A car bomb detonated Sept. 30 near a crowded restaurant at lunchtime in central Baghdad's Karrada district, killing at least four civilians and wounding nine others. Most of the victims were eating lunch on the first day of the five-day Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan for Sunnis. Eid begins for Shi'ites two days later. On Sept. 28, a suicide car bombing in the same district killed and wounded scores of Iraqis getting preparing for Eid al-Fitr. (CNN, Sept. 30)

On Friday, Sept. 26, a "chemical irritant" was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton mosque, where 300 worshipers were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The spray targeted the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. The service and ritual fast-breaking were interrupted so those suffering from tearing, coughing and shortness of breath could receive treatment. "It's very disturbing," said ISGD board member Tarek Sabagh. "Something like this has never happened before." (Dayton Daily News, Sept. 27)

The conflicted Indian state of Gujarat is on alert after a terror attack in the predominantly Muslim town of Modasa Sept. 29 that killed at least one person and injured 12. Two men on a motorcycle reportedly threw a bomb at a crowded market as residents were shopping for the coming festival of Eid. (IANS, Sept. 30) Over two dozen churches were attacked in Karnataka over the past week. This follows similar clashes in Orissa in which at least 25 people died after the killing of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader. A cathedral in Madhya Pradesh was also torched. (IANS, Sept. 28)

The Sept. 29 bus bombing in the Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, which killed five people including four soldiers and wounded at least 33 others, triggered angry reactions from political leaders. Future Movement MP Saad Hariri lashed out at Syrian President Bashar Assad, accusing him of trying to insinuate that Lebanon was responsible for recent terror attacks in Syria. Assad, who has recently mobilized troops to the Lebanese border, said after the Tripoli blast that North Lebanon had become "a real base for extremism and constitutes a danger for Syria." (Daily Star, Lebanon, Sept. 30)

A suicide car bombing near the eastern Algerian town of Dellys killed three people Sept. 28, as Ramadan draws to a close amid a heavy deployment of security forces throughout the country. Three armed Islamists were killed by security forces in eastern Algeria a day earlier, and an alleged leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on Sept. 5. Four police officers were also wounded in a bombing near the eastern city of Tizi Ouzou Sept. 14, and a gendarme killed and two others wounded in Ain Defla, west of Algiers, Sept. 24. For all that, it was Algeria's least bloody Ramadan since 1992; 60 were killed in the Muslim holy month last year.

Helicopter-borne Egyptian and Sudanese troops, backed by Italian commandos, rescued the 19-member tour group kidnapped in Egypt and taken by their abductors on a 10-day trek through the Sahara to the border with Chad. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said his country's special forces were involved, ANSA reported. The freed tourists returned to Cairo Sept. 29 unharmed. Details of the operation were sketchy. Some Egyptian officials spoke of a gun-battle with the kidnappers, in which several of them were killed, but there was no official confirmation of these reports. One of the freed Egyptian hostages, Sherif Abdel Moneim, said the kidnappers abandoned the group at dawn "and moments later security forces came and rescued us." The raid presumably took place on Sudanese territory. The kidnappers, who officials said were Sudanese and Chadian tribesmen, reportedly demanded a $15 million ransom. (Gulf Daily News, LAT, Sept. 30)

Ancient walls of Awarta, West BankOutgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced the dream of a "Greater Israel" was over this month—a day after settlers raided the Palestinian village of Assira Qabaliya, in the northern West Bank, causing extensive damage and wounding several people, in what was a reprisal attack. Police said an investigation was launched, but no arrests made. The Knesset internal affairs committee convened an urgent meeting to discuss the raid, reportedly sparked when a Palestinian stabbed a boy and burned a house at a settlement outpost. Video footage showed settlers attacking the village with Israeli soldiers present. "If the army is here or not, the settlers will attack," a Palestinian resident told the UN news agency IRIN.

Recovered arrows: evidenceArrows just discovered by government officials in one of the remotest corners of the Brazilian Amazon prove that uncontacted Indians are fleeing from Peru into Brazil. The arrows were recovered by members of the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department (FUNAI), near a protection post established to monitor the movements of uncontacted Indians in the region. According to José Carlos Meirelles Jr, head of the post, the arrows are different from those used by uncontacted groups on the Brazilian side of the border. Footprints, the remains of a fire and the site where the Indians camped overnight on the riverbank were also found. It is estimated that they numbered six or seven.