Jennifer L. Pozner writes for Newsday, Oct. 8:

The terrorists who aren't in the news
Anti-abortion fanatics spread fear by bombings, murders and assaults, but the media take little notice
On Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire.

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.

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)

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.

Following an agreement reached late on Oct. 10, a Mexican Senate committee is pursue a constitutional process known as "desaparicion de poderes," that could result in the fulfillment of the Oaxaca protesters' demand to have Ulises Ruiz removed as the state's governor. Committee members from all three major parties agreed to send a subcommittee to the conflicted state to investigate evidence that Ruiz's government has ceased to function and can therefore be dissolved.