A woman was stoned to death for adultery Oct. 27 in an Islamist-controlled region of Somalia. Witnesses said the woman, identified as Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, 23, had been raped, but sharia courts ruled she was guilty of adultery. She was buried up to her neck and stoned after a crowd of thousands gathered at a soccer field in the town of Kismayo. "Our sister Aisha asked the Islamic Sharia court in Kismayo to be charged and punished for the crime she committed," local leader Sheikh Hayakallah told the crowd. The port of Kismayo was seized in August by Shabab rebel leader Hassan Turki. (AFP, BBC, NYT, Oct. 28)

Five suicide car bombs hit targets in the autonomous Somali regions of Somaliland and Puntland Oct. 29, killing some 20 as well as the bombers. Three simultaneous blasts in Somaliland's capital Hargeysa targeted the presidential palace, an Ethiopian diplomatic compound and the offices of the UN Development Program. In Puntland's capital Bosasso, two offices of an Interior Ministry body tasked with combating terrorism were hit, although only the two bombers were killed. (AFP, Oct. 30)

Mexican prosecutors say employees of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) were secretly working for the Sinaloa Cartel, and even managed to work inside the US embassy with DEA personnel. Two worked with investigators in requesting searches and raids. Officials call it the worst known case of drug informants infiltrating law enforcement in a decade. In all, five people were arrested.

Colombia's FARC guerrillas agreed in principle Oct. 28 to meet with 150 prominent Colombian intellectual and political figures to discuss a release of hostages. The meeting had been suggested in a Sept. 11 letter by the group, which includes relatives of hostages. In a response posted to the Internet, the FARC stated: "This letter is the beginning of an exchange to discuss the issues surrounding a political end to the conflict, the humanitarian exchange and peace... Eternal war cannot be the destiny of the country." The statement, dated October 16 and datelined "Mountains of Colombia," was signed by the group's seven-man General Secretariat.

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe announced Oct. 29 the sacking of 25 soldiers and officers—including three generals and four colonels—in connection with the deaths of 11 young men from the town of Soacha, in central Cundinamarca department. The move followed a probe of suspected extrajudicial executions falsely reported as combat deaths.

On Oct. 23 Mexico's 128-member Senate voted almost unanimously to pass legislation that opponents say will open the way to the partial privatization of Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the giant state-owned oil monopoly. The 500-member Chamber of Deputies approved the Senate's version without debate on Oct. 25. The Senate session was held in a downtown skyscraper to avoid protesters at the Senate building; some 1,200 agents from the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) guarded the session, with federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna leading the force himself.

Two leaders of the Argentine teachers' unions—Stella Maldonado, general secretary of the Federation of Education Workers of the Argentine Republic, and Alejandro de Michelis, press secretary for the Union of Education Workers—were among those injured on Oct. 20 when Buenos Aires city police agents tried to keep protesting teachers from installing a tent in front of the municipal building. The teachers had planned to start a 100-hour vigil at the site. After the confrontation, the teachers' unions and the Federation of Argentine Workers (CTA) declared a 24-hour national strike starting at noon on Oct. 21.

Voting results released on Oct. 23 showed Puerto Rico's teachers rejecting by a 18,123-14,675 margin a bid by the Puerto Rican Teachers Union (SPM) to represent them. The "no" vote was vigorously promoted by the teachers' current union, the militant Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), which the Labor Relations Commission excluded from running in the new election. The Puerto Rican government decertified the FMPR after it defied a law against strikes by public employees in late February with a militant 10-day job action over wages, classroom size and health issues.