Police in Tehran raided and shut down the office of the Center for Protecting Human Rights, led by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi Dec. 21. Dozens of uniformed police and plainclothes security officials sealed the office in the… Read moreIran: police shut independent human rights office
A report released by the B’Tselem human rights group Dec. 22 states that the West Bank settlement of Ofra, northeast of Jerusalem, is in fact an “illegal” outpost even under Israeli law. Ofra, part of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council,… Read moreReport: West Bank settlements illegal 鈥攗nder Israeli law
Tuareg guerillas killed at least at least nine soldiers in an attack on an army post in Mali’s remote north Dec. 22. The government claimed 11 rebel fighters were also killed when when gunmen in more than 20 four-wheel-drive vehicles… Read moreMali: Tuareg rebels attack
At least two missiles believed to have been fired from a US drone struck villages near Wana in Pakistan’s South Waziristan region Dec. 22, killing seven people. Tribesmen reportedly opened fire on the drones after the attacks. US forces have… Read moreUS bombs Pakistan 鈥攁gain
On Dec. 12 a judge in Mexico’s Coahuila state ordered the release of Carlos Pav贸n Campos, political affairs secretary of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM), on 5.611 million pesos bail (about $426,600)…. Read moreMexico: miner leader still in jail
From Dec. 15 to Dec. 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries held overlapping meetings of several regional groups in Costa do Sauipe, a luxurious tourist complex near Salvador in the eastern Brazil state of Bahia. The overall intention was to… Read moreBrazil hosts Latin American summit on economic crisis
On Dec. 10 a Haitian court sentenced journalist Joseph Guyler Delva to one month in prison for alleged defamation and public insults against former senator Rudolph Boulos. Delva and his lawyer were not present at the trial, since it had… Read moreHaiti: reporter threatened
In an interview this month with the left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada, Cuban National Assembly president Ricardo Alarc贸n said that Cuba isn’t counting on a major shift in US policy towards Cuba when Barack Obama becomes US president on Jan…. Read moreCuba: no “turning point” with US
Mexican President Felipe Calder贸n said Dec. 19 his government “does not and will never negotiate” with the drug lords, and vowed to press ahead with his military crackdown on the cartels. Drug-related deaths have doubled this year, to more than… Read moreMexico: Calder贸n pledges “no negotiation” with cartels
A Canadian mining company intends to sue El Salvador’s government for several hundred million dollars if it is not granted permission to open a widely unpopular gold and silver mine that scientists warn would pollute local water supplies. Pacific Rim… Read moreCanadian mining company threatens El Salvador with CAFTA suit
At 4 AM on Dec. 16, indigenous leader Edwin Legarda V谩zquez was killed by the Colombian army as he was driving a pickup truck belonging to the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), in which his partner, Aida Quilcu茅 often… Read moreColombia: army kills indigenous leader
Indigenous leaders from the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) ended a three-day meeting in La Paz Dec. 19 with a call for international unity in the struggle against neoliberalism. Delegates from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia denounced the privatization of… Read moreBolivia hosts Andean indigenous summit
