Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced Oct. 11 that police have arrested Mal Rt [Reuters backgrounder] CEO Zoltan Bakonyi on criminal negligence charges for the company's role in last week's Akja chemical spill. Orban also announced an emergency law that was easily passed allowing the government to take control of Mal Rt, which owned the plant from which the spill originated. The spill occurred Oct. 4 when one of the plant's reservoirs cracked, releasing nearly 200 million gallons of toxic sludge, killing eight people, injuring hundreds more and causing environmental damage that some fear could take years to clean up. Police initiated their criminal investigation last week. If convicted, Bakonyi faces up to 11 years in prison.

An Israeli military court on Oct. 11 sentenced non-violent protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah to 12 months imprisonment, with a six-month suspended sentence. Abu Rahmah has been in an Israeli jail since December, and was convicted in August of incitement, and organizing and participating in protests in the West Bank village of Bil'in. Ofer military court also ordered Abu Rahmah to pay a 5,000 shekel fine (almost $1,400).

The Israeli cabinet approved an amendment Oct. 10 to the country's citizenship law that would require those seeking citizenship to pledge allegiance to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state" and promise "to honor the laws of the state." The amendment was approved by a vote of 22-8, and will be entered into law if it is approved by a majority in the Knesset and passes muster with the Supreme Court.

In a letter sent to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton the week of Oct. 4, a group of 45 US Congress members called on the US government not to support presidential and legislative elections in Haiti on Nov. 28 if the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) continues its exclusion of 14 political parties from the ballot. The letter focused on the exclusion of the Lavalas Family (FL) party of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996 and 2001-2004); the letter's author was Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who is said to be close to Aristide and to FL. The elections will cost some $29 million and will largely be financed by the international community, including the US. (Radio Kiskeya, Haiti, Oct. 8; New York Times, Oct. 9 from Reuters)

On Oct. 6 Haitian president René Préval, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and former US president Bill Clinton (1993-2001) attended a meeting in Port-au-Prince of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH), the group in charge of monitoring the use of international aid to help the country recover from a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. This was only the third time the group has met since it was formally established on April 21.

Ten indigenous Mapuche prisoners in the city of Angol in Chile's southern Araucanía region agreed late on Oct. 8 to end a liquids-only hunger strike protesting the use of Law No. 19.027, an "anti-terrorism" measure from the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, against indigenous activists. A total of 34 Mapuche prisoners in six locations had participated in the hunger strike, which started on July 12, but 24 of them ended their action on Oct. 2.

The majority of Bolivian newspapers engaged in a joint protest Oct. 7 against a proposed anti-racism law that they claim would damage freedom of expression. The newspapers (e.g. Los Tiempos of Cochabamba) shared one message on their front page—"There is no democracy without freedom of expression"—in response to a decision by President Evo Morales to maintain certain provisions of the legislation. Article 16 of the bill currently being discussed by the Senate, and which was already passed by the Chamber of Deputies, would establish economic sanctions and allow for media outlets that publish information considered by the government to be racist or discriminatory to be closed. Bolivia's journalists and media outlets maintain that they support the struggle against racism but that they cannot accept provisions that would limit freedom of expression. They worry that the bill could be used for political ends to censor unfavorable opinions.

Former leader of the Inter-Ethnic Alliance for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) Alberto Pizango held a press conference in Puno to announce his candidacy for president of Peru, with the Alliance for the Alternative for Humanity (APHU). The leader of the Regional Coordinator of Communities Affected by Mining (CORECAMI), Pablo Salas Charca, was on hand to pledge his support for Pizango. (Generaccion, Los Andes, Sept. 22)