With foreign journalists effectively barred from first-hand reportage on the violence in Syria, the situation is by definition murky. But accounts from the city of Homs suggest an outbreak of sectarian killings, with numerous bodies—many of them tortured or mutilated—left on the streets in recent days. On Dec. 5, 36 bodies were dumped in a square adjacent to both Sunni and Alawite areas of the city, and the violence is portrayed by opposition activists in Homs as a cycle of retaliatory killings by followers of the two sects. The cycle was apparently initiated by a pro-government militia known as the Shabiha, which is said to be arming Alawites and attacking Sunni protesters.The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called the 5th "one of the deadliest days since the start of the Syrian Revolution." Since then, at least 20 more bodies have been left in the streets around the city. Some 4,000 are believed to have been killed in Syria since the start of the uprising in March. (SAPA, NPR, Dec. 7; LAT, NYT, Dec. 6; AFP, Nov. 26)

Five bomb attacks in Baghdad, Latifiyah and elsewhere in central Iraq targeted Shi'ite pilgrims headed for the holy city of Karbala Dec. 6 for Ashura celebrations, killing 21 people and wounding nearly 100. Car bombs and roadside devices were aimed at buses carrying the pilgrims, and places where they gathered. (AP, Daily Star, Lebanon, Dec. 6) That same day, simultaneous attacks on public Ashura observations were carried out in three Afghan cities. The attack in Kabul left more than 50 dead. At least four were also killed in Mazar-i-Sharif, while the attack in Kandahar caused several injuries. The Kabul bomb was the deadliest in the capital since 2008. The banned Pakistani group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi claimed responsibility—a Sunni militant organization with a special anti-Shia mission. (AFP, Dec. 7; UN Dispatch, Reuters, BBC News, Dec. 6)

Norma Andrade, a leader of the organization Our Daughters Return Home and a critical voice demanding justice in the long string of "femicides" in Ciudad Juárez is stable condition after being shot twice Dec. 2, as she drove home from her job as a teacher in the violent Mexican border city. Five shots were fired altogether. Chihuahua state police said she was the apparent victim of a carjacking or robbery. But the Mexico office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement calling for authorities to take actions to protect human rights defenders in the country. (UN News Centre, Nov. 6; CNN, Dec. 6; El Paso Times, Dec. 3)

Honduran radio journalist Luz Marina Paz Villalobos and a driver identified as her cousin were killed Dec. 6 in a hail of bullets fired by men on two motorbikes as they sat in their car preparing to leave for work from her home in the San Francisco de Comayagüela district of Tegucigalpa. Paz, 38, hosted a morning program, "Three In The News," broadcast on the Honduran News Channel, where she often discussed politics and drug trafficking, and had been an outspoken critic of the 2009 coup d'etat.

On Dec. 2, heads of state from 33 countries met in Caracas, Venezuela, for the first summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a new regional bloc that excludes the United States and Canada. Unlike the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS), the new group includes Cuba. Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez called the summit "historic," and predicted CELAC would soon supersede the OAS as the premier hemispheric bloc. Created as a result of an agreement reached at the Unity Summit held in Cancún in February 2010, the body includes both left-wing governments like Venezuela and Bolivia, and conservative ones like Mexico and Colombia. Chile's conservative President Sebastian Pinera is to be the first rotating leader of the bloc, and Santiago will also host next year's summit. (Politic365, Dec. 5; ISRIA, Dec. 4; BBC News, Dec. 3)

Talks are underway between the government in Argentina's Neuquén province and local indigenous Mapuche communities after a protest occupation of a natural gas plant owned by the Houston-based Apache Corporation. The plant was occupied Nov. 23 by members of the Mapuche community of Gelay Ko, who maintained a blockade of the entrances and prevented workers from entering. The protesters, including women and children, agreed to lift their blockade Nov. 26 after the government agreed to hear their demands. The company reported that output at the plant was reduced by 30%. The processing plant at Anticlinal, outside the city of Zapala in the foothills of the Andes, has since been surrounded by police to prevent further disturbances.

President Ollanta Humala of Peru went on national TV the night of Dec. 4 to announce that he has imposed a state of emergency in four provinces of Cajamarca region, which has been the scene of a general strike for the past 11 days in opposition to the mega-scale Conga mining project that residents say threatens local water resources. The 60-day state emergency affects the provinces of Cajamarca, Celendín, Hualgayoc and Contumazá. In his address, Humala said the government "has exhausted all paths to establish dialogue as a point of departure to resolve the conflict democratically" and blamed "the intransigence of a sector of local and regional leaders."

The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said Dec. 1 it has received reports from exiled Tibetans in India of the self-immolation of a former monk in Chamdo (Chinese: Changdu or Qamdo) prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The reports, that have been micro-blogged and uploaded on Facebook accounts in Tibetan, indicate that the former monk, named as Tenzin Phuntsog, survived and has been hospitalized. At least one source stated that the former monk was from a monastery in Chamdo township, named as Karma monastery, which some sources say was under lockdown following a rumored bomb blast at a local government building on Oct. 26.