Hundreds of Iraqi Christians are fleeing to the northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region and particularly the town of Ankawa, which has become a safe haven for the country's Christians, thanks to its special status and privileges granted by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Ankawa, near Erbil, KRG's capital, has a predominantly Christian population and administration, several churches and distinct Assyrian language.

Italian authorities say an anarchist cell has claimed responsibility for parcel bomb attacks on the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome, in which two staff members were injured Dec. 23. A note found at at the scene of the Chilean embassy blast was signed by the "Lambros Fountas Cell" of the Informal Federation of Anarchy (FAI). Lambros Fountas was a Greek anarchist killed in a shoot-out with Athens police in March. "We have decided to make our voice heard with words and deeds," the note read. "We will destroy the dominant system, long live FAI, long live anarchy."

Bolivian prosecutors brought charges Dec. 19 against 39 people in an alleged plot to assassinate President Evo Morales and launch an armed rebellion last year. The accused include leading opposition politicians and Gary Prado, the ex-general who captured legendary guerilla leader Che Guevara in 1967. The supposed plot was uncovered in April 2009, when national police killed three suspected European mercenaries in the eastern lowland city of Santa Cruz. The accused deny the charges, calling them politically motivated. Most of those charged are already in custody, but 17 are now living outside Bolivia. The most prominent figure among the accused is Branco Marinkovic, a business leader and former head of the opposition Civic Committee of Santa Cruz, who is exiled in the US.

Police in Argentina sealed off the Villa Soldati area of Buenos Aires Dec. 14 following a week of violence between squatters, authorities and local residents in which at least three have been killed. Some 1,000 people, mostly of Bolivian and Paraguayan origin, had pitched tents in the local Indoamericano Park after being evicted from a shantytown. A Paraguayan and a Bolivian were killed Dec. 7 when city police, executing a court order secured by the Buenos Aires municipal government, attempted to remove the squatters. Two days later, clashes between residents and the okupas, as the squatters are known, resulted in the death of another Bolivian. Four men are still in the hospital. Prosecutors in Buenos Aires are investigating the clashes.

The World War 4 Report House Band, featuring Subcommander Pogo, will play Otto's Shrunken Head, 538 East 14th St. (near Ave. B) on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Sunday Dec. 12 at 5:30 PM. If you missed the politically didactic power trio's premier performance at the World War 4 Report benefit in June, this is your chance. Other bands to follow on the bill include Iconicide, Fast Lane and Damn Kids.

A New York federal jury acquitted alleged al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani on Nov. 17 of all major terrorism charges in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224, including 12 US citizens. In the first trial of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee in civilian court, the Tanzanian was convicted of one count of conspiracy to damage or destroy US property but cleared of 285 counts, including 276 of murder and attempted murder. Federal prosecutors say they will seek the maximum sentence of life without parole on the conspiracy count.

Gunmen stormed two adjacent homes in al-Tahrir neighborhood of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul late Nov. 15, killing the two male heads of the households, the latest in a series of attacks targeting Christians. Simultaneously, a bomb detonated outside a Christian's home in central Mosul, damaging the house's exterior.

Thousands demonstrated in Madrid Nov. 13 against Morocco's recent crackdown on protesters in the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. Violence escalated Nov. 8, when Moroccan soldiers and police attacked a protest camp that had been established to mark the 35th anniversary of the territory's annexation by Morocco. The camp at Gdeim Izik, some 15 kilometers outside the regional capital Laayoune (El Aaiun), had grown to over 20,000 since being established on Oct. 9. Western Sahara's independence movement, the Poliario Front, is demanding a UN probe of the repression, claiming 36 protesters were killed, with hundreds injured and more than 160 detained. Morocco denies the claims, while asserting that eight members of its security forces were killed. The clashes occurred on the day that Morocco and Polisario held their latest round of UN-mediated talks near New York on the future of Western Sahara. (Reuters, Nov. 15; Green Left Weekly, Nov. 14; AP, Nov. 13; Sahara Press Service, Nov. 12)