The US Defense Department has denied that its helicopters flew into Pakistan's airspace above from across the border with Afghanistan Sept. 22. Pakistani intelligence officials say US two helicopters flew into North Waziristan, but returned to Afghanistan after troops and tribesmen opened fire. "There was no such incursion, there was no such event," said Pentagon spokesman Col. Gary Keck. Anonymous Pakistani sources said the incursion took place near Lwara Mundi village late on Sept. 21. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari told NBC that the US was forbidden from allowing any operations without permission. "If the American troops are coming in without letting us know, without the Pakistani permission, they are violating the United Nations charter." (AlJazeera, Sept. 23)

Iraqis protested the deaths of at least seven people during a US air strike in Ad Dawr, in northern Iraq's Salahuddin province on Sept. 19—the same town where Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003. The US says the raid successfully singled out an "emir" in the bombing network of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) who was suspected of involvement in attacks along the Tigris River valley. But Iraqi officials said the strike used excessive force in killing eight members of one family, who they said were innocent. The officials said the dead were five men in their 20s and 30s and three women aged between 20 and 58. They accused the US forces of shooting down men and women from the air as they fled.

At least six were injured and 15 arrested as far-right protesters clashed with police, threw stones and petrol bombs and damaged shops and cars along Andrassy Boulevard in Budapest Sept. 20. Police fired tear gas and water cannons on the protesters—many wearing swastikas and chanting anti-Semitic slogans. Police moved in after a right-wing mob attacked people leaving a pro-tolerance rally called by the Hungarian Democratic Charter movement and Roma organizations.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said Sept. 21 that its war would resume at the end of Ramadan if the Philippine military continues its offensive in Mindanao. Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator, told Manila's Daily Inquirer by phone that religious leaders in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur in sermons called on the Bangsamoro people to unite and wage a jihad against enemies of Islam. Philippine troops launched surprise attacks on MILF strongholds last weekend, in the midst of the holy month of Ramadan. Aid agencies are mobilizing emergency assistance to meet a potential "double whammy" in Mindanao, where 500,000 are already displaced by recent fighting and monsoon flooding. (Daily Inquirer, Sept. 22; World Bulletin, Turkey, Sept. 21; World Politics Review, Sept. 15)

Eleven police officers and two insurgents were killed in a rebel attack in western Afghanistan's Herat province Sept. 21. "We lost 11 policemen. They were attacked while on a patrol in a village near their headquarters in Salama Dam," said Herat Gov. Sayed Gul Chishti. The police were guarding the hydroelectric dam, which is being built by Indian engineers, when they came under attack by rebels loyal to Ghulam Mustafa, a former Mujahedeen commander "who has now joined the Taliban," Chishti said. Mustafa admitted his men killed the police but denied his links to the Taliban, in a telephone interview with the French AFP news agency. "I'm not with the Taliban. We killed 10 policemen. They were the ones attacking us first," the rebel commander told AFP. (AlJazeera, Sept. 21)

Pakistan's government is blaming al-Qaeda operatives for the deadly Sept. 21 blast at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. The attacker failed to get through a secondary barrier when he crashed his explosive-laden truck into the hotel's security gates, killing 53 and wounding over 250. The bomb went off close to 8 PM, when the hotel's restaurant was packed with Muslim diners breaking their daily Ramadan fast. The head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry Rehman Malik said the blast left a crater 18 meters wide and seven deep, shattering the front of the hotel and igniting an intense fire that left the building in ruins.

Mauritania's government said Sept. 20 that 12 soldiers abducted in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda were found decapitated, and appealed for international support to fight terrorism. Col. Ahmed Bemba Ould Baya, secretary general of the High State Council which took power in last month's coup, told Reuters the corpses were found near Tourine, 70 kilometers from Zouerate. "Their bodies were found this morning after a search... They were mutilated and had their heads cut off," he said. "This tragic episode puts the international community face to face with its responsibilities. We need its help."

From Sept. 12 to 16, agents from ICE Fugitive Operations Teams arrested 59 immigrants in 14 Colorado cities. Only 30 of the 59 people arrested had failed to comply with deportation orders; the other 29 were people without legal immigration status who were encountered by ICE during the raids. Of the total 59 people arrested, 20 had criminal convictions. The arrests took place in Aurora, Aspen, Basalt, Canyon City, Carbondale, Colorado Springs, Cortez, Craig, Denver, Durango, El Jebel, Glenwood Springs, Pueblo and Thornton. (ICE news release, Sept. 18)