Afghanistan's "official" security forces rape with impunity and engage in sale and trafficking of women, while the Taliban reap the backlash, imposing harsh vigilante "justice" over growing swaths of the country. Freedom's on the march, eh? First this, from the BBC's Persian service Nov. 7, translated somewhat awkwardly by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA):

From the Committee to Protect Journalists, Nov. 17:

José Manuel Nava Sánchez, former director of the Mexico City-based daily Excélsior and columnist for the national daily El Sol de México, was found murdered yesterday in his apartment. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether the killing is connected to his work.

Follwing the conclusion of its "constitutive congress," the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) announced through its spokesman Flavio Sosa Villavicencio its intention to convert "the popular revolt into a peaceful, democratic and humanist revolution," on the model of the indigenous communities of Chiapas. (APRO, Nov. 15)

From the AP, Nov. 15:

Environmentalists sued the Bush administration Tuesday for failing to produce a report on global warming's impact on the country's environment, economy and public health.

From UPI, Nov. 14, links added:

WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon spokesman dismissed as "frivolous" a lawsuit alleging war crimes filed in Germany Tuesday against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

A patrol of Jordanian soldiers in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) came under fire on the evening of Nov. 10 as they were returning to their camp near the Port-au-Prince international airport. Two soldiers were killed: 1st Lt. Ahmad Mohammed Hassan Ba'irat and Cpl. Rami Wasif Taha Al Mohammed. The incident took place close to the center of Port-au-Prince's Sonapi (Societe Nationale de Parcs Industriels) industrial park, near the impoverished Cite Soleil neighborhood. This was the worst violence against the MINUSTAH force since Dec. 24, 2005, when a Jordanian soldier was killed with a shot to the head, also near Cite Soleil. (Associated Press, Nov. 11; Haiti Press Network, Nov. 11)

Six years after it was first introduced, a bill allowing same sex civil unions in Mexico's Federal District (DF, Mexico City) was approved by the Federal District Legislative Assembly (ALDF) by a vote of 43 to 17, with five abstentions. Thirty-three deputies from the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) voted for the measure, and one abstained, while 16 of the 17 deputies from the center-right National Action Party (PAN) voted against it; most deputies from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and smaller parties abstained or backed the law. Human rights and lesbian-gay rights groups had repeatedly criticized the PRD, which has ruled the DF since 1997, for failing to get the law passed.

From El Universal, Nov. 12 via Chiapas95:

As APPO deliberates, Ruiz to alter Cabinet
The Oaxaca People's Assembly (APPO) resumed their organizational congress on Saturday in Oaxaca City, while the state's embattled governor announced the beginning of a massive Cabinet overhaul in hopes of preserving his job.