Some 10,000 members of the Section 22 teachers union and the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) marched in Oaxaca City Sept. 1 to demonstrate their rejection of Mexico's President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, the same day he delivered his first address to Congress. Another 7,000 Oaxacans gathered in Mexico City's Plaza de la Constitución for a "contrainforme," a public speak-out conceived as a corrective to Calderón's address. (La Jornada, Sept. 2)

On Aug. 28, 29 and 30, ICE agents swept through the greater Boston area, arresting 36 immigrants the agency claims are members or associates of the MS-13 street gang. ICE said the raids were part of ICE's national anti-gang initiative, Operation Community Shield, launched in 2005. Most of the arrests were made in Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, Lynn, Revere and Somerville. Those arrested come from El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

On Aug. 24, 140 people rallied outside the immigration court in Hartford, Connecticut to demand the release of Said Zaim-Sassi, a Moroccan-born resident of Wallingford, Connecticut. Marchers wore T-shirts that said "Keep Families Together" and held up signs that called for a stop to immigration raids. Zaim-Sassi has been living in the US for 20 years; he worked for Metro-North, volunteered to help other immigrants and played soccer. His wife, Souhair Zaim-Sassi, is a Morocco-born US citizen; the couple has three US-born children, ages two, four and seven.

According to information confirmed by Raha Jorjani of the School of Law Clinical Programs at University of California, Davis, at least 30 immigration detainees have been refusing some or all meals at Pinal County Jail in Florence, Arizona. The hunger strikers are among some 60 detained immigrants who were transferred on or around Sept. 5 from the Florence Service Processing Center to the county jail, which has a new contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to provide bed space for immigration detainees.

Speaking at the end of a visit to Ethiopia, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer issued the strongest threat yet that Eritrea could be officially labeled a sponsor of terrorism. Frazer said the presence of exiled Somali Islamist leader Hassan Dahir Uways at a meeting in Asmara was further evidence that Eritrea provided sanctuary for terrorists. (BBC, Sept. 8) Hassan Dahir Uways is officially labelled a "terrorist" by Executive Order 13224 of Sept. 23, 2001.

Trade unions in Algeria are calling on members to rally Sept. 9 to denounce suicide attacks that have claims dozens of lives in recent days. (BBC, Sept. 8) Workers at Algeria's ports have also threatened with a series of rolling strikes in protest of the government's privatization plans. Algiers is negotiating with Dubai Ports World over the company taking a 50% stake in the container terminal at the port of Djen Djen. The Coordination Nationale des Syndicats des Ports d'Algerie (CNSPA), which represents many of the Algerian unions working on the docks and in the maritime sector, has vocally opposed the change. (Echorouk Online, Aug. 18)

Voters in Morocco deprived the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) of an expected parliamentary victory, handing it instead to the secular conservative Istiqlal party that is a member of the ruling coalition. In a surprisingly strong showing, Istiqlal won 52 of the 325 seats in the lower house of parliament. PJD, whose growing strength in recent years had worried its secular rivals, won 47 seats—far short of the 80 seats the party had hoped for. The PJD accused the ruling secular parties of buying votes and appealing to voters with hasty public works projects. "It is sickening," the PJD's Lahcen Daoudi told reporters. "The PJD has won, but Morocco has lost." Final authority rests with King Mohamed VI, who will name a prime minister based on the election results. The prime minister will then name a government, likely to be an awkward coalition that would include the PJD for the first time. (AP, Sept. 8)

The last time this happened, there was evidence of sabotage. From Reuters, Sept. 7:

NEAR ZHEZKAZGAN, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan, home to Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome, accused Moscow on Friday of not doing enough to ensure the safety of its space launches a day after a Russian rocket crashed in the Central Asian state.