The management of two Port-au-Prince apparel factories owned by wealthy and powerful Haitians—Gerald Apaid and former presidential candidate Charles Henri Baker—fired a total of five officers of a new garment workers union between Sept. 23 and Sept. 25, a little more than a week after the union announced its formation. Johny Deshommes, a spokesperson for the Textile and Garment Workers Union (SOTA), lost his job at Apaid's Genesis S.A. factory on Sept. 23 when he asked to be allowed to go home because of a fever. Three other members of SOTA's executive committee, Brevil Claude, Wilner Eliacint and Cénatus Vilaire, were fired on Sept. 25 when they tried to meet with the human resources director to discuss Deshommes' firing; Genesis management brought in two police agents to intimidate and threaten the unionists before they were allowed to leave. SOTA's secretary, Mitial Rubin, was fired from Baker's One World Apparel after he had leafleted workers outside the factory.

Earth's protective ozone layer above the Arctic was pierced by a hole of unprecedented size last winter and spring caused by a long cold period in the stratosphere, according to new research led by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and published Oct. 3 in the journal Nature. The hole covered 772,204 square miles (two million square kilometers)—about the size of Mexico—and allowed high levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation to strike northern Canada, Europe and Russia this spring, the report finds. The stratospheric ozone layer, extending from about 10 to 20 miles (15 to 35 kilometers) above the surface, protects life on Earth from the Sun's ultraviolet rays. Intense cold in the upper atmosphere of the Arctic last winter activated ozone-depleting chemicals and produced the first significant ozone hole ever recorded over the high northern regions.

In an interview with the BBC's Pashto service, a key leader of the Haqqani network denied that the group is responsible for killing Burhanuddin Rabbani, or that it is receiving aid from Pakistan's ISI. But Siraj Haqqani asserted that he's been approached by the US to join the Afghan government as part of a peace deal with the Taliban. "Right from the first day of American arrival till this day not only Pakistani but other Islamic and other non-Islamic countries including America, contacted us and they [are] still doing so. They are asking us to leave the ranks of Islamic Emirates," he said referring to the Taliban leadership. He said that the outsiders have promised an "important role in the government of Afghanistan." (BBC News, AP, Oct. 3

One sergeant and two riflemen of Chile's Carabineros police force were hurt in a firefight at Fundo Centenario timber camp near the village of Ercilla, in Chile's Araucanía region Oct. 1. Owner of the predio, or land-holding, Juan de Dios Fuentes, said some 50 local Mapuche comuneros entered the property, cutting trees and tearing down fences, and fired on the Carabineros when they interfered. (Cooperativa, Chile, Oct. 2) Elite forces from the Special Police Operations Group (GOPE) subsequently invaded the nearby Mapuche community of Wañako Mellao. The community's lonco, or traditional chief, Carlos Curinao, said the troops fired into homes where families took shelter, and the cries of frightened and possibly wounded children could be heard. The community remains under occupation. (Radio Galactika, Chile, Oct. 2)

Indigenous protesters in the Bolivian Amazon resumed their cross-country march Oct. 1, a week after their progress was halted by a police assault. "We have resumed the march and our intention is not to clash with anybody," indigenous leader Adolfo Chávez told Reuters. But as they passed through the villages of Marimonos and Palos Blancos towards the town of Caranavi, the road was lined with local campesinos who booed and hurled insults including "¡flojos!" and "¡pagados!"—"lazy" and "paid," an apparent reference to accusations that the protesters are in the pay of political interests. Scattered physical confrontations were reported. However, indicating a split among the local populace, other residents formed a cordon to defend the marchers and chanted, "Don't molest them, let them pass!" (ANF, Oct. 2; BBC News, Oct. 1)

Nicaraguan newspaper El Nuevo Diario said Sept. 24 that one of its reporters, Silvia González, has fled to the United States following threats from supporters of the ruling Sandinista party. National Police spokesman Fernando Borge told Channel 12 TV that the case "had been investigated and she was given police protection." But González said in a call from Miami, told AP: "I am afraid that they will kill me...and that is why I left." The director of El Nuevo Diario, Francisco Chamorro, said the newspaper had complained to international press freedom groups about the threats. González said she had received menacing telephone calls and ext messages, including one that said, "Keep bothering us, we give you 48 hours to live." A severed chicken head with her name on it was also reportedly thrown onto González's patio.

In an unprecedented move, Burma's President Thein Sein yielded to a protest campaign Sept. 30, announcing cancellation of the controversial Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River, already under construction by Chinese contractors. The Myistone Dam was to be the first of eight on the still-undammed Irrawaddy that were scheduled to be built in order to export power to China. The project has been opposed by a wide range of environmentalists, social activists, artists and others including Burma's most prominent dissident, Aung San Suu Kyi. Just days before the decision to halt the project, dissident writer U Ludu Sein Win warned in the Rangoon-based journal Weekly Eleven: "The people are demanding to stop the project. If the righteous demands of the people are ignored and they continue the dam project, the people will defend the Irrawaddy with whatever means possible."

The UN Security Council's Standing Committee on Admission of New Members is currently considering Palestine's application for full United Nations membership. Eight of the Security Council's 15 members have already declared their support for the Palestinian application: China, Russia, Brazil, India, South Africa, Lebanon, Niger and Gabon. But the Palestinians' bid faces a practically inevitable veto by the United States, one of the five permanent Security Council members—which, unlike the 10 rotating members, wield veto power within the Council. (KashmirWatch, Oct. 1)