Rebel commanders in Darfur are urging Abdel Wahid el-Nur, founder of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), to agree to go to peace talks with the Sudanese government slated to open at the end of October in Libya under the auspices of the UN and the African Union. "We want him to come and state his demands at the negotiating table," Jar el Neby, an SLA commander, told Reuters. "His refusal to participate in the negotiations does not serve our cause." Abu Bakr Kadu, a commander with the SLA Unity faction, told Reuters: "We do not agree with Abdel Wahid's position on the negotiations." Last week the vice president of the government of semi-autonomous southern Sudan, Riek Machar, visited Nur in Paris in an attempt to persuade him to join the peace process.

Tuareg guerillas opened fire with AK-47s on a US Hercules military aircraft flying in supplies for Malian troops pinned down at Tin-Zawatine near the border with Algeria Sept. 12. There were no casualties and the plane managed to return to base at Mali's capital, Bamako. But this represents the first time that the US military force in Mali, ostensibly introduced to counter Islamist militants, has become embroiled in the Tuareg conflict. "It was not a normal event. We do not do this day to day," said Major John Dorrian, spokesman for the US European Command that also covers Africa. But he would not rule out the prospect of providing similar support in future. "Any such request would be handled on a case-by-case basis," he said.

Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin accused Norway of supporting "terrorist groups" based in Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan. "Norway tries to build a peace-keeping image, but cannot do so at the expense of the peace on the Horn of Africa," Mesfin told the Norwegian daily Aftenposten. "The soldiers in Eritrea are financed in full by Norway. By supporting those who destroy peace processes in our neighboring countries, Norway undermines the Ethiopian government’s peace work." Parliamentary Secretary Raymond Johansen in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry denied the Ethiopian Minister’s allegations. "Nothing he says is correct," Johansen said.

Tens of thousands packed Addis Ababa's main square for millennium festivities Sept. 11 that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said should mark a new beginning for Ethiopia. Meles said the occasion heralded a "glorious new page" in the country's history. "A thousand years from now, when Ethiopians gather to welcome the fourth millennium, they shall say the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the end of the dark ages in Ethiopia. They shall say that the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the Ethiopian renaissance."

Japan's outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he resigned to break a deadlock in parliament over Japan's support for US-led operations in Afghanistan. Former foreign minister Taro Aso, who shares Abe's pro-remilitarization agenda, is considered the frontrunner to take over as party leader and, consequently, prime minister. Under the proposed plan, the Air Self-Defense Forces would provide airlift support for NATO's ISAF mission in Afghanistan, a provision of a new law planned to replace the current counter-terrorism law that expires Nov. 1. The new legislation would also continue and expand the Maritime Self-Defense Force's NATO-linked refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. (Euronews, Sept. 12; Japan Times, Sept. 9)

On Aug. 28, 29 and 30, ICE agents swept through the greater Boston area, arresting 36 immigrants the agency claims are members or associates of the MS-13 street gang. ICE said the raids were part of ICE's national anti-gang initiative, Operation Community Shield, launched in 2005. Most of the arrests were made in Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, Lynn, Revere and Somerville. Those arrested come from El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

On Aug. 24, 140 people rallied outside the immigration court in Hartford, Connecticut to demand the release of Said Zaim-Sassi, a Moroccan-born resident of Wallingford, Connecticut. Marchers wore T-shirts that said "Keep Families Together" and held up signs that called for a stop to immigration raids. Zaim-Sassi has been living in the US for 20 years; he worked for Metro-North, volunteered to help other immigrants and played soccer. His wife, Souhair Zaim-Sassi, is a Morocco-born US citizen; the couple has three US-born children, ages two, four and seven.

According to information confirmed by Raha Jorjani of the School of Law Clinical Programs at University of California, Davis, at least 30 immigration detainees have been refusing some or all meals at Pinal County Jail in Florence, Arizona. The hunger strikers are among some 60 detained immigrants who were transferred on or around Sept. 5 from the Florence Service Processing Center to the county jail, which has a new contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to provide bed space for immigration detainees.