The United Nations has sent a disaster assessment team to El Salvador and released a $50,000 cash grant to help the Central American country recover from torrential rains that have caused massive flooding and triggered landslides, killing at least 140 people and displacing nearly 14,000 others.

Talks in Tegucigalpa between representatives of ousted Honduran president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales and de facto president Roberto Micheletti Bain have failed to revive the Tegucigalpa/San José Accord, an agreement the two sides signed on Oct. 30. Members of a Verification Commission established by the agreement had tried to salvage the accord by having the two sides meet again on Nov. 7.

The rapid failure of an Oct. 30 accord between Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and the country's de facto government "leaves egg on the faces of US and regional diplomats who had engineered the deal," according to an analysis piece by the Reuters news service. (Reuters, Nov. 6)

While the US Embassy in Bogotá says the new agreement for expanded US access to Colombian military bases enters into force immediately, a Colombian court ruling finds the agreement is "broad and unbalanced" in favor of the United States and not based on any previous treaty, so therefore must be reviewed by Colombia's Congress and Constitutional Court. The agreement puts no limits on the number of US personnel to be deployed in Colombia nor on the number of military bases they will use.

The US and OAS appear divided on whether to recognize the upcoming Honduran elections after the collapse of the Washington-brokered deal to solve the political crisis in the Central American country. Ousted President Manuel Zelaya told Radio Globo Nov. 6 that the deal is "dead," adding: "It makes no sense to continue duping the Honduran people with this type of agreement which only shows a lack of political will to resolve the problem."

A new report by the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights details "extensive and systematic" rights violations faced by thousands of political prisoners in Eritrea. The report charges that between 10,000 and 30,000 people are held in a country of about five million. Prisoners are held in shipping containers, or in bunkers deep underground. Torture is routine, with victims sometimes hung from their wrists and feet from trees in the sun or the rain.

Giant swastikas appeared on the walls of the synagogue in Dresden, Germany, on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht Nov. 8. Unidentified perpetrators painted the graffiti, covering approximately six meters of brickwork. Heinz-Joachim Aris, chair of the State Union of Jewish Communities in Saxony, said he was disgusted and frightened by the crime. He also said he does not understand how it could have happened, as the synagogue is usually guarded. The case is being investigated by the Special Commission on Right-wing Extremism.

Populist leaders in Latin America increasingly use legal and political means to silence critics in the media, Enrique Santos Calderón, president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), said Nov. 6. Tactics include revoking broadcast licenses, fostering hostility toward journalists, and giving a free hand to government supporters who have attacked broadcast stations, newsrooms and printing plants. "We are extremely concerned at the growing level in recent weeks of harassment and violence in various countries," Calderón said at IAPA's annual meeting in Buenos Aires. "Democratic systems require a free and unfettered press."