Indonesia opened the trial of five pro-independence activists on makar (treason) charges in the West Papua capital of Jayapura Jan. 31—amid protests from international human rights groups. The charges stem from the Oct. 19 incident in which security forces violently broke up a three-day Papuan People's Congress gathering in Jayapura, killing three and injuring some 90 more. Following the incident, eight police officers, including the Jayapura police chief, were given written warnings for committing a disciplinary infraction by not giving priority to the protection of civilians. No other action was taken against police or military personnel for possible misuse of force. But five of the activists—Forkorus Yaboisembut, Edison Waromi, August Makbrowen Senay, Dominikus Sorabut, and Selpius Bobii—were charged with treason under article 106 of the Indonesian Criminal Code and have been held in police detention since the October incident. Another Papuan, Gat Wenda, a member of the Penjaga Tanah Papua, or Pepta (Papua Land Guard), which provided security at the Congress, will be tried separately on charges of possessing a sharp weapon.

Iraq appeared to retreat from its political impasse Feb. 3, as the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc agreed to end its parliament boycott. The bloc's return to the cabinet depends on how Iraq's premier responds, fugitive vice president Tareq al-Hashemi told AFP. Hashemi, a Sunni, is accused of financing a death squad to target police, judges and officials. He has been hiding out in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region since December. (AFP, Feb. 3) Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay criticized Iraq for carrying out a large number of executions—including 34 on a single day last month. "Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day," Pillay said, referring to executions carried out on Jan. 19. "Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure." At least 63 are believed to have been executed since mid-November in Iraq, where the death penalty can be imposed for some 48 crimes—including non-fatal offenses such as damage to public property. (Reuters, Jan. 24)

Some 20 gathered to protest Feb. 2 outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Manhattan's Central Park South, where the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is said to be staying. Protesters decried Saleh's his trip to New York City for medical treatment, and a deal he received that granted him immunity from prosecution for repression during the uprising last year. The rally was organized by a group calling itself the Yemeni American Coalition for Change. "We are greatly dissatisfied that the US chose to side with a dictator,” said Summer Nasser, a member of the coalition. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman spoke to the group from Yemen via cellphone and an interpreter. She accused Saleh of orchestrating violence in Yemen while in New York, and concluded: "We call on the US to hold Saleh accountable and not to allow him to rule Yemen from the US." (NYT City Room blog, Feb. 2)

At least 200 were reported killed Feb. 2 in the Syrian city of Homs as security forces pursued their campaign to take back opposition-held areas on the eve of a UN Security Council vote on a much-disputed resolution on the country's crisis. Woman and children were among the dead in shelling of the city's Khalidya district, according to the the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (The Guardian, Feb. 3) That same day, Syrian security forces tightened their grip on the city of Hama (just to the north of Homs, see map) as protesters splashed red paint symbolizing blood in the streets to mark the 30th anniversary of the famous massacre carried out there by President Bashar Assad's father and predecessor Hafez Assad. The 1982 Hama massacre, in which entire neighborhoods were levelled to put down a local rebbellion, has become a rallying cry for the Syrian uprising that began nearly 11 months ago. Amnesty International estimates up to 25,000 were killed in the massacre. Graffiti on the walls this week read: "Hafez died, and Hama didn't. Bashar will die, and Hama won't." (AP, Feb. 2)

Two people were shot dead by police in Suez and more than 400 injured in protests across Egypt Feb. 2, sparked by the deaths of 74 people in a riot following a football match in Port Said the previous day. In Cairo, thousands of protesters marched on the interior ministry, where security forces fired tear gas to keep them back. Protesters hold the military-led authorities responsible for the bloodshed in Port Said, with Muslim Brotherhood militants and others charging the violence was a provocation organized by Mubarak-loyalsists. (BBC World Service, BBC News, Reuters, Feb. 3)

The BBC says it has seen what it calls a "secret NATO report" (referred to in other media accounts as a "secret US military report"), based on some 4,000 detainee interrogations in Afghanistan, that finds the Taliban continue to be heavily backed by Pakistan, are confident they can win the Afghan war, and are gaining popular support at the expense of the Kabul government. The report, "The State of the Taliban 2012," portrays the Taliban as being under the virtual direction of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but resenting that control. According to published excerpts, the report finds that "Taliban commanders, along with rank and file members, increasingly believe their control of Afghanistan is inevitable. Though the Taliban suffered severely in 2011, its strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remains intact."

In the sixth YouTube edition of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg calls out Ron Paul as a neo-Confederate crank and pseudo-libertarian reactionary—and particularly defends the memory and honor of the great homegrown American anarchist and abolitionist Lysander Spooner against Paul's slimy revisionist attempt to appropriate his legacy. Share this with all your friends who are rooting for Ron Paul!

Brazil's government is facing an outcry from rights groups and social movements following a violent Jan. 22 eviction of a favela (informal settlement) that the media have dubbed the "Massacre do Pinheirinho." Some 2,000 troops from the Military Police of São Paulo (PMSP) and the Metropolitan Civil Guard (GCM) of the city of São José dos Campos, in the São Paulo state, invaded the settlement known as Pinheirinho following an order for repossession of the land issued by the state court. Backed up by armored cars and helicopters, the troops evicted an estimated 6,000 from the community on the outskirts of São Paulo city. The troops descended on the site without warning, using tear gas, rubber bullets, and truncheons to disperse frightened residents. But apparently well-drilled to resist eviction, some residents quickly donned improvised weapons and homemade body armor and attempted to block the police advance. The images widely circulated on Brazilian social media, leading to widespread protests in support of the evicted residents.