Georgia has formally protested the continuing presence of Russian troops in South Ossetia's Akhalgori district and Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge, both areas held by Georgian forces until the August war. Under the ceasefire terms, Russia is to withdraw to positions it held before the fighting broke out, but Moscow and Tbilisi are at odds as to whether this includes territories within the breakaway enclaves. "Akhalgori is within South Ossetia's borders, so the [ceasefire] plan does not cover it," Russian news agencies quoted Moscow's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is calling on India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into the ethnic violence that left 55 dead and more than 200,000 displaced in his state over the past week. "The culprits involved in the clashes must be identified and punished," he said. The clashes, centered around Udalguri district, were between the Bodo tribal people and Bangladeshi settlers, who fought with guns, bows and arrows, machetes and spears. But at least 24 of the dead were shot by police who fired into the crowds.

Attacks in the Iraqi city of Mosul have forced nearly 1,000 Christians, or some 500 families, to flee their homes over the past week, the governor of the northern Ninawa (Nineveh) province reports. Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula Oct. 11 said most have taken shelter in schools, churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in the northern and eastern fringes of Ninawa. Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako said Iraq's Christians are facing a campaign of "liquidation" and called on the US military to do more to protect them.

Pope Benedict XVI Oct. 9 backed the beatification of World War II-era pontiff Pius XII, defending his controversial legacy and asserting that he "often acted in secret and in silence" to defend Jews during the Holocaust. Celebrating a mass commemorating 50 years since Pius' death, Benedict said: "In light of the concrete situations of that complex historical moment, he sensed that this was the only way to avoid the worst and save the greatest possible number of Jews." Benedict said he prayed the process of beatification "can proceed happily."

Around 100 people are believed dead off the coast of Yemen after being forced overboard by smugglers in the Gulf of Aden. Some 47 survivors told the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that a smuggling boat carrying about 150 passengers departed the Somali port of Marera, near Bossaso, on Oct. 6 and spent three days crossing the Gulf. Then when the boat arrived about five kilometers off the coast of Yemen, all but 12 of the passengers were forced overboard.

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)