In a successful operation Sept. 2, BP replaced the "blowout preventer" on the Deepwater Horizon well, although the "bottom kill" relief well is still underway five months and counting after the disaster began. (VOA, Sept. 2) Also Sept. 2, a new explosion ripped through an offshore oil platform off the Louisiana coast, throwing 13 crew-members into the water. All were rescued alive by a Coast Guard vessel. Mariner Energy of Houston, Texas, the owner of the platform, deployed three firefighting vessels to the scene and extinguished the fire. No oil is believed to have leaked from the platform, called Vermillion Block 380. (ENS, Sept. 3)

The punditocracy may well be correct that the Israel-Palestine peace process that the Obama White House is now attempting to jump-start is doomed to failure—but their analyses as to why are predictably skewed. Bonnie Erbe writes in US News & World Report: "How can two sides negotiate as long as Hamas flouts Palestinian Authority control? ...[A]s long as the Gaza problem continues to exist, there can be no peace for Israel..." It has been a fundamental of all peace proposals since the Oslo process began that there be some kind of corridor linking the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. Yet Ma'an News Agency reported July 16 that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is proposing to do just the opposite—to unilaterally separate Gaza from the West Bank, allowing it to function as an independent entity—but behind "hermetically sealed" borders, making the enclave even more of a de facto open-air prison camp than it already is.

China has made great strides in overtaking the West...in a headlong rush to dystopia. From AP, Sept. 3:

Thousands of trucks stuck in China traffic jam
BEIJING — Thousands of coal trucks and other vehicles were backed up for miles on a highway in northern China on Friday, the latest in a series of monster traffic jams that have plagued the overloaded road since construction began on a parallel route earlier this summer.

In the latest in a series of jihadist attacks on mosques in Pakistan, three suicide bombers blew themselves up amid a procession of thousands of the faithful outside a Shi'ite mosque in Lahore Sept. 1, killing at least 37. Shi'te protesters clashed with police following the attack. Both Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (Army of Jhangvi, named for an anti-Shia cleric) and Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud are said to have claimed responsibility for the attack. Thousands of Shi'ites marched in mourning in Lahore the following day. (Indian Express, Foreign Policy Journal, Sept. 3; MEMRI, NYT, Sept. 2)

A spike in food prices has triggered deadly riots in Mozambique this week, where the government declared the price hikes "irreversible" after an emergency cabinet meeting. Two of those killed are reported to have been children. Some 25 businesses were looted or damaged, and 12 buses attack by the protesters. The price of bread has risen by about 30% in the past year in Mozambique. The violence has been the worst in Mozambique since 2008, when clashes between police and rioters over rising prices left at least four people dead. (BBC News, Sept. 2)

On Sept. 2, Slovakia commemorated the victims of a massacre in the Devínska Nová Ves quarter of Bratislava three days earlier with an official day of mourning, following a decision at an extraordinary cabinet session. The cabinet also approved compensation for relatives of the victims. In the attack, a 48-year-old attacker shot seven people and injured 15 others, including a Czech citizen, before committing suicide after evidently being fatally shot by a police bullet. The targeted family was of mixed ethnic Slovak and Roma composition, leading widespread suspicion of a racist motive in the attack. (Romea.cz, Sept. 2; Romea.cz, Sept. 1; Radio Slovakia International, Aug. 31 )

Attacks by Hamas' armed wing will continue "in any form and in any place,” including inside Israel, a spokesman said Sept. 2. The organization's al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for killing four settlers in a drive-by shooting at the Beit Hagai settlement near Hebron two nights before, and for injuring two Israelis in a similar attack at Romodin Junction near Ramallah the following day. Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said the second attack was "a slap in the face" for those who said the deadly shooting near Hebron would not be repeated.

The US Department of Justice announced Sept. 1 that it has charged Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimulla Mehsud in connection with the Dec. 30 attack on CIA Afghan outpost Camp Chapman that left nine people dead. Mehsud identifies himself as the head of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP).