The rival Moro guerrilla groups in the Philippines have agreed to talks after a meeting in Manila with Saiful Islam Qadaffi, eldest son of Libyan President Moammar Qadaffi. The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) agreed to work towards peace with the government as well. "We agreed to resolve the conflict not beyond September 2008 in accordance with a road map," said MILF leader Eid Kabalu.

Eight people were killed in a four-hour gun battle between police and thieves in the Villa Hermosa suburb of Guatemala City. An armed gang had robbed a jeweller in a shopping center, killing a security guard. Hundreds of Special Forces troops from the National Civil Police, backed up by some 70 army troops, later surrounded them in a private house, where they refused to surrender. One local radio station, broadcasting from the scene, carried recordings of a man shouting: "The only way we'll come out is dead." One officer was killed in the shoot-out, and six bodies were found in the house—along with assault weapons and hand grenades. Four police and a soldier were wounded. "The exchange of gunfire was very intense, but everything is now under control," Interior Minister Adela Camacho said. (BBC, Xinhua, Prensa Libre, Guatemala, Dec. 16)

In an unusual ruling, a Danish court acquitted seven leftist activists—who had sent funds to the FARC in Colombia and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—of sponsoring terrorism. The panel of judges ruled that though both groups were branded as terrorist groups by the United States, the European Union, and Denmark, "their actions were not meant to intimidate the population or destroy a political and economic system. They were therefore not guilty of any terrorism." The Danish leftists—members of an activist organization calling itself Fighters and Lovers—plan to continue transmitting the profits of their FARC and PFLP t-shirts to support the "non-violent" operations of both rebel groups. (The Guardian, Dec. 14)

Iraq's Foreign Minister Hosheyar Zebari met with officials in Damascus Dec. 12, with both governments agreeing to speed reactivation of the oil pipeline from the Kirkuk fields to Syria's Banias terminal on the Mediterranean. The Syrian government pledged to help Baghdad secure the pipeline route from insurgent attack, and new oil deals are said to be in the offing. "There is a Russian company performing surveys and what this pipeline needs," Zebari said.

The legal advisor to the Convening Authority for Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay testified before members of Congress Dec. 11 that evidence gathered from interrogation techniques such as waterboarding may be admissible during military commission proceedings if it is "reliable and probative." Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W.Hartmann declined to answer senators' questions regarding whether waterboarding is illegal when used by or against Americans.

A Peruvian court Dec. 11 sentenced former president Alberto Fujimori to six years in prison for abusing his powers by ordering an illegal search of the home of Trinidad Becerra, wife of his fugitive spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos in November 2000. The ex-president was also fined 400,000 soles ($135,000 dollars). But he claimed the search was necessary as part of a nationwide hunt for Montesinos, then wanted on both Swiss charges of money-laundering and Peruvian charges bribing opposition figures.

Hundreds of people protested the planned border fence in McAllen, TX, Dec. 11, as a federally sponsored "open house" for public comment on a draft study of the project opened. The meeting was the first of three to hear public input on the Environmental Impact Statement for proposed fencing that would span 70 miles of the Rio Grande Valley. Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said city leaders were to meet with Homeland Security officials to discuss his alternative plan for a "virtual fence." Angry citizens heckled Homeland Security presenters at the town meeting. "I'm making my comment," yelled Ruben Solis, who held a "No Border Wall" sign, after being shut up by facilitators. (AP, Dec. 12)

The Dec. 12 car-bomb assassination of Gen. Francois al-Hajj marks the first targeting of a Lebanese military figure since the current wave of terror began with the 2005 attack on former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Gen. al-Hajj, army chief of operations, was widely expected to become chief of staff if the incumbent, Gen. Michel Suleiman, is chosen as Lebanon's next president. Three others were also killed in the morning rush-hour attack in the Beirut Christian suburb of Baabda. (The Guardian, Dec. 13; London Times, Dec. 12) Suspicion has of course fallen on Damascus, but Syrian statements condemning the attack have also implicated Israel. An unnamed Syrian intelligence source quoted by the official news agency SANA said: "Such an act was targeting the Lebanese military establishment and its hostile ideology to Israel." Added SANA: "The source indicated that the beneficiary from this crime is Israel and its tools in Lebanon, in killing such a Lebanese national figure, who believed in the ideology of the Lebanese army, embraced the resistance, worked for unified Lebanon, and rejected division." (AKI, Dec. 12)