The price of crude oil dropped below $100 per barrel for the first time in six months Sept. 15, closing at $95.71 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. With Lehman Bros. heading into bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch agreeing to a buyout, the market reacted to fears that a global economic decline would cut demand. Prices also slid because Hurricane Ike closed 14 refineries along the Gulf Coast, which together make about 22% of all the gasoline produced in the US. But the refinery closures triggered a jump in gasoline prices by as much as 10 cents overnight in some states. (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 15)

Tourists traveling the picturesque Copper Canyon circuit in Mexico's northern Chihuahua state got a far different look at the country this weekend from the one promoted in glossy brochures. Taking to the streets for more than three hours on Sept. 13, hundreds of angry residents of Creel and neighboring communities prevented the Chihuahua-Pacific train from passing through Creel.

Clashes erupted in the Chilean capital of Santiago the night of Sept. 11 as protesters erected burning barricades and battled police with firearms and rocks on the anniversary Augusto Pinochet's 1973 military coup. Authorities said two police officers were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, one of them in the chest. Local media reported at least one civilian was also shot. Protesters also threw chains at electrical lines, knocking out power to more than 120,000 homes. Police used water cannons and tear gas to quell protesters, and shots were heard at several points.

As South America's presidents converged on Chile Sept. 15 for an emergency summit on the crisis in Bolivia, President Evo Morales accused his political foes in the eastern lowlands of mounting a "civic coup," and inciting "crimes against humanity by groups massacring the poorest of my country." Military troops are attempting to enforce martial law in Pando department, but prefect Leopoldo Fernández says he remains at his post—despite an order for his arrest.

Nigeria's main militant group in the Niger Delta declared an "oil war" against foreign-owned companies working in the region in a Sept. 14 statement. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it had launched an operation dubbed "Hurricane Barbarossa." The opening attacks of the operation destroyed flow stations and oil pipelines, killing 22 Nigerian soldiers. MEND said it launched the operation after government troops attacked one of its positions a day earlier with aerial and marine forces. Chevron confirmed one of its oil platforms was attacked by rebels. Violence in the Niger Delta has halted a fifth of the country's oil production since 2006. (AlJazeera, Sept. 14)

At least 20 members of Turkmenistan's security forces were killed in clashes in the capital Ashgabat Sept. 12, according to to media reports and diplomatic sources. Police battled "a religious group, possibly radical Islamists," according to a diplomatic source quoted by Gundogar.org, a website maintained by Boris Shikhmuradov, founder of Turkmenistan's opposition Popular Democratic Movement. "Witnesses said that 20 police were killed and their bodies were taken in secret to an Ashkhabad hospital." Information is strictly controlled in the former Soviet republic, and state media did not report on the violence.

At least 31 were killed and 60 wounded in a car bomb attack Sept. 12 in the center of the Shi'ite town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. The bombing occurred at dusk as many residents rushed to make last-minute purchases from the central market before going home to break the Ramadan fast. Dujail is one of the few largely Shiite towns in Salahuddin Province, which had been among the most violent in Iraq before former Sunni insurgents joined Awakening Councils and began cooperating with US forces. Saddam Hussein was sent to the gallows in December 2006 for ordering the execution of 148 Dujail residents after a failed attempt on his life when he visited the town in 1982.

Synchronized explosions hit five crowded markets and thoroughfares in New Delhi Sept. 13—including Connaught Place, a tourist destination in the heart of the city. The blasts left 23 dead and over 100 injured. A group called Indian Mujahedeen sent an e-mail message to TV stations minutes before the attacks. "Eye for an eye," said the document, with the image of victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots. "The dust will never settle down."