Egyptian police detained at least 40 after thousands of angry Bedouins stormed government buildings in north Sinai Oct. 7 to protest police inaction after a shooting by a rival clan. The ruling National Democratic Party headquarters in the city of El-Arish was sacked and pictures of President Hosni Mubarak burned, prompting police to fire tear gas to break up the crowd. The city council building was also damaged by stone-throwing protesters, who burned tires and smashed shop windows throughout the city. Authorities said the detained were from both the Tarabin and Fawakhriya tribes. Witnesses said the violence began after the breaking of the Ramadan fast, when armed Tarabin tribesmen from central Sinai arrived in El-Arish in 15 trucks and began to shoot at members of the Fawakhriya tribe. Abdel Hamid Selmy of the Fawakhriya tribe, a member of the Egyptian parliament's upper house, said the violence "is an expression of the frustration felt by Bedouins due to the constant neglect by authorities." (AFP, Oct. 7)

From South Africa's Mail & Guardian, Sept. 17:

Israel has enforced a news blackout on what may be its air force's most audacious raid since its jets destroyed Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor in 1981. The Israeli government has made no comment about the raid on what is believed to be a nuclear installation in Syria and Israeli newspapers have been forbidden to write anything on the subject.

Shades of the Niger Delta in Yemen. From Reuters, Sept. 1:

ADEN - A Yemeni tribe has freed two foreign engineers and their Yemeni driver, a government source said on Saturday, after the military threatened to storm the area to secure their release.

In the July 22 ballot, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured the largest share of votes in a Turkish election since 1965, in a contest which saw heated controversy about the country's future as a secular republic. His Justice and Development (AK) party—its pro-capitalist brand of political Islam sometimes dubbed "Islamic Calvinism"—captured constituencies across Turkey, leaving only isolated pockets to the secular nationalist parties. "The divide between the AK Party and its secularist-nationalist opponents has emerged as one of the most important fault lines in Turkish politics," writes Turkey's Zaman.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said initial investigations into the July 2 suicide-bombing that killed seven Spanish tourists indicate that al-Qaeda was behind the attack. Moratinos said the information was provided by his Yemeni counterpart Abu Bakr Abduallah al Quirbi, whose government has given Spain authority to conduct its own investigation parallel to that of the Yemen government.

The Egyptian government has refused to allow human rights groups to observe the military trial of 33 leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood, undercutting the government’s claims that civilians will have a fair trial before military courts, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint press release June 4.

Turkish authorities have announed the seizure of weapons hidden on a Syria-bound train from Iran after Kurdish PKK guerillas derailed it with a bomb near the town of Genc in Bingol province. News reports said the weapons included 300 rockets and a rocket launch pad. Turkish authorities suspect Iran is using Turkey as a transit route to send arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon via Syria.

The separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) denied responsibility for the May 22 bomb attack that killed six and wounded up to 100 in the busy Ankara shopping district of Ulus. "We have no connection with the attack," the PKK said in a statement posted on the Firat news agency website, which has ties to the guerrillas. Turkish authorities initially said a suicide bomber carried out the attack, but that the use of A-4 plastic explosives points to the PKK. The PKK has used the explosive in the past, but typically does not carry out suicide bombings. (Hurriyet, Reuters, May 24)