New data reported by the Mexican media suggest that emigration to the United States rose sharply in 2007, the first full year of the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón. Based on US Census Bureau numbers, Mexico's National Population Council (Conapo) estimated that 679,611 Mexicans made the move to El Norte last year. According to Conapo, the number of Mexican nationals relocating to the US was up 5.9% from 2006. It was the highest jump in Mexican emigration registered since 2002. The total number of Mexican-born residents living in the US now stands at 11,800,000 persons, or just over 10 percent of Mexico's population, Conapo estimated.

Following an anonymous tip, Mexico's Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) arrested three suspected members of the narco-paramilitary group Los Zetas Sept. 25 as the "material authors" of the Independence Day grenade attack that left eight dead and over 100 injured in Morelia, Michoacán. Four more are under investigation in the attack and may face imminent arrest, said Marisela Morales Ibáñez, chief of the Special Investigative Subprosecutor for Organized Delinquency (SIEDO). Morales Ibáñez emphasized that the men, detained at a house in the Michoacán city of Apatzingán, were themselves on drugs when they carried out the attack. The arrested suspects were named as Julio César ("Tierra Caliente") Mondragón Mendoza, Juan Carlos ("El Grande") Castro Galeana, and Alfredo ("El Socio" or "El Valiente") Rosas Elicea. (La Jornada, Sep. 27)

At least 17 civilians were killed and 14 injured in a car bomb attack on a security post in the southern Sidi Qada suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus early Sept. 27. The explosion occurred on the intersection leading to Saydah Zeinab, a Shi'ite shrine frequently visited by Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, the most deadly to have ever hit Syria. The blast comes days after Syria had sent forces to the Lebanese border, citing unnamed internal security reasons but drawing protests from Beirut. It was the first explosion in Syria since the car bomb assassination of Imad Mughniyah, military commander of Hezbollah, in February. (AlJazeera, AP, Reuters, Sept. 27)

A car bomb exploded in front of the Secret Services building early Sept. 25 in Sukhumi, the capital of the separatist Georgian enclave Abkhazia, shattering the windows and causing some structural damage but no casualties. The nearby Interior Ministry building and adjacent homes were also damaged. Yuri Ashuba, head of the Abkhazian Secret Services, attributed the attack to special units of the Georgian spy agency. In Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital, a 13-year-old boy was killed that same day when an explosive device detonated after he picked it up, the separatist government's official Web site reported. (NYT, AGI, Sept. 25)

Russia has dispatched the warship Neustrashimy to intercept a Ukrainian freighter, the Faina, carrying 33 Russian-built tanks and other war material seized by pirates off Somalia while en route to Kenya for an arms delivery. US naval ships are also in the area and "monitoring the situation," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "I think we're looking at the full range of options here." With worldwide pirate attacks surging this year, the hijacking could help rally international support behind France, which is pushing aggressively for decisive action against Somali pirates. The crew of the Faina are being held, and the pirates have warned against any effort to re-take the ship. (AP, BBC World Service, Sept. 26)

Three Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants hurled grenades in an hour-long battle and then blew themselves up after police raided their hideout in Karachi Sept. 26, with authorities saying preventing they prevented major attack in the country's biggest city. "We have saved Karachi from death and destruction. We know who they were and what was their target in Karachi, but we cannot disclose it immediately," Sind provincial police chief Babar Khattak told AFP. The incident occurred hours before Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was due in the city, although there was no official indication that he was the target. Police said they also found the body of a kidnapped local businessman who supplied fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan, and recovered arms and explosives.

Pakistani soldiers fired at US OH-58 Kiowa reconnaissance helicopters that were escorting Afghan and US ground troops along the volatile border Sept. 25, sparking a five-minute ground battle between the countries' military forces. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, in New York meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said only "flares" were fired at the helicopters, and that they had strayed across the border from Afghanistan into his country's territory. The incursion reportedly took place near Saidgai, in the Ghulam Khan region of North Waziristan.

Kidnappers holding 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians moved from Sudan into Libya with their hostages Sept. 25, the Sudanese government said. Sudanese authorities said a day earlier they had them all surrounded at their encampment near Jebel Oweinat, a mountain near where the borders of Egypt, Sudan and Libya meet. Egyptian officials have said the kidnappers are demanding a large ransom. One security source said they wanted 6 million euros to set the hostages free. "The Libyan authorities have been informed. They are now following the progress of the group," Ahmed said. Ali Youssef Ahmed, head of protocol in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, told Reuters. (Reuters, Sept. 25; AlJazeera, Sept. 23)