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.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of a "downward spiral" in Afghanistan if trends continue in comments Oct. 9. "The trends across the board are not going in the right direction," he told reporters. "I would anticipate next year would be a tougher year." (NYT, Oct. 10) On Oct. 6, the departing commander of British forces in Afghanistan said he believes the Taliban cannot be defeated. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, told the London Times that a military victory over the Taliban is "neither feasible nor supportable... What we need is sufficient troops to contain the insurgency to a level where it is not a strategic threat to the longevity of the elected government."

A little-noted news story about the transfer of Iraq-hardened combat troops for active duty at home in the immediate prelude to the elections has been seized upon by Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! Oct. 2 and—with considerably greater paranoia—Naomi Wolf on AlterNet and YouTube Oct. 8, as evidence of an imminent "coup d'etat" or "October Surprise." Gina Cavallaro wrote for Army Times, Sept. 30, emphasis added:

A US district judge ordered the Bush administration Oct. 7 to release 17 Uighur detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, ruling that the Constitution forbids their indefinite detention without cause. Judge Ricardo Urbina of the US District Court for the District of Columbia gave the government two days to release the Chinese Muslims into the United States, marking the first time that a US court has ordered Guantanamo detainees to be freed. Urbina rejected arguments by the Justice Department that the court could not require the Uighurs' release without violating the doctrine of separation of powers. He further ordered immigration authorities not to take the Uighurs into custody upon their arrival in the US.