Days after a US missile strike reportedly killed 20 in Pakistan's northwest, Islamabad's Foreign Ministry warned that such attacks are counter-productive. "We want them to realize that these attacks are destabilizing the situation, and they are not helping them or Pakistan," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq told the AP. "They are helping the terrorists." The comments came as a suicide bomber in an explosives-laden pickup truck attacked an an outdoor meeting where tribal elders were discussing plans to move against a Taliban militant base that had been established in the area, in the Orakzai tribal agency. The blast left some 40 dead. (AP, NYT, Oct. 11)

New refugee camp, KabulPakistan has ordered the expulsion of the some 60,000 Afghan refugees still on its territory to immediately repatriate on pain of arrest, as it struggles to put down a Taliban insurgency in the Tribal Areas along the border. Among the camps to be evacuated is that at Khewa, on the outskirts of Peshawar, where the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has had a substantial presence for over 20 years, promoting gender equality and secularism as well as carrying out educational, cultural and humanitarian work. RAWA in a Sept. 24 statement protests that the refugees will be returning to grim conditions in Afghanistan:

More than 35 young women wearing tight trousers were arrested in South Sudan for disturbing the peace, senior police officials said Oct. 7. The arrests in Juba, the capital of autonomous South Sudan, were part of an ostensible campaign against youth gangs. The women were arrested the night of Oct. 5 and were released without charge the next day. Many Juba residents reacted angrily to the arrests. "We saw about 30 girls in two trucks piled up like animals," said Nok Duany, a civil servant. (Reuters, Oct. 8)

NATO is sending seven warships to Somalia's coast, where pirates continue to hold the arms-laden Ukrainian ship Faina—already surrounded by six US warships from the Bahrain-based Sixth Fleet. The Russian Baltic Fleet's frigate Neustrashimy (The Fearless) is also hurrying to the scene. (ITAR-TASS, Oct. 9) A pirate spokesman told news agencies by satellite telephone that a ransom of $20 million must be paid within three days or the ship would be destroyed. He said the pirates were ready to die along with the crew. (BBC, Oct. 10)

The Lebanese Industrialists Association is accusing Israel of falsely taking credit for traditional Middle Eastern cuisine. The organization's president Fadi Abboud said his group plans to sue Israel to stop it from marketing hummus and other regional dishes as Israeli. "It is not enough they are stealing our land," Abboud said. "They are also stealing our civilization and our cuisine." He said his group would also seek to claim baba ghanouj and tabbouleh as Lebanon's own. (AP, Oct. 7)

Cars and stores were damaged as Jews and Arabs clashed in the Israeli city of Acre after an Arab man was assaulted for driving during Yom Kippur Oct. 9. The violence erupted around midnight, several hours after Jews began marking the Day of Atonement, when Israel comes to a virtual standstill. A group of Jewish youths assaulted an Arab man in his car, sparking rioting that resulted in extensive damage to dozens of cars and shops.

More than a hundred Egyptians attacked police with rocks and sticks in the town of Samalut south of Cairo on Oct. 9 after a pregnant woman died during a police search of her home. Mervat Salam Abdel Fatah, in late pregnancy, died of internal bleeding when police shoved her to the floor after she refused to allow them into her home, authorities said. Police had a warrant for her brother-in-law, accused of theft. Police responded to the spontaneous uprising with tear gas. One officer was reported hospitalized. (Middle East Online, Oct. 9)

The Scotsman of Sept. 30 carried a feature on Commander Malalai Kakar, leader of a special department of the Kandahar police force on violence against women—who was gunned down by a presumed Taliban assassin as she walked out her front door on the way to work. Her son was critically injured in the attack. The European Union mission described the attack as "particularly abhorrent" and said she was an "example" to her fellow citizens. Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, described the killing as "an act of cowardice by enemies of peace, welfare and reconstruction in the country." But Kakar, the first woman investigator in Kandahar Police Department, had been receiving death threats for months.