BP says it plans to complete the sealing of its Macondo well on Sept. 18 as subcontractor Transocean Ltd.'s "Development Driller III" rig has drilled the final 45 feet of a relief well. The well, in the Mississippi Canyon Block 252, has been sealed from above since July 15, but is being intersected from below to complete Macondo's shutdown. The relief well's drilling was halted for nearly a month, first due to weather impacts, before resuming this week. An estimated 4.9 million barrels leaked from the well, of which BP estimates it captured 800,000. (Oil & Gas Journal, Dow Jones, Sept. 17)

An international day of action has been called for Sept. 17 to support Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov, two young anti-fascist activists arrested following a July 28 protest against the cutting of the Khimki Forest outside Moscow for a new Moscow-St. Petersburg toll highway, the first of its kind in Russia. Khimki town authorities and the highway project contractor have recruited nationalist thugs to break up a peaceful protest camp organized by environmentalists and local residents, and illegally arrested and beat up journalists covering the story. After the July protest in Khimki, in which some windows were broken, the FSB (former KGB) and its affiliated (and ironically named) Center for Extremism Prevention carried out a sweep of local anti-fascist youth, in which Gaskarov and Solopov were arrested. They face up to seven years in prison for disorderly conduct, although there is no evidence of their complicity in illegal activities.

A European Union summit opened in Brussels Sept. 16 amid continued tension over the French expulsion of Roma migrants and a threat to take Nicolas Sarkozy's government to the European Court of Justice. The EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, expressed regret for comparing French treatment of Roma with that of Jews during World War II, but insisted she was right to rebuke the French government.

Jonathan Evans, director of Britain's MI5 internal intelligence agency, said in a rare public speech Sept. 16 that attacks on the UK are increasingly likely to emanate from Somalia, Yemen or Belfast, as al-Qaeda-linked groups flee strongholds in Pakistan. The spy chief said the 2012 London Olympic Games will likely be a major target, and warned that dissidents who reject Northern Ireland's peace process could strike mainland British cities for the first time since 2001.

From the NY Daily News, Sept. 8:

S.I. driver busted after opening car door and knocking cyclist into path of bus in fatal accident
A Staten Island woman was busted for unlicensed operation of a vehicle after a freak accident that claimed the life of a young bicyclist in Brooklyn, police said Sunday.

Shootouts that began Sept. 13 in Matamoros, the border city in the conflicted Mexican state of Tamualipas, have left at least 25 dead. A Mexican law enforcement official who asked that his name not be used for security reasons said the violence has pitted the federal military against gunmen from both the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. A Sept. 13 grenade attack on the offices of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) damaged three cars outside the building. The building is located just a few blocks from the B&M International Bridge that links Matamoros with Brownsville, Tex. The bridge was temporarily closed after the attack, and authorities in Brownsville are on alert. (Brownsville Herald, Brownsville Herald, Sept. 14; ValleyCentral.com, Sept. 13)

On Sept. 16, some 25,000 gathered at Mexico City's main plaza, the Zócalo, where President Felipe Calderón delivered the traditional grito—three shouts of "Viva Mexico!"—to celebrate the 1810 uprising that resulted a decade later in independence from Spain. But bicentennial celebrations were canceled in several municipalities across the country for fear of violence, as narco gangs escalate their brutal internecine warfare. "This is not a time to celebrate, but to lament," said Victor Quintana, a federal lawmaker (PRD) in Chihuahua state. (Reuters, The Telegraph, Sept. 16)

Members of the Mexican political parties PRI, PRD and PVEM (Green Party) attacked 170 Zapatista supporters and expelled them from their homes in the Tzeltal community of San Marcos Avilés, in the municipality of Chilón, Chiapas, in retaliation for the construction of an autonomous school in the early morning hours of Sept. 9.