Efforts by the US to fight its own financial crisis may cut Latin American governments off from access to credit at a time when they need an estimated $250 billion for financing their 2009 budgets. The US has been issuing huge volumes of Treasury bonds and is running a fiscal deficit that could top $1 trillion next year. The Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (CLAAF)—a group of economists including former Argentine finance minister Roque Fernandez and former Venezuelan central bank president Ruth de Krivoy—warns that the massive borrowing by the US government may "crowd out" Latin American and other emerging economies from the credit markets."

Via the Global Justice Ecology Project, Dec. 9:

We, the undersigned representatives of indigenous peoples, local communities and non-governmental organizations monitoring the progress of negotiations in Poznan are outraged that the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand opposed the inclusion of recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in a decision on REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) drafted today by government delegates at the UN Climate Conference.

Islamist al-Shabaab insurgents seized two districts in central Somalia without violence Dec. 7, including the stronghold of a Sufi group that traditionally abjures violence. Residents in Galgadud region reported that fighters aboard armed trucks peacefully entered the provincial capital Dhusamareb. "The local clan militias withdrew before they came," one resident told the independent Radio Garowe. Shabaab fighters also took control of Mataban district to the south, with clan militias similarly offering no resistance. The Shabaab faction already controls key regions in southern Somalia, including the port towns of Kismayo and Marka.

Hundreds of Muslim men, women and children held a silent march in Mumbai, stopping at each location which had been targeted by the armed attacks of what is becoming known in India as 26-11. For the first time, liberal groups such as Muslims for Secular Democracy, which called the march in the aftermath of the attacks, were joined by conservative organizations such as Jamiat-ul-Ulema under the common slogan "Killers of innocents are enemies of Islam." Marches were also held in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Delhi and other cities. (Times of India, Dec. 8)

Inmates resisting the inspection of their cells clashed with guards searching for weapons and mobile phones at Afghanistan's overcrowded Pul-i-Charki prison in Kabul Dec. 4. Eight prisoners were killed and 13 injured. The prisoners also burned mattresses, and gunfire was heard during the rioting that wasn't quelled until the next day. The two cellblocks affected by the uprising were at double capacity. (NYT, Dec. 6)

Pakistani Taliban militants torched supplies destined for NATO forces in Afghanistan for a second day running Dec. 8, raiding a container terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar—just over a mile from the previous day's attack, in which gunmen torched more than 100 trucks. About 50 containers were destroyed in the new raid. "The militants came just past midnight, firing in the air, sprinkled petrol on containers and then set them on fire," a security guard at the terminal told Reuters. "They told us they would not harm us, but they asked us not to work for the Americans."

Here's a case study in what Iraq's besieged secular left calls the "two poles of terrorism." From the Washington Post, Dec. 6:

WASHINGTON — Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been charged in a September 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead and raised questions about the U.S. government's use of security contractors in combat zones, according to two sources familiar with the case.

Iranian students protested Dec. 7 at Tehran University, calling for political freedoms and denouncing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The protest amid heavy security was called by the radical Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU) to mark National Student Day. The official news agency IRNA, calling the OCU an "illegal splinter group," said protesters caused property damage and clashed with security personnel, adding that "Marxists" were involved. Photos from the student newspaper website (see below) showed hundreds gathered at the university, many carrying pro-democracy banners and some tearing down a metal gate. (AFP, Dec. 8; AP, Reuters, AutNews, Tehran Polytechnic, Dec. 7)