From Israel's largest newspaper, Yediot Aharanot. A year ago, several high school students in an upscale section of Tel Aviv chained themselves to the gate of their school to keep out an army recruiter. As one of their number, Uri Nathan, 18, prepared to enter the induction center to refuse to serve, his friends staged this provocative protest:

Mexico was jolted by revelations this week by Defense Secretary Gen. Ricardo Clemente Vega linking elite Guatemalan commandos to a Mexican drug cartel operating on both sides of the US-Mexico border. In an appearance before the Mexican Senate, Gen. Clemente announced the detention of five Guatemalan nationals in Chiapas state earlier this month on arms and immigration law violations. He said a probe was underway examining possible links between the men — all reputed to be members or ex-members of the Guatemalan army's counterinsurgency unit known as the Kabiles — and Los Zetas, the heavily armed enforcers of Mexico’s Tamaulipas-based Gulf Cartel.

From Electronic Intifada, Palestinian psychiatrist Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj describes the effect of sonic booms from Israeli war planes on Gaza:

28 September 2005 -- During the last few days, Gaza was awakened from its dreams of liberation with horrible explosions which have shattered our skies, shaken our buildings, broken our windows, and threw the place into panic.

We have been bombed since Friday 23 September, day and night. Usually between 2:00-4:00am, between 6:30 - 8:00 in the morning during the time children go to school, and in the afternoon or early evening.

Surrounded by an uncertain climate following recent bombings and the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Harriri, the Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon is feeling the pinch:

Pro-Syrian Palestinian group puts refugee camps on alert

29 September 2005
Daily Star

Beirut -- BEIRUT, Lebanon: In an unprecedented move, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, based in Syria, Ahmad Jibril instructed all PFLP-GC officials in refugee camps in Lebanon to be on full alert and be ready for mobilization at any moment.

According to Lebanese security sources, Jibril said this measure was due to the fact that Lebanese authorities took security measures along the road extending from Yanta in the western Bekaa to the Baalbek-Homs road where they set up checkpoints at more than 25 illegal entry points along the border.

Steve Larson, a recent graduate of the University of Puget Sound, is presently in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, working with Common Ground Collective, a community self-help organization. This letter, online at United for Peace of Pierce County, reports on what he has seen. Larson says that government and major agencies like the Red Cross have been remarkably ineffective or worse, and makes an appeal for help in the grass roots relief effort...

The Washington Post reports Sept. 29 that a group of Turkish women's rights activists confronted Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes with harsh criticisms of the US-led invasion of Iraq, turning a session designed to highlight the empowering of women into a raw display of the anger at Washington's policy in the region.

A defendant in the ongoing trial of the alleged organizers of the May violence in Andijon, Uzbekistan, testified Sept. 26 that the US Embassy in Tashkent might have financed it, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Uzbek Service reported. Tavakkal Hojiev told the court that he heard from Qobil Parpiev, who has been identified by Uzbek authorities as one of the masterminds behind the violence, that the US Embassy provided funds for the uprising in Andijon. Queried by a lawyer for additional details, Hojiev said: "A big sum went for weapons and cars.

Remember all those vicious rapes and senseless murders that served to justify the shoot-to-kill policy declared by state and federal authorities in post-Katrina New Orleans? Well, weeks after the fact, it turns out most of them probably didn't really happen. Michelle Roberts writes for the AP Sept. 27 (via Newsday):

NEW ORLEANS -- On Sept. 1, with desperate Hurricane Katrina evacuees crammed into the convention center, Police Chief Eddie Compass reported: "We have individuals who are getting raped; we have individuals who are getting beaten."