The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says the Palestinian conflict has left almost 8,900 people dead over the last 20 years—with 2009 the bloodiest. The report says 7,398 of the victims, including 1,537 minors, were Palestinian. 1,483 were Israelis, 139 of them minors. Of these, 488 were members of the security forces and 995 were civilians.

After months of dialogue between the Interior Ministry, parliament and Kurdish leaders, the Turkish government announced a plan to help end the 25-year conflict with a Kurdish separatist movement that has cost more than 40,000 lives. The plan debated by Turkish Parliament for two days was hailed as a landmark, calling for lifting the ban on Kurdish political parties and officially acknowledging Kurdish ethnic identity and cultural rights. Kurds make up almost 15% of Turkey's population.

The Iraqi parliament Nov. 22 failed to resolve an impasse threatening to delay the country's election—which could affect the US military's plans for a partial pullout next year. There are only days left for parliament to address Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's veto of an election law, as the law must be passed 60 days before the vote, which has been scheduled for Jan. 23. The election law was approved on Nov. 8 after weeks of wrangling between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen over how to hold the vote in the city of Kirkuk. (WP, Nov. 22)

Last week saw a disturbing turn of events in a lawsuit brought by 64 family members of victims of the Blackwater/Xe private security contractor against its owner and CEO, Erik Prince, for the 2007 massacre in Nisur Square, Baghdad, and other shooting incidents in Iraq. After attorneys for the victims settled the case for an undisclosed sum of money, some of the victims objected, leaving their lawyers in the unenviable position of having to argue to a federal judge that they didn't have their clients' permission to settle it. What should have been a public airing of the notorious business practices of the "world's largest private army" has now become an investigation, by Blackwater/Xe, of the victims and their relationship with their lawyers.

Federal prosecutors indicated Nov. 21 that they will drop manslaughter charges against a Blackwater Worldwide security guard who was involved in the September 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad that killed 17 Iraqis. According to the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Channing Phillips, a motion was filed under seal to dismiss the charges against Nicholas Slatten. No reason was given as to why the indictment was being dismissed, but prosecutors asked that they be allowed to resubmit the charges at a later date if desired. Since the incident Blackwater has changed its name to Xe Services.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court has sentenced former vice president and reformer Mohammad Ali Abtahi to six years in prison for his role in the unrest that followed the disputed June 12 presidential elections, according to Iranian news agencies Nov. 21. Abtahi, who had been in custody since just after the election, has been temporarily released on $700,000 bail pursuant to Iranian law which allows any person sentenced to more than three months in jail to be released on bail pending appeal. He served as vice president under Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to 2005. Abtahi has 20 days to appeal his sentence.

Since February, combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, acting in an ostensibly civilian and volunteer capacity, have been advising police in Salinas, Calif., on "counterinsurgency strategy" in the wake of deadly violence by mostly Central American street gangs in the city. "This is our surge," said Mayor Dennis Donohue, who solicited the assistance from the elite Naval Postgraduate School, 20 miles away in Monterey. "When the public heard about this, they thought we were going to send the Navy SEALs into Salinas."

Appearing before a House of Commons committee in Ottawa Nov. 18, Richard Colvin, a former senior diplomat with Canada's mission in Afghanistan, blasted his country's detainee policies, testifying that all detainees transferred by Canadians to Afghan prisons were likely tortured—and that many of them were innocent.