The Criminal Chamber of Spain's Supreme Court unanimously confirmed on Sept. 7 a lower court finding that National Court judge Baltasar Garzón abused his power and must face trial. Garzón was charged in April for his attempt to investigate the war crimes allegedly committed under Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War—charges Garzón claims were politically motivated. The board of judges denied Garzón's appeal of the order, and he will now face trial later this year. The judges found that the witnesses called by Garzón will produce merely personal opinions and also determined that exhumation of 19 mass graves that Garzón ordered in 2008 was inappropriate. The ruling comes just days after an Argentine court reopened an investigation into Franco-era war crimes.

As we've had plenty of occasion to say before: Isn't it funny that those who invoke the supposed superiority of Western culture the loudest are the quickest to betray those values which supposedly make it superior (pluralism, tolerance, etc.)? And we'll also add—Way to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan! From ABC News, Sept. 4:

From the NY Daily News, Sept. 4:

Taxi smashes into East Village coffee shop; five people injured
An out-of-control yellow cab crashed into an East Village coffee shop early Sunday, critically injuring an elderly man, police said.

Students at the Faculty of Ethnology at the State University of Haiti (UEH) in downtown Port-au-Prince said on Sept. 4 that they are planning to file complaints with international agencies about a May 24 incident involving soldiers from the 9,000-member United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The soldiers invaded the campus and arrested a student, Frantz Mathieu Junior, for allegedly throwing rocks. MINUSTAH released the student the same day, and the force's acting head, Edmond Mulet, apologized on May 25, but the students asked why more than three months later no soldiers have been disciplined. Various groups are planning a demonstration against the UN force on Oct. 15, the date on which the UN Security Council is expected to renew MINUSTAH's mandate for another year.

As of Sept. 1, Honduras' National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) said it had collected 1,019,765 signatures on petitions calling for a constituent assembly to rewrite the country's 1982 Constitution and for the safe return of former president José Manuel ("Mel") Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009) from his exile in the Dominican Republic. One of the FNRP's coordinators, union leader Juan Barahona, called reaching the number "a triumph" and said he was "sure we'll pass the minimum goal we proposed of 1.25 million signatures" by Sept. 15, the final day of the campaign. (The population of Honduras is about 7.5 million, and there were 4.6 million registered voters in the country at the time of the November 2009 elections.)

Honduran president Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa announced on Aug. 30 that he had signed an agreement with the education workers' unions ending a 26-day strike by some 55,000 teachers. The job action was marked by militant demonstrations by the teachers and by repression by the police. The strikers were to return to work on Aug. 31.

On Sept. 3 Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez, governor of the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, announced that soon after Sept. 7 the state government would release seven women who had been jailed under Article 156, which establishes a 25-35 year prison sentence for "homicide in the case of close relatives." Six of the women, campesinas from Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende municipalities, said they lost their babies in involuntary miscarriages; all but one have spent at least three years in prison. Gov. Oliva, of the center-right National Action Party (PAN), said he thought there was a seventh prisoner who would be released, but he didn't know her name.

A suicide bombing at a Shi'ite demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians in the western Pakistani city of Quetta (Balochistan province) on Sept. 3 left at least 65 people dead. That same day, a suicide attack during Friday evening prayers at an Ahmadiyya mosque in the town of Mardan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province) killed at least two people. Local Ahmadi spokesman Saleemudin faulted authorities for not taking adequate security measures at the mosque given recent deadly attacks on the Ahmadiyya elsewhere in Pakistan. But he added that the Ahmadiyya would remain peaceful and not take the law in their own hands. (WP, Kashmir Observer, Pakistan Daily Times, Sept. 4)