Thousands of supporters of Andres Manual Lopez Obrador again filled Mexico City's central plaza, the zocalo, Nov. 20 to witness his swearing in as Mexico's parallel "legitimate president," with a cabinet of 12 mostly drawn from his former administration as the capital's mayor. (AP, Nov. 20) "It is an honor to be the legitimate president of Mexico and above all the leader of free men and women like you," López Obrador told the crowd after leftist senator and human-rights activist Rosario Ibarra de Piedra placed a red-white-and-green "presidential sash" over his shoulder. (LAT, Nov. 21)

From Middle East Newsline, Nov. 13:

The U.S. military plans to expand robot operations in Iraq.

From Reuters, Nov. 20:

GAZA - Israel's air force cancelled a planned raid on the home of a Gaza militant on Sunday after hundreds of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the building, an Israeli military spokesman and witnesses said.

From El Universal, Nov. 19:

At least three of 10 lawyers being held hostage by inmates were killed Saturday after police raided the prison in the state of Michoacán to rescue them, media reported.

Two dead and one injured are reported in an ambush Nov. 14 at the community of La Conchuda in the municipality of San Agustín Loxicha, in the southern mountains of Oaxaca, known as a bastion of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR). The victims, Faustino Sebastián Valencia and Jesús Valencia, father and son, and Lorenzo Jiménez, were ambushed by masked men with automatic rifles while walking on a mountain road. Faustino and Jesús Valencia were killed instantly, while the third remains hospitalized. All three were prominant local supporters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Juan Sosa Maldonado, Loxicha regional leader of the Organization of Indigenous Zapotec Pueblos (OPIZ), a member organization of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO), called the growing violence in the Sierra del Sur a "grave issue." (ADN Sureste, Nov. 17)

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)