From The Scotsman, Sept. 26:

Somali Islamists put down a women's protest against their capture of the port city of Kismayo yesterday.

Still cheering on the heroic Afghan resistance? From Index on Censorship, Sept. 26:

A senior Afghan official working for women’s rights has been shot dead by suspected Taliban gunmen. She was the highest placed female official to be assassinated in Afghanistan in the five years since the Taliban were ousted from power.

There is a distinct and unseemly tone of gloating here, but this article does point to Evo Morales' unenviable dilemma: already being accused of treason by hardliners to his left, while the right-wing opposition openly salivates for his assassination. Simon Romero writes for the New York Times, Sept. 26 (emphasis added):

La huelga de piernas cruzadas. Long overdue. Maybe it will catch on globally. From the London Times, Sept. 24:

A SEX strike organised by the girlfriends of gang members in one of Colombia’s most violent cities to protest against a wave of murders has been hailed as a success by the local security chief.

Having abandoned their encampments in Mexico City's main plaza, followers of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held protests at 22 Wal-Mart outlets around the capital, accusing the company of "system violation of labor rights," and "an open campaign in favor of Felipe Calderon." Protesters charged that Wal-Mart employees had been ordered to vote for Calderon on threat of being fired. (La Jornada, Sept. 25, via Chiapas95)

From El Universal, Sept. 25, via Chiapas95:

A group of gunmen exchanged fire with protesters outside Oaxaca's Camino Real hotel on Sunday, injuring two and forcing dozens of guests, residents and journalists to run for cover.

Perhaps some of you noticed Bill Clinton's $15,000-a-head confab at a Midtown Manhattan Sheraton hotel last week to raise funds and awareness to tackle global poverty and climate change. Hillary, Colin Powell and even Laura Bush were all on hand. (NYT, Sept. 23) We can't help but feel that this elite exploitation does more harm than good. Sarah Ferguson wrote for the Village Voice Sept. 18 that Clinton's ex-veep Al Gore is also on the stump to promote supposed green solutions—with none other than ex-CIA chief James Woolsey:

After Richard Armitage was named as the source in the Valerie Plame leak, there was a paroxysm of unseemly crowing from the right-wing pundits, who predicted that Plame would not now sue Armitage because he is such a handsome, straight-shooting unimpeachable kinda guy. Well, now it turns out that Plame is suing Armitage. And, better yet, this comes to light. From BBC, Sept. 22:

The US threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" unless it joined the fight against al-Qaeda, President Pervez Musharraf has said.