Honduran authorities say armed rebels killed a police agent and a soldier in a military-police patrol the afternoon of Sept. 16 in the Lower Aguán Valley, the site of numerous violent struggles over land over the past two years. According to Gen. René Osorio Canales, head of the Armed Forces Joint General Staff, the soldiers and police agents were in two vehicles carrying out a routine patrol at the La Consentida estate, in Sonaguera municipality in the northern department of Colón, when they were ambushed by "people with high-caliber weapons, people who have dedicated themselves to guerrilla activities."

Leaders of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) reached an agreement with Mexico's federal government on Sept. 13 that ended a sit-in the unionists had been holding in Mexico City's main plaza, the Zócalo, since March. In exchange for stopping the protest, the union received a pledge that the authorities would negotiate a way for some 16,720 laid-off members to return to work. The government also agreed to free up union funds worth 21 million pesos (about $1.6 million) that it had frozen and to review the cases of SME members arrested in the two years of struggle between the authorities and the unionists.

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta ruled Sept. 19 that a 17-year sentence was not enough for Jose Padilla, convicted on terrorism-related charges. Padilla and co-defendants Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi had appealed their convictions, and federal prosecutors appealed the sentence given by US district court Judge Marcia Cooke. Upholding all three convictions and ordering a new sentencing hearing for Padilla, the court explained:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Sept. 17 criticized the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) for ruling in favor of presidential hopeful Leopoldo López, thereby allowing him to run for office. A Venezuelan anti-corruption official had barred López from running for office after conducting a corruption investigation in 2005. Chávez called the IACHR, a body of the Organization of American States (OAS), part of an international system that "protects the corrupt and obeys the mandate of the imperial power and the bourgeoisie." He added: "What value can that court have? For me, it's worthless... One of my haircuts is worth more than this court"— a play on the fact that the Spanish corte means both "court" and "cut."

At least 24 were killed in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sept. 18 as security forces opened fire on protesters calling for the ouster of longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The violence, Yemen's worst in months, began two days earlier, when tens of thousands gathered for Friday protests, to be met with gunfire from uniformed troops and plainclothes snipers as they marched toward government buildings. Following the initial fire, a sustained confrontation ensued. The Organizing Committee of the Popular Youth Revolution then called for sustained protests to remove the "remains of the regime."

Some 500 villagers in China's Zhejiang province protested for a third day Sept. 17 at the factory of Zhejiang Jinko Solar, storming the compound, ransacking offices and overturning vehicles. Residents from the village of Hongxiao gathered outside the gates of the solar panel manufacturer in nearby Haining city to demand an explanation for the death of a large swath of fish in a river downstream from the plant last month. They grew angry after receiving no answer following a three-day vigil. The factory had earlier this year received a warning from Haining's environmental protection bureau for improper waste disposal. The company sells solar products around the world, maintaining offices in the US and Europe.

Days ahead of the release of a White House report singling out Venezuela for insufficient narcotics enforcement efforts, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accused four close allies of President Hugo Chávez of assisting Colombia's FARC guerillas. "Today's action exposes four Venezuelan government officials as key facilitators of arms, security, training and other assistance in support of the FARC's operations in Venezuela," said OFAC director Adam Szubin. "OFAC will continue to aggressively target the FARC's support structures in Venezuela and throughout the region."

President Barack Obama has included El Salvador and Belize on the list of 22 countries ranked as "Major Illicit Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2012"—for the first time placing all seven Central American nations on the annual list that identifies countries that "significantly affect the United States" through their role in the drug trade. The reports finds that 90% of the 700 metric tons of cocaine that leaves South America bound for the US annually passes through Central America. Four metric tons of cocaine passed through El Salvador in 2009, according to the report assessment. Belize, with a population of only 330,000, saw some 10 metric tons pass through its territory. Perversely if perhaps not intentionally, the new report was released on Sept. 15, El Salvador's Independence Day, and just six days before the Belizean Independence Day ceremonies, in 6 days.