A July 9 letter from al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to the organization's supposed leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has allegedly been obtained by US forces in Iraq. The letter, released to the media, calls for the establishment of local emirates as an interim measure towards re-establishment of new Caliphate. It also appears to take issue with the tactic of mass murder of Shi'ites, even while demonizing Shi'ites as collaborators with the "Crusaders."

Despite Indian aid to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in the wake of the devastating earthquake which has claimed some 25,000 lives, news reports indicate concerns persist in New Delhi about how the divided region's militant organizations are exploiting the disaster. An account in The Australian raises fears that such organizations are involved in the relief effort, and that "General Musharraf and his army would be too preoccupied with initially managing the enormity of the tragedy to worry about taking on militants."

From New York Newsday, Oct. 11, this harrowing report by staff writer John Riley from New Orleans' devastated Lower Ninth Ward:

Six weeks after the storm, no neighborhood in this ravaged city faces longer odds than the financially impoverished but culturally rich Lower Ninth -- and none better reflects the fault lines of race and class, nature and economics tangled together in the debate over New Orleans' future.

Another courageous strike by the heroic Iraqi resistance against the US occupation forces... oops, we mean against Shi'ite civilians. From AP, Oct. 5, via TruthOut:

A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad as hundreds of worshippers gathered for prayers on the first day of Ramadan and for the funeral of a man killed in an earlier bombing. At least 25 people were killed and 87 wounded.

From the Sept. 30 edition of the New York Bangladeshi community paper Bangla Patrika. Translated from the Bangla by the NY Independent Press Association:

Federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, raided the Darul Ulum Shady Brook, a Madrasha (an Islamic institution) run by Bangladeshis, located at Connecticut.

Freedom's on the march in Afghanistan—freedom of opium kingpins to exploit the peasantry and make a killing. The opium economy has exploded since the country's "liberation" from the Taliban, and efforts by the Anglo-American-led occupation forces to crack down on it have only forced suffering peasants to sell their daughters to the drug lords to settle their debts. Reports have emerged (denied by the US) of aerial herbicide spraying to wipe out the crops—the same counter-productive method widespread in Colombia. A proposal by a European NGO to undercut the criminal networks by turning Afghanistan into a legal opium producer for the medical market, predictably, is dismissed by the US. From The Independent, Oct. 3:

Moroccan troops killed six undocumented African migrants attempting to reach the Spanish-controlled enclave of Melilla on the Mediterranean coast Oct. 6. Citing Abdellah Bendhiba, the governor of Nador province, news accounts said the Africans were killed in a "violent" assault by 400 migrants on guard posts outside the enclave. Security forces responded in self-defense, the report said. 290 were reported arrested, and Spain pledged to deport another 70 migrants from Mali who had reached the enclave "illegally." (EiTB24, Spain, Oct. 6)

On his October 4 visit to Nicaragua, US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick met with President Enrique Bolaños and other senior officials to discuss the country's ongoing political crisis. Speaking with reporters in Managua, Zoellick warned of stark consequences if an opposition alliance succeeds in ousting Bolaños.