Globe Trot: Benghazi bungling back on Washington's radar

BENGHAZI: A panel of military and national security experts launched the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi in Washington on Monday, charging both political parties with incompetence and coverup in the year since the attacks. Tomorrow, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee resumes its Benghazi investigation with its first hearing since May. Ahead of the hearings, the committee this week released a report highlighting deficiencies in the State Department’s Accountability Review Board investigation.

INDIA: Rice is one of the pillars of the global food supply, following wheat and maize, and India is the world’s top rice exporter. But rice is a unique commodity, eaten closest to the form in which it’s harvested, and India’s new grain bill would have a ripple effect in global grain markets.

PAKISTAN: The killers of Shabaz Bhatti, a Christian member of Pakistan’s cabinet assassinated in 2011, have confessed to the crime. Suspected militants taken into custody 2 weeks ago revealed during interrogation that besides conducting other terrorist attacks, they had killed Bhatti, according to the slain minister’s brother Paul. Both al-Qaeda and Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP), a Taliban offshoot located in Punjab province, took responsibility for the shooting at the time. But the arrest of Hammad Adil, brother of a serving superintendent of police, and Muhammad Tanveer, leader of a TTP cell in Islamabad, produced the confession. Security officials also seized a car laden with explosives.

PHILIPPINES: Life in the Philippines port city of Zamboanga is beginning to return to normal after a 10-day standoff between rebels and government forces displaced more than 100,000. The standoff began Sept. 9 when Moro National Liberation Front rebels tried to take control of the city of nearly 1 million people, and at one point held hundreds of residents hostage.

EGYPT: Security forces moved into Delga, a largely Christian town in Upper Egypt, and freed the area of Islamist control on Monday. But the episode showed how Egypt is settling into a deadly cycle of violence.

KENYA: Kijabe is the only town in Kenya where you cannot purchase cigarettes or alcohol. And it remains a center for Christian life and missions.