Eleven near-simultaneous bomb blasts tore through Guwahati and the towns of Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon in India's conflicted northeastern Assam state, killing 40 people and wounding 200 late Oct. 30. Most of the blasts targeted crowded markets. One of the nine bombs in Guwahati also targeted a crowded bus. A state of emergency has been declared throughout Assam. After the blasts in Guwahati, a crowd of angry residents threw rocks at the police, who fired into the air to disperse them. A curfew has been imposed in the city.

The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) found the government of Niger liable Oct. 27 for failing to aid a young woman who was held in slavery for ten years. The West African court ruled under a 2003 Niger law that made the ownership of slaves a criminal offense, and a provision of Niger's 1999 constitution which bans slavery. Niger's government will be required to pay $19,750 in restitution to Hadijatou Mani. Observers say the ECOWAS court's binding ruling will affect every ECOWAS member state may force a number of nations to consider the legality of slavery within their borders, as well as act to protect whose who may be illegally enslaved.

A woman was stoned to death for adultery Oct. 27 in an Islamist-controlled region of Somalia. Witnesses said the woman, identified as Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, 23, had been raped, but sharia courts ruled she was guilty of adultery. She was buried up to her neck and stoned after a crowd of thousands gathered at a soccer field in the town of Kismayo. "Our sister Aisha asked the Islamic Sharia court in Kismayo to be charged and punished for the crime she committed," local leader Sheikh Hayakallah told the crowd. The port of Kismayo was seized in August by Shabab rebel leader Hassan Turki. (AFP, BBC, NYT, Oct. 28)

Five suicide car bombs hit targets in the autonomous Somali regions of Somaliland and Puntland Oct. 29, killing some 20 as well as the bombers. Three simultaneous blasts in Somaliland's capital Hargeysa targeted the presidential palace, an Ethiopian diplomatic compound and the offices of the UN Development Program. In Puntland's capital Bosasso, two offices of an Interior Ministry body tasked with combating terrorism were hit, although only the two bombers were killed. (AFP, Oct. 30)

Mexican prosecutors say employees of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) were secretly working for the Sinaloa Cartel, and even managed to work inside the US embassy with DEA personnel. Two worked with investigators in requesting searches and raids. Officials call it the worst known case of drug informants infiltrating law enforcement in a decade. In all, five people were arrested.

Colombia's FARC guerrillas agreed in principle Oct. 28 to meet with 150 prominent Colombian intellectual and political figures to discuss a release of hostages. The meeting had been suggested in a Sept. 11 letter by the group, which includes relatives of hostages. In a response posted to the Internet, the FARC stated: "This letter is the beginning of an exchange to discuss the issues surrounding a political end to the conflict, the humanitarian exchange and peace... Eternal war cannot be the destiny of the country." The statement, dated October 16 and datelined "Mountains of Colombia," was signed by the group's seven-man General Secretariat.

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe announced Oct. 29 the sacking of 25 soldiers and officers—including three generals and four colonels—in connection with the deaths of 11 young men from the town of Soacha, in central Cundinamarca department. The move followed a probe of suspected extrajudicial executions falsely reported as combat deaths.

On Oct. 23 Mexico's 128-member Senate voted almost unanimously to pass legislation that opponents say will open the way to the partial privatization of Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the giant state-owned oil monopoly. The 500-member Chamber of Deputies approved the Senate's version without debate on Oct. 25. The Senate session was held in a downtown skyscraper to avoid protesters at the Senate building; some 1,200 agents from the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) guarded the session, with federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna leading the force himself.