The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Bosnian Army Gen. Rasim Delic to three years in prison Sept. 15 for crimes committed by foreign Islamic fighters against captive Bosnian Serb soldiers during the 1992-1995 war. Gen. Delic's defense team pledges to appeal the verdict, arguing that he did not have control over the Bosnian Army's El Mujahid Detachment—but that they received their orders directly from al-Qaeda.

The Camorra, the Naples organized crime machine, has declared "war on the state," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told the Italian Senate Sept. 24, one day after the government authorized sending 500 soldiers to the Campania region in response to the shooting deaths last week of seven people, six of them African immigrants, in a suspected feud over drug turf in Caserta, north of Naples. Maroni called the killings of the Italian national and the immigrants from Ghana, Liberia and Togo an "act of terrorism." The last time soldiers were used to combat organized crime was in 1992, after Sicilian mobsters assassinated two top judges. Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said the soldiers were needed to cope with a "criminal emergency." (BBC, Sept. 25; LAT, NYT, Sept. 24)

At least six were injured and 15 arrested as far-right protesters clashed with police, threw stones and petrol bombs and damaged shops and cars along Andrassy Boulevard in Budapest Sept. 20. Police fired tear gas and water cannons on the protesters—many wearing swastikas and chanting anti-Semitic slogans. Police moved in after a right-wing mob attacked people leaving a pro-tolerance rally called by the Hungarian Democratic Charter movement and Roma organizations.

We have argued before: "Classical" anti-Semitism and contemporary anti-Arab racism (and Islamophobia) are genetically linked phenomena. The fallacy is that just because one exists, the other doesn't. On the contrary, the prominence of one should be seen as evidence that the other isn't far behind. Here's more evidence. From Reuters, Sept. 17:

In a major gathering ignored by US mass media, thousands of migrants met in Spain from Sept. 11 to 14 to articulate a set of demands directed at governments across the world. Meeting at the Third World Social Forum on Migration, delegates represented organizations from more than 90 nations.

Spain's supreme court ruled Sept. 18 to ban the Basque Communist Party (EHAK-PCTV) on the grounds that it is linked to the ETA armed separatist group and the successor party of the Batasuna, which was declared illegal in March 2003. A week earier, the court banned the Acción Nacionalista Vasca (ANV) party following a court order by the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, calling for "liquidation of everything related to that party." (ThinkSpain, Sept. 19; eitb24, Sept. 16)

A Danish appeals court Sept. 18 convicted six people of selling t-shirts to aid the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). A seventh defendant was acquitted. Most of the defendants were linked to a company, Fighters and Lovers, that made and sold shirts with the logos of both groups, which are on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations. Two defendants were sentenced to six months in prison and the other four received suspended sentences. (NYT, Sept. 19)

The UN General Committee, which sets the agenda for the General Assembly, voted unanimously Sept. 18 to approve a Serbian resolution calling for a review of Kosova's declared independence. The resolution, opposed by the US and UK, next goes before the General Assembly. If approved there, Kosova's independence would go before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).