New Ethiopian troops movements are reported in Somalia, as a deadline set by the Islamic Courts Union for a Somali jihad against Ethiopia expired Dec. 19. Witnesses and local officials said a new detachment of Ethiopian troops in a column… Read moreSomalia: Ethiopian troop build-up as jihad deadline expires
Assadullah Wafa, the new governor of Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province, vowed upon taking office Dec. 19 not to allow further peace deals like the one struck earlier this year between British NATO forces and tribal elders in Musa Qala district…. Read moreAfghanistan: new hardline gov for war-torn Helmand
From El Universal, Dec. 18: Over 2,000 women marched through Oaxaca City on Sunday calling for Gov. Ulises Ruiz’s ouster and the immediate release of the more than 200 members of the Oaxaca People’s Assembly (APPO) detained since the street… Read moreOaxaca: women march as prisoner release begins
From Nunatsiaq News, principal newspaper of Nunavut, the autonomous territory of the Inuit people in Canada’s far north (links added): The effort to link climate change with human rights has suffered a setback. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights won’t… Read moreInuit petition on climate change rejected
Mexico’s new (and still-contested) President Felipe Calderon, touring Chiapas on Dec. 14, announced new steps to beef up border control and fight organized crime, drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Accompanied by Public Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna and Chiapas Gov…. Read moreMexico: Calderon targets Chiapas
John Mohawk, a leading scholar and spokesman for the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), died at his home in Buffalo, NY, on Dec. 12. Mohawk was an international voice for the soveriegn and territorial rights of the Iroquois Confederacy, a… Read moreJohn Mohawk, Iroquois leader and scholar, dead at 61
The Mexican federal government has announced some moves to de-escalate the situation in Oaxaca, including the “gradual” withdrawal of Federal Preventative Police from the state capital’s central plaza, which they have occupied since Oct. 29. Some 140 arrested protesters who… Read moreMexican government tries to defuse Oaxaca crisis
From AP, Dec. 14 via Chiapas95: MEXICO CITY — A group of about 300 Mazahua Indians briefly seized a water treatment plant on Mexico City’s western outskirts Wednesday and temporarily cut off one of the main sources of water for… Read moreMazahua Indians cut off water to Mexico City
Another turn of the screw. From AlJazeera, Dec. 13, emphasis added: A Guantanamo prisoner who won a landmark US Supreme Court ruling in June lost his bid to challenge his detention when a federal judge dismissed the case because of… Read moreUS judge dismisses Gitmo case
Another sign of de-escalation in Oaxaca? From AP, Dec. 11: OAXACA – A labor group allied with the government of the southern state of Oaxaca announced on Monday that it was ending a controversial, 1 1/2-year blockade of the offices… Read moreOaxaca: siege ends at opposition newspaper
From The Guardian, Dec. 13: Bushmen forced out of the Kalahari desert by Botswana’s government won a landmark legal victory today as the country’s high court ruled they had been illegally removed and should be allowed to return. The panel… Read moreKalahari Bushmen win land battle
Hermann Bellinghausen noted some salient comments in his report from Zapatista Subcommander Marcos’ tour stop at Bagdad Beach (on the Rio Grande, just outside Matamoros) for La Jornada, Nov. 24. Via Chiapas95: BAGDAD, Tamaulipas – December 1, the day that… Read moreSubcommander Marcos: revolution or civil war
