A case against Dutch politician Geert Wilders went to court in Amsterdam starting Oct. 4 and could land the 47-year-old conservative lawmaker and head of the Freedom Party up to a year in jail and a fine. Wilders is charged with inciting discrimination and hatred and with insulting a people on religious grounds. Responding to what he calls Muslim-led "street terror," Wilders has called for banning the Quran and further immigration from Islamic countries to the Netherlands. In the United States he has been a vocal critic of building a new mosque near New York's Ground Zero. Muslims in the Netherlands charge that his remarks have poisoned attitudes toward them: "My family and I no longer feel safe in the Netherlands because Mr. Wilders is continually making hateful remarks about Islamic Dutch people," said one complaint read out by the judge. Wilders said in an opening statement, "I am standing trial . . . because of my opinions on Islam . . . and because the Dutch establishment-most of them non-Muslims-wants to silence me. I have been dragged to court because in my country freedom can no longer be fully enjoyed. In Europe the national state, and increasingly the EU, prescribes how citizens-including democratically elected politicians such as myself-should think and what we are allowed to say."

Rare wind

Four tornadoes touched down in northern Arizona early Oct. 6, derailing 28 cars of a parked freight train, blowing semis off the highway, and smashing dozens of homes. Authorities reported no deaths but minor injuries in what are the first injury-causing tornadoes in Arizona since 1968. The sparsely populated state reports on average four tornadoes a year, but the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff issued 28 tornado warnings on Oct. 6 alone as a storm system moved across the region.

Ocean census

Scientists from all over the world have spent a decade at sea counting the creatures of the deep, and as a result they have discovered about 6,000 new species in the first Census of Marine Life, released this October. In the Gulf of Mexico, they found an aquatic Venus fly trap, and in the Pacific Ocean they discovered a furry crab dubbed the "yeti crab." They found a species of blind lobster, a snail that lives in the steaming fissures on the ocean floor, and a deep-sea clam thought to be extinct. The information will be added to global libraries cataloguing species and DNA. The 2,700 scientists working on the $650 million project counted about 250,000 species in total, and they estimate that for every one species they can name, four remain to be discovered.

Name calling

Beware the Taliban label. Freshman incumbent Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., took a nosedive in polls after he labeled his opponent "Taliban Dan" in a controversial ad aired in late September. Within 48 hours Grayson was trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by 7 points, 43 percent to 36 percent-and Webster, a Republican, had raised $100,000 in campaign contributions. In the ad Grayson played clips of Webster, who is a Christian, saying that wives should submit to their husbands and replaying the refrain, "Submit to me. . . ." But unedited footage of the speech showed that Webster was in fact telling husbands to focus not on the Ephesians 5:22 verse but on later verses that tell husbands to love their wives. Grayson's ad was condemned by FactCheck.org and the Orlando Sentinel.

In for life

Faisal Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison on Oct. 5 after he admitted to trying to detonate a crudely made car bomb in New York's Times Square in May. A U.S. citizen originally from Pakistan, Shahzad pleaded guilty to a 10-count indictment in June, including charges of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting an act of terrorism. If given 1,000 lives, "I will sacrifice them all in the name of Allah," Shahzad, 31, told U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum.

Religious illiteracy

Atheists know the most about religion, says a recent survey, followed by Jews, Mormons, and then evangelical Protestants. The Pew Research Center's "U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey" shows that in some areas, Americans are startlingly ignorant about their own religions. Fewer than half of Catholics are able to name Genesis as the first book of the Bible. Only 28 percent of white evangelical Protestants know that Protestantism teaches salvation through faith alone, and only a slim majority of Catholics can identify their church's doctrine on communion. Seventy percent of Jews know that Martin Luther inspired the Reformation, but less than half of Protestants do. The survey also reveals misunderstanding about the constitutional restrictions on religion. Only 36 percent of the respondents knew a public-school teacher may teach a comparative religion class, and only 23 percent knew a teacher may teach the Bible as literature, although the Supreme Court permits both.

New England comeback?

On Election Day 2008, Democratic turnout was the highest since 1964. On Nov. 2 many of those voters are more likely to stay home while Republicans are energized to vote. Sixteen percent more Republicans said they are planning to vote next month than Democrats, according to an Oct. 5 poll from ABC News/Washington Post. That explains why so many historically Democratic seats are in play now. Even Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the powerful chair of the House Financial Services Committee who won his last race by 43 points, has a serious challenger. Republican businessman and U.S. Marine Corps Reserve officer Sean Bielat, 35, is about 10 points behind in polls, a gap that could widen or disappear based on turnout. Frank is likely to win, but Democrats are worried: Bielat has raised a lot of money and Sen. Scott Brown won Frank's district in the special Senate election in January to fill Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat. In 2008, Republicans lost their last House seat in New England. This year they are eyeing at least half a dozen that they could win.

I don't

Marriage hit its lowest prevalence in over a hundred years, said the U.S. Census Bureau, as 46.3 percent of adults ages 25-34 said they had never been married, exceeding for the first time the number married in that age category, at 44.9 percent. Only 52 percent of adults 18 and over said they were married as of last year, compared to 57 percent in 2000. Demographers tied the decline to the economic downturn compounded by cultural trends away from marriage: Among the highest category of unemployed by age are those 20-29 years old.

Brazil's new powerbrokers

Dilma Rousseff's "project to transform Brazil" was to become the first female president of the largest democracy in Latin America. By Oct. 31, the project may be reality, as experts predict the 62-year-old Worker's Party candidate will win a runoff for the presidency. "After 500 years, Brazilians want a woman," said Rousseff. Brazilians also want more of the economic growth that has marked the tenure of Rousseff's mentor-outgoing President Inacio Lula da Silva. Household incomes in Brazil have risen 32 percent during da Silva's two terms, and the economy has grown nearly 4 percent each year. Her failure to garner 50 percent of the votes needed to avoid a runoff with opponent Jose Serra came in part because of another woman: Green Party candidate Marina Silva, who won 19 percent of the vote, and shaved support from both frontrunners.

Crimes against humanity

Congolese militia commander Sadoke Kokunda Mayele was arrested Oct. 6-and accused of leading some 200 fighters in atrocities that include gang rapes of over 300 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-after being turned over to UN authorities by his own fighters. The UN released a long-awaited report on Oct. 1 detailing crimes that include mass rape and the killing of civilians committed in the DRC from 1993 until 2003. The 550-page document describes majority Tutsi forces, under the command of now Rwanda President Paul Kagame, committing reprisal attacks on Hutu civilians pursued into Congo as they fled the genocide in Rwanda.