Six Chinese Uighur Guantánamo Bay detainees were transferred to the Republic of Palau Oct. 31, according to the US Department of Justice. The six men, Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori, were relocated to a home in the middle of Koror, the commercial center of the island nation, where they will be among a Muslim population of about 500. The DoJ said the men had been cleared for release under the Bush administration, as they were no longer considered unlawful enemy combatants. The men had also been subject to review by the Joint Task Force for Guantánamo detainees, and were approved for release. With the transfer, seven Uighurs remain in custody at Guantánamo.

Arab and Palestinian leaders reacted angrily after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Oct. 31 departed from her administration's insistence that Israel halt settlement growth, instead applauding Tel Aviv's "restraint on the policy of settlements." Palestinians have refused to return to negotiations with Israel until it fulfills committments to halt de facto expansion of its borders into occupied territory—a stance President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated from Abu Dhabi. In Morocco, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa denied the that negotiations could resume without a freeze in settlement construction.

In our August-September issue, before we went on hiatus while editor Bill Weinberg was on assignment in South America, we asked our readers "Whither World War 4 Report?," requesting feedback on whether we should continue publication. Is there a place, despite our discouraging fund-raising efforts, for "a daily digest of the GWOT news from around the world, with exacting journalistic standards and a progressive neither/nor perspective equally unsparing on imperialism and the jihad"? Our Exit Poll was: "Will anybody notice if World War 4 Report ceases publication?" We received the following responses:

9-11 suspect Said Bahaji, whose German passport was reportedly found by Pakistani military forces in a mud hut in Sherwangai village, South Waziristan Oct. 25 has not been in touch with his family for two years, his mother told the New York Times by telephone. Bahaji, a German citizen whose father is Moroccan, is said to have been the main logistics supporter of the 9-11 attackers, paying their rent and telephone bills. He is named as the leader of their Hamburg cell.

With just a month to go before scheduled presidential elections, a US-brokered agreement to return Manuel Zelaya to power in Honduras was announced Oct. 30, with the ousted president saying he hoped to be restored within a week. But the deal still needs to be approved by the Honduran congress, which has not set a date for voting on the plan. "Now it's in Congress' hands," said Armando Aguilar, a negotiator for de facto President Roberto Micheletti. (AP, Oct. 30)

Venezuelan authorities Oct. 30 announced the arrest of eight Colombians and two local residents suspected of paramilitary activities in western Táchira state near the border between the two countries. Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami said the detained Colombians included a known paramilitary leader. Two firearms were captured with them, he said. "All these people were intimidating the local population and especially threatening local businessmen," he told state TV. "These people were handing out pamphlets, as the paramilitaries do, saying social cleansing was going to start—that is to say murders and disappearances." (Reuters, Oct. 30)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Oct. 30 warned both the Colombian government and illegal armed groups that it will not hesitate to prosecute those who commit war crimes in the country's violent conflict. "There are many crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC, including forced displacement, disappearances, the use of child soldiers, sexual violence, torture, killings and hostage-taking," Marcelo Pollack, head of Amnesty International Colombia, told the Bogotá daily El Espectador.

In a private ceremony, US Ambassador William Brownfield and three Colombian ministers signed an agreement Oct. 30 to expand Washington's military presence in the Andean country. Officials said the plan will increase US access to seven Colombian bases for 10 years for "counterterrorism and counternarcotics" operations—without increasing the number of personnel beyond the cap of 1,400 now specified by US law. A Colombian government statement said the pact "respects the principles of equal sovereignty, territorial integrity and nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states."