired at midnight. But at Revava, outside Nablus, residents expressed their defiance at a groundbreaking ceremony where a mixer symbolically poured cement into a hole in the ground amid cheers and the blasting of car horns. The celebration was attended by thousands bused in for the occasion. (Reuters, Sept. 26)