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Both parties to the Honduras dispute say progress was made during crisis talks. The delegations reportedly reached partial agreement on a proposal submitted by Costa Rican President Óscar Arias. His proposal involves the formation of a government of national unity and elections to be held at the end of next month, as they were planned.

The Project involves the planting of trees along a 7000 kilometer east-west extension from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, to Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, to reduce the impact of desertification. Senegal has called upon the international community to support the “Great Green Wall” project that will contribute to environmental protection.

From October 8 to 11 the island of Rhodes (Greece) hosted the Seventh Annual Session of the World Public Forum, ‘Dialogue of Civilizations’. The World Center of Humanist Studies gave a talk on the theme of nonviolence as the only way out of the current crisis, presenting the World March for Peace and Nonviolence initiative.

The 20 marchers arrived in New Delhi on October 12 to honour several meetings in various provinces of India. After a long march to New Delhi, where the base team was received by Tara Gandhi Bhattacharji, Ghandi’s grand-daughter, the group split up to go to Bombay, Amritsar, Chennai and Trichur (in the province of Kerala).

Members of the Middle East team of the World March have now left Bethlehem following a visit yesterday to the occupied Palestinian territories. Along with them were representatives of the Holy Land Trust association of Bethlehem, a non-profit organisation that has worked for years for the nonviolent development of the Palestinian communities.

The Nobel Peace prize to a president for rhetoric, with no real achievement, is like a peace prize for a movie to a former vice-president, with no real achievement either. People are touched by a rhetoric everybody has heard, but that it does not meet the criteria Nobel states in his will: understanding among nations, reduction of standing armies, and peace conferences.

The first ever Legislative Bill for a Department of Peace in the Canadian Parliament was tabled on Sept. 30. The Bill calls for a Federal Department of Peace, headed by a Cabinet level Minister. This Department should coordinate and promote issues such as Nuclear Disarmament, Human and Economic Rights, Peace Education and Prevention of Violence in Canada.

On October 11th and 12th, the Middle East team of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence passed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Among the marchers was Giorgio Schultze, the European spokesperson for the March. The team met the Director of Music and Dance at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Municipal Councillor Margalit of the Meretz party.

The call for peaceful and nonviolent election in Basilan, Philippines took on a new face as local and international peace groups and government agencies launched the Zero Violence in 2010 Campaign last October 7 at the Basilan State College Gymnasium, Isabela City, Basilan. The launching coincided with the World March for Peace and Non-violence arrival to The Philippines.

One of the 2009 Right Livelihood Awards, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prizes goes to Alyn Ware, World March for Peace and Nonviolence Coordinator for New Zealand – Aotearoa, for “his effective and creative advocacy and initiatives over two decades to further peace education and to rid the world of nuclear weapons”.