The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Oct. 14 temporarily blocked portions of a controversial Alabama immigration law. The ruling came in response to a motion filed last week by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and a coalition of immigrants rights groups after a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama twice refused to block the law from taking effect. The appeals court granted the DoJ's motion to block Section 28, which requires immigration status checks of public school students, and Section 10, which makes it a misdemeanor for an undocumented resident not to have immigration papers. The appeals court refused to block provisions that require police to check the immigration status of suspected undocumented aliens, bar state courts from enforcing contracts involving undocumented immigrants and make it a felony for undocumented immigrants to enter into a "business transaction" or apply for a driver's license. The injunction will remain in effect until the Eleventh Circuit hears oral arguments and issues a ruling on the constitutional questions presented by the case.

Tens of thousands converged on the center of the Bolivian capital La Paz Oct. 12 to demonstrate support for President Evo Morales in his political stand-off with indigenous protesters from the eastern lowlands over a proposed highway through the TIPNIS rainforest reserve. Highland campesinos, coca growers and union members came out for the rally, and the Associated Press reported that some public servants said they were "obliged to take part." Morales addressed the demonstration, claiming that unnamed political forces were behind the protest movement in a conspiracy to divide Bolivia’s indigenous majority. Referring to himself in the third person, he later told Venezuela's TeleSUR that "TIPNIS is a banner to attack Evo." Again implying that the protesters are manipulated by the US and Bolivia's right-wing opposition, he said that "the historic enemies of the indigenous movement and Mother Earth now appear as defenders" of indigenous rights. (TeleSUR, Oct. 13; AP, Oct. 12)

On Oct. 11, the indigenous Aché community of Chupa Pou in Paraguay sent warriors armed with bows and arrows into a 2,000-hectare area to defend it from Brazilian farmers who had invaded the land. The Chupa Pou community not only claims the land as their traditional territory, but notes that in 2007 the Paraguayan government—after a struggle of many years—purchased the land for the Aché people, thus giving them legal title as well. The community’s stance did successfully get 250 Brazilian farmers to leave the area without bloodshed, after a local prosecutor was called in to mediate. However, the departing farmers they told the media that they would return.

An Egyptian court on Oct. 10 overturned a ban that prohibited presidential hopeful Ayman Nour from officially forming the Islamic-based political party al-Gama'a al-Islamiya. The decision will allow political parties previously banned because of their religious foundations to participate in the upcoming November parliamentary elections. The court found that Nour's party, "Construction and Development," should be allowed to participate in the elections because its founders consist of Muslims and non-Muslims and the party does not mandate the religion of its members.

Syria has rejected calls from several nations to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to a report adopted Oct. 11 by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The report also includes a number of recommendations to the country aimed at improving its human rights situation, which has been widely criticized since the regime began to crack down on anti-government protests early this year. In statements contained in the report, Syria asserts that the violence in the country is the result of "terrorist threats" prompted by "a media war" and "the hegemony of the West, the US and Israel." The government of President Bashar al-Assad is estimated to have killed 3,000 civilians since mid-March.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior Affairs and the National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Oct. 11 denied prisoner torture allegations made earlier this week in a UN report. A spokesperson for the Ministry said at a press conference that there was no basis for the report's findings and that publicizing such information could hurt the people's trust in the police. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) one day earlier released a report alleging that prisoners in some Afghan-run detention facilities have been beaten and tortured. The prisoners interviewed for the study had been detained by the NDS or Afghan National Police (ANP) forces for national security crimes. Nearly half of the 273 detainees interviewed reported that they had undergone interrogation that amounted to torture. UNAMA also alleged that NDS and ANP officials committed due process violations and arbitrarily detained arrestees but did acknowledge that the abuse was not the result of official government policy.

President Omar al-Bashir announced Oct. 12 that Sudan will adopt an Islamic constitution. The official creation of an Islamic state, three months after the formal split between Sudan and South Sudan , is intended to more accurately reflect the religious affiliation of its population now that the mainly Christian south is an independent country, Bashir said. "Ninety eight percent of the people are Muslims and the new constitution will reflect this," the president told students in Khartoum in a speech. "The official religion will be Islam and Islamic law the main source [of the constitution]. We call it a Muslim state." Bashir remains wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide in Dafur. The constitutional revision raises grave concerns the more than one million southerners living in Sudan, who have already been given until the spring to leave and are treated as foreigners. They have lost government jobs and now need work and residency permits to stay in the north. (Reuters, Jurist, Oct. 13)

The US Justice Department on Oct. 11 announced charges against two men allegedly working for "factions of the Iranian government" with plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, and to attack Saudi embassies. The indictment, unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, identified the two as Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian-American car dealer in Corpus Christi, Tex., and Gholam Shakuri, described as Arbabsiar's cousin. Attorney General Eric Holder said Arbabsiar, who was arrested on Sept. 29 in New York, was working for Iran's Revolutionary Guard and had confessed to the plot. Shakuri, who is based in Iran, remains at large, Holder said. He allegedly is a member of the Quds Force, a special unit of the Revolutionary Guard. Holder said the case started when Arbabsiar made contact with an undercover DEA informant in Mexico and asked for assistance from Los Zetas drug cartel to assassinate the ambassador by blowing up a restaurant that he frequented. Arbabsiar allegedly wired $100,000 to the informant as a down payment on a $1.5 million assassination fee. (InSight Crime, Oct. 12; Associated Press of Pakistan, Oct. 11)