Jury selection began under unusual security measures Sept. 29 in the federal trial of five men accused of planning an attack on Fort Dix, NJ, where reservists are trained for duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. The men—all foreign-born Muslims in their 20s who have lived for years in New Jersey—are charged with conspiracy to murder soldiers and attempted murder. They'll face life imprisonment if convicted. No attack was carried out and attorneys for the men say there was no plot. (AP, Sept. 29)

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that fighting between the Pakistani military and militants in the autonomous tribal districts on the Afghan border has driven 20,000 to flee as refugees into Afghanistan. The exodus from the Bajaur tribal agency into Afghanistan's Kunar province echoes the earlier mass exodus across the border—but in the opposite direction. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, an estimated five million Afghans fled to neighboring countries, chiefly Pakistan. The UNHCR and aid agencies are rushing emergency supplies to the Kunar refugees. (NYT, Sept. 29)

A car bomb detonated Sept. 30 near a crowded restaurant at lunchtime in central Baghdad's Karrada district, killing at least four civilians and wounding nine others. Most of the victims were eating lunch on the first day of the five-day Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan for Sunnis. Eid begins for Shi'ites two days later. On Sept. 28, a suicide car bombing in the same district killed and wounded scores of Iraqis getting preparing for Eid al-Fitr. (CNN, Sept. 30)

On Friday, Sept. 26, a "chemical irritant" was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton mosque, where 300 worshipers were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The spray targeted the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. The service and ritual fast-breaking were interrupted so those suffering from tearing, coughing and shortness of breath could receive treatment. "It's very disturbing," said ISGD board member Tarek Sabagh. "Something like this has never happened before." (Dayton Daily News, Sept. 27)

The conflicted Indian state of Gujarat is on alert after a terror attack in the predominantly Muslim town of Modasa Sept. 29 that killed at least one person and injured 12. Two men on a motorcycle reportedly threw a bomb at a crowded market as residents were shopping for the coming festival of Eid. (IANS, Sept. 30) Over two dozen churches were attacked in Karnataka over the past week. This follows similar clashes in Orissa in which at least 25 people died after the killing of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader. A cathedral in Madhya Pradesh was also torched. (IANS, Sept. 28)

The Sept. 29 bus bombing in the Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, which killed five people including four soldiers and wounded at least 33 others, triggered angry reactions from political leaders. Future Movement MP Saad Hariri lashed out at Syrian President Bashar Assad, accusing him of trying to insinuate that Lebanon was responsible for recent terror attacks in Syria. Assad, who has recently mobilized troops to the Lebanese border, said after the Tripoli blast that North Lebanon had become "a real base for extremism and constitutes a danger for Syria." (Daily Star, Lebanon, Sept. 30)

A suicide car bombing near the eastern Algerian town of Dellys killed three people Sept. 28, as Ramadan draws to a close amid a heavy deployment of security forces throughout the country. Three armed Islamists were killed by security forces in eastern Algeria a day earlier, and an alleged leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on Sept. 5. Four police officers were also wounded in a bombing near the eastern city of Tizi Ouzou Sept. 14, and a gendarme killed and two others wounded in Ain Defla, west of Algiers, Sept. 24. For all that, it was Algeria's least bloody Ramadan since 1992; 60 were killed in the Muslim holy month last year.

Helicopter-borne Egyptian and Sudanese troops, backed by Italian commandos, rescued the 19-member tour group kidnapped in Egypt and taken by their abductors on a 10-day trek through the Sahara to the border with Chad. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said his country's special forces were involved, ANSA reported. The freed tourists returned to Cairo Sept. 29 unharmed. Details of the operation were sketchy. Some Egyptian officials spoke of a gun-battle with the kidnappers, in which several of them were killed, but there was no official confirmation of these reports. One of the freed Egyptian hostages, Sherif Abdel Moneim, said the kidnappers abandoned the group at dawn "and moments later security forces came and rescued us." The raid presumably took place on Sudanese territory. The kidnappers, who officials said were Sudanese and Chadian tribesmen, reportedly demanded a $15 million ransom. (Gulf Daily News, LAT, Sept. 30)