An imprisoned Eritrean has been named "Journalist of the Year 2007" by Reporters Without Borders. Seyoum Tsehaye has not been allowed a visit from his family or attorney during his six years in prison, the group says. He is one of 15 journalists being held in secret locations since 2001 when all non-government media groups were ordered closed. Eritrea was ranked bottom on overall press freedom this year by RWB—behind North Korea and Turkmenistan. The report said four journalists have died in Eritrean prisons in recent years.

Israeli forces carried out a series of raids in the West Bank the night of Dec. 5. Soliders invaded the village of Beit Sira, near the Green Line west of Ramallah, conducting house-to-house raids and seizing more than 20 Palestinians. (Ma'an News Agency, Dec. 5) Israeli forces also invaded Jenin refugee camp, firing bullets and sound grenades, breaking into several houses, and seizing four Palestinians. (Ma'an, Dec. 5) That same night, Fatah-allied Palestinian security forces detained eighteen Hamas supporters in in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Salfit, Ramallah, and Hebron. (Ma'an, Dec. 5)

Canada's federal court ruled on Nov. 29 that the US breaches the rights of asylum seekers under the United Nations Refugee Convention and the Convention Against Torture. Justice Michael Phelan cited the example of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was detained in September 2002 by US immigration officials at JFK Airport in New York while in transit to Canada and deported to Syria, where he was tortured for 10 months under a policy later identified as "extraordinary rendition."

A US Border Patrol official confirmed on Nov. 13 that agents investigating human smuggling on commercial bus lines arrested more than 100 illegal immigrants in the area of Twin Falls, Idaho, over the past week. The number of people arrested was later confirmed to be 108. Alex Harrington, spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Havre, Montana, said the ongoing operation was not coordinated with unconfirmed reports of repeated strikes over the past week by immigration agents at other locations, including malls and a bank.

On Nov. 29, shock troops from the Military Police of Sao Paulo state in Brazil invaded the Elizabeth Teixeira encampment of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) in the Tatu Forest Plot in Limeira municipality near Campinas. The police agents destroyed makeshift homes and violently evicted the 250 families living on the encampment, which has been occupied by the MST since April 21, 2007. The police operation left some 30 people injured, some of them hit by police rubber bullets. MST leader Gilmar Mauro and Jose de Arimateia, coordinator of the encampment, were among those injured. The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) had promised the MST that there would be negotiations to prevent an eviction. The MST blames the state government and the local authorities of Limeira for the police operation. (Adital, Nov. 29 from Prensa MST; Agencia Brasil, Nov. 29)

On Nov. 29 five Mapuche rights activists were in the 51st day of a hunger strike at the Angol prison in Chile's Region IX. Each of the hunger strikers—Mapuches Jaime Marileo Saravia, Juan Millalen Milla, Hector Llaitul Carrillanca and Jose Huenchunao and non-Mapuche Patricia Troncoso Roble—has lost more than 15 kilos. The five prisoners have been on hunger strike since Oct. 10 to demand the release of more than 20 indigenous Mapuche activists they consider political prisoners; an end to the militarization of the traditional Mapuche territories; and an end to repression against Mapuche activists.

Having lost his constitution reform vote by a razor-thin margin, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez said he will accept the results—with caveats. "I faced a great dilemma," he said. "I wanted to wait until the results were irreversible, but we cannot subject the Venezuelan people to a long wait... I am proud of this effort." He admitted: "For now, we can't do it." (El Universal, Mexico, Dec. 3) "This is not a defeat. This is another 'for now,"' Chávez said, repeating a famous quote from when, as a paratrooper in 1992, he acknowledged his coup attempt had failed. (Reuters, Dec. 3)

Last week, a US-Canada oil pipeline exploded in Minnesota, briefly affecting global prices—and highlighting the criticality of Canadian resources to the US and global economy. Our November issue featured the story "Flashpoint in the Flathead: US-Canada War Looms Over Energy, Water" by WW4 REPORT editor Bill Weinberg, noting resource conflicts now brewing in regions that span the border—such as the Flathead Valley, where coal mining on the British Columbia side is opposed by farmers and environmentalists downstream in Montana. Writes Weinberg: "While on the economic front all talk is currently of integration and falling trade barriers, battles are already being waged by the grassroots both sides of the border against resource plunder and mega-development schemes. These could eventually mean war between the two longtime allies if a populist government comes to power in Ottawa and tries to turn off the spigot of south-bound resources—and the Pentagon has already drawn up plans for this contingency." Our November Exit Poll was: "Which is a more likely prophecy of the future: George Orwell's 1984 or Michael Moore's Canadian Bacon? (In other words, is the US on a trajectory towards eventual war with Canada, or are we just paranoid?)" We received the following responses: