Constitutional rule has been restored in Mauritania, according to an evaluation team sent by the European Union, which imposed sanctions after the August 2008 military coup. "The return to constitutional order during a consensual process of ending a crisis has formally been achieved," EU delegation member Filiberto Sebregondi told a press conference Oct. 7. Coup leader Gen. Ould Abdel Aziz was elected president in a July poll contested by the opposition as a "massive fraud."

After two days of protests at the IMF/World Bank meeting in Istanbul Oct. 6-7, reports are mounting of arrested youth brutally beaten by police while in custody. Şerife Ceren Uysal of the Contemporary Lawyers Association said that of the 103 arrested on the first day of protests, 22 were underage. Uysal reported: "Many people were assaulted by the police while in detention. Arrested people were assaulted in the police buses, many of them sustained bruises and swellings." (BiaNet, Oct. 9)

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers met in Zurich Oct. 10 to sign a landmark accord to normalize diplomatic ties between the two nations. The deal, which calls for the border to be reopened within two months, follows six weeks of negotiations mediated by Switzerland. The agreement calls for an international commission to research World War I-era archives to clarify the extent of Turkish massacres of Armenians. Many Armenians fear this will produce a revisionist history that dilutes the enormity of the killing. Some 10,000 protesters rallied in Armenia's capital Oct. 9 to oppose the planned signing.

It has emerged that Pittsburgh police used an "audio cannon" dubbed the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), manufactured by the San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATCO), against protesters at the G-20 Summit—the first time the device has been used on civilians in the US. "Yes, we sold one LRAD unit to a government agency—I don't know which one—which was used in Pittsburgh," said an ATC sales representative. (Daily Finance, Sept. 25) The LRAD has also recently been used against protesters in Honduras.

The US Department of Justice announced Oct. 9 that Kuwaiti Guantánamo Bay detainee Khaled al-Mutairi has been returned to his home country. The US government alleged that al-Mutairi had fought against American troops in Afghanistan, but in his almost eight years at the facility, no charges were ever filed. Al-Mutairi maintains that he had traveled to Afghanistan to provide monetary support for schools. In his home country, al-Mutairi will participate in a rehabilitation program set up by the Kuwaiti government, designed to help former Guantánamo detainees recover and reintegrate into civilian life. The DoJ also announced that a second detainee, whose identity has not been released, was released to Belgium. Al-Mutairi's release leaves 222 detainees who must be dealt with before the Obama administration's goal of closing the facility can be realized.

Palestinian protesters, angry at Israeli-imposed restrictions on access to the al-Aqsa Mosque, clashed with police in Jerusalem Oct. 9—the latest in a series of confrontations in the past two weeks. At least four Palestinians were arrested—bringing the total to 75 for the week—and 11 Israeli police reported injured. The violence clouded the visit of White House envoy, George Mitchell, who met separately that day with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. (WSJ, Oct. 10)

There is ironic timing to Barack Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. Hours after getting the nod from the Nobel committee, he convened his war council in the White House Situation Room for talks on his military strategy in Afghanistan. (AFP, Oct. 9) Gen. Stanley McChrystal, US commander in Afghanistan, has sent alternative proposals with requests for more troops ranging from 40,000 to 60,000. (WSJ, Oct. 9) Obama is said to have ruled out de-escalating the Afghan war to a counter-terrorism effort aimed at al-Qaeda rather than the Taliban. (AlJazeera, Oct. 7) Other reports indicate Obama is willing to consider a role for the Taliban in Afghan's security forces as the price of peace. (The Telegraph, Oct. 9)

An Oct. 7 New York Times story, "Leader Ousted, Honduras Hires U.S. Lobbyists," notes that "several former high-ranking officials who were responsible for setting United States policy in Central America in the 1980s and '90s" are re-emerging to mobilize support for the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti in Honduras. Three named are Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and Daniel W. Fisk. Reich is quoted saying in recent Congressional testimony: "The current battle for political control of Honduras is not only about that small nation. What happens in Honduras may one day be seen as either the high-water mark of Hugo Chávez's attempt to undermine democracy in this hemisphere or as a green light to the spread of Chavista authoritarianism."