On Sept. 5, Shipley Do-Nut Flour and Supply Company Inc. pleaded guilty through its president, Lawrence Shipley III, to conspiring to harbor unauthorized immigrants. The Houston-based company agreed to pay a $1,334,000 forfeiture to the government, federal prosecutors said. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 19. Shipley Do-Nut faces a maximum fine of $500,000 and up to five years probation. As part of the plea deal, the company also agreed to revise its immigration compliance program and implement new procedures to prevent future violations of immigration laws.

Seven agricultural workers arrested in a July 7 ICE raid at an apartment building in Waipahu, Hawai'i, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges for using false identity documents to gain employment and have agreed to cooperate in a continuing investigation. In return, all seven have been released with work authorization pending sentencing dates scheduled for December and January. "Those dates might be postponed while the investigation continues," said Brandon Flores, an attorney for one of the defendants. "It's conceivable that they could be here for quite a while."

On Sept. 22, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 21 workers at the Honua Kai construction site in Kaanapali, on the island of Maui in Hawai'i. Twelve of the workers were from Mexico, eight were from Brazil and one was from Slovakia. All were placed in deportation proceedings. The Maui Police Department assisted in the raid. ICE coordinated the arrests with Ledcor Construction, the general contractor for the Honua Kai project. According to ICE, all 21 workers arrested in the raid worked for Global Stone Inc., a subcontractor based in Orem, Utah.

Human Rights Watch Oct. 1 called on the Ethiopian government to release rendition victims in custody or prosecute them in an open court. The renditions were the result of the US-backed Ethiopian military intervention in neighboring Somalia in late 2006. The fighting caused thousands to flee across the border into Kenya, which detained at least 150 people from more than 18 countries. In early 2007, Kenyan authorities "renditioned" dozens of these individuals back to Somalia, where they were handed over to the Ethiopian military and interrogated by US and Ethiopian agents.

The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Bosnian Army Gen. Rasim Delic to three years in prison Sept. 15 for crimes committed by foreign Islamic fighters against captive Bosnian Serb soldiers during the 1992-1995 war. Gen. Delic's defense team pledges to appeal the verdict, arguing that he did not have control over the Bosnian Army's El Mujahid Detachment—but that they received their orders directly from al-Qaeda.

Seven Russian soldiers were killed when a car exploded at their headquarters in separatist South Ossetia Oct. 3—the Russian army's first casualties in the region since the end of a five-day war with Georgia in August. "The latest terrorist acts in South Ossetia prove that Georgia has not renounced its policy of state terrorism," South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity told Russia's Vesti-24. "We have no doubt that these terrorist acts are the work of Georgian special forces." The blast came two days before Russian troops began withdrawing from the "buffer zone" in northern Georgia under EU supervision. (AP, Oct. 5; Bloomberg, Oct. 3)

A suicide bomber struck the offices of the opposition United National Party (UNP) in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, Oct. 6, killing at least 27. Authorities blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The attack came as the military announced it is on the verge of capturing the Tigers' headquarters at Kilinochchi. The blast killed local UNP head and retired army general Janaka Perera, who was attending an opening ceremony at the office. Perera, whose wife was also killed, was credited with major victories over the Tigers—including a 1996 battle in which 200 rebels were killed with the loss of just one soldier. But the UNP supports a negotiated settlement with the Tigers and says the current offensive is being used by the government for political ends. (AFP, Oct. 6)

Suicide bombers targeting Shi'ite worshippers killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more at two Baghdad mosques Oct. 2. They attacks came as Shi'ites marked the first day of Eid, a three-day celebration that follows Ramadan, Islam’s holy month. A man strapped with explosives killed at least 12 worshipers as they left al-Rasoul mosque in Jadida, a largely Shi'ite district. Another struck a crowd of worshippers outside a mosque in Zafaraniyah, also in southern Baghdad. (McClatchy, Oct. 3; Bloomberg, Oct. 2)