A little over a year ago, Mauritania's long-ruling dictator Maoya Sidi Ahmed Ould Taya was overthrown in a coup d'etat led by Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, who promised to usher in democracy. This June, a popular referendum approved a new constitution instating a limit of two five-year presidential terms, preventing consolidation of a new Taya-style presidency-for-life. European Union observors have just arrived in the country to monitor the municipal and parliamentary election slated for November. Presidential elections are to be held in January. (AngolaPress, Sept. 7; VOA, June 11) The African Liberation Forces of Mauritania (FLAM), which has long boycotted the political process as illegitimate, will apparently be participating. From AngolaPress Sept. 5:

Did Israel "let it happen on purpose"? From a Sept. 18 Haaretz account of Israeli intelligence "failures" in the recent Lebanon war:

MI knew about Hezbollah kidnap plans
Military Intelligence had clear information about an impending kidnap attempt by Hezbollah shortly before the Lebanese group carried out its cross-border raid on July 12, according to an internal inquiry conducted by the Israel Defense Forces.

You knew that it would. But an interesting glimmer of hope is that in Egypt, where Muslim-Coptic tensions have exploded into violence all too recently, both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Coptic hierarchy are urging people to chill out. In vivid contrast, of course, to the ever-predictable "al-Qaeda in Iraq." From MSNBC, Sept. 17:

Islamic militants vow war after pope comments
'We are afraid,' Middle East Christians say in face of continued Muslim fury,
CAIRO - Al-Qaida militants in Iraq vowed war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy on Monday over Pope Benedict’s comments on Islam, while Western churchmen and statesmen tried to calm passions.

Like his pal Ahmadinejad in Iran, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez now loans credibility to 9-11 conspiracy theory, if this report is to be trusted. From England's right-wing Daily Mail Sept. 13:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the United States could have orchestrated the September 11 attacks five years ago to justify its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Sept. 14, the House of Representatives voted 283-138 in favor of a bill calling for construction of 700 miles of double-layered fencing along several sections of the 2,000-mile US border with Mexico: around Tecate and Calexico, California; along most of the Arizona stretch; and in heavily populated areas of Texas and New Mexico. All but six House Republicans joined 64 Democrats in approving the bill. The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prevent "all unlawful entries" into the US within 18 months after the bill is enacted; urges DHS to allow Border Patrol agents to forcibly disable fleeing vehicles; provides for more cameras, ground sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles; and orders a study on security at the northern border with Canada to determine whether a fence is needed there. (Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Sept. 15) The fence measure was already included in HR 4437, which passed the House last Dec. 16. The nearly 2,000-mile US-Mexico border currently has about 75 miles of fencing. (Washington Post, Sept. 15)

From APRO, Sept. 14, via Chiapas95 (our translation, link added):

Tuxtla Gutierrez - Hundreds of campesinos from various social organizations, members of the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS), today held 13 intermittent blockades of roads in Chiapas, in support of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO).

Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans marked Independence Day on Sept. 16 by holding a massive meeting, which they called the "Democratic National Convention" (CND), in Mexico City's main plaza, the Zocalo. The crowd voted up plans to carry on a nonviolent struggle against Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, official winner of the July 2 presidential election, who is to start his six-year term on Dec. 1. The convention declared center-left candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador the "legitimate president" of Mexico and announced that he will be inaugurated on Nov. 20, the 96th anniversary of the start of the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

On Sept. 11 US magistrate Norbert Garney in El Paso, Tex., ruled that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should release Cuban-born Venezuelan national Luis Posada Carriles under supervision. Garney's decision is a recommendation, and he sent it to district judge Philip Martinez, who can decide to accept or reject the ruling. Posada is a longtime "asset" of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who is wanted in Venezuela for allegedly planning the 1976 bombing of an Cubana de Aviacion airliner, in which 73 people died.