From the Boston Globe, Oct. 15:

BAGHDAD-- Gunmen killed a radio journalist and kidnapped a television reporter, police said yesterday, continuing a spate of attacks that have killed 14 members of the media in recent weeks.

From the Free Muslims Coalition, Oct. 12:

Free Muslims Condemn Muslim Cab Drivers who Refuse to Pick Up Alcohol Carrying Passengers

The Free Muslims Coalition, a national Muslims organization, condemns Muslim cab drivers who refuse to pick up passengers who carry alcoholic beverages.

Subcommander Marcos (now known as "Delegate Zero") and other members of the Zapatista delegation are continuing their tour of northern Mexico, but met an obstacle to their freedom of transit when they attempted to reach the Baja California fishing port of La Paz. Operators of the ferry service across the Sea of Cortez from Topolobampo, Sinaloa, refused to confirm that the rebel leader would be allowed to board without removing his ski mask and revealing his legal name. His local hosts, the Frente Zapatista Sudcaliforniano, charged the company, Baja Ferries, with discriminatory behavior. La Paz port authorities said the military could be called in to mediate. (El Universal, Oct. 13) La Paz Mayor Victor Castro Cosio weighed in favor of Marcos' freedom of transit, calling the issues raised by the Zapatistas' tour critical for Mexico's emerging democracy. (Sol de Tulancingo, Oct. 11) The ferry operators relented and allowed the Zapatistas to pass on Oct. 13. (El Universal, Oct. 13)

Gunmen shot two people at a roadblock in Oaxaca City Oct. 14, killing one. The assailants fired at protesters at a street barricade in the predawn darkness, hitting one in the head and another in the arm, according to activists. The victim with the head wound died later in the hospital. The shooting began after strikers refused to let two apparently drunk men in a vehicle pass across an occupied street, according to the state government. (Reuters, Oct. 14) A report in La Jornada identified the victim as Alejandro Garcia Hernandez, and said the killers were military troops in civilian clothes. (La Jornada, Oct. 15) El Universal identified the attackers merel as "drunken men leaving a bar." (El Universal, Oct. 15) AP reported Oct. 15 that a soldier has been arrested in the incident, but blames the shooting on a "drunken argument." (AP, Oct. 15) Noticias de Oaxaca noted a similar incident of gunfire on protesters Oct. 12, saying the attackers were state police and "porros" (paid provocateurs). (Noticias de Oaxaca, Oct. 12)

From the Afghan Women's Mission, Oct. 10:

‘Afghanistan Like a Ticking Bomb,’ Says Women's Rights Activist on 5th Anniversary of US Bombing

“Today Afghanistan is still chained and burning in the fires of both the Taliban and the criminal ‘Northern Alliance’ fundamentalists and the future of Afghanistan is in serious jeopardy,” warned Zoya, a member of RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) five years after the start of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, Oct. 11:

Iraqi Body Count: How Many Is Too Many?

Has the U.S. "liberation" of Iraq succeeded in tripling the death rate for people there? That's the conclusion of new study published today by the British medical journal Lancet, which estimates a staggering 655,000 Iraqis (civilians and fighters) have died as a result of the 2003 invasion.

Pretty funny that the Turkish Foreign Ministry has officially congratulated novelist Orhan Pamuk, who has just won the 2006 Nobel Prize for literature, saying the prize would make valuable contributions to promotion of Turkish literature in the world. (Xinhua, Oct. 13) Meanwhile, the Turkish government, which recently put Pamuk on trial for daring to write the truth about the World War I-era Armenian genocide, seems to be doing its best to suppress Turkish literature. And just to complicate things further, France's move to make denial of the Armenian genocide a criminal offense is meeting with all the predictable reactions...

The Fiscalia, the Colombian national prosecutor's office, has released a final report on the scandal surrounding a laptop siezed from Rodrigo Tovar Pupo (alias "Jorge 40"), leader of the Northern Bloc of the paramilitary Colombian Self-Defense Forces (AUC), revealing widespread control of the political system in northern Colombia by the officially outlawed paramilitaries.