The Israeli government immediately said it would move ahead with "sensitive housing projects" as a rebuttal to UNESCO's Oct. 31 decision to grant Palestine full-member status. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a forum of eight senior ministers formally decided the next day to initiate a new wave of settlement construction on the West Bank. The Prime Minister's Office said the construction of 2,000 housing units planned in East Jerusalem, Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim should be expedited. "All of the mentioned areas are ones that would remain in Israeli control under any future peace agreement," the PMO said in a statement. The "forum of eight" also resolved to suspend the transfer to the Palestinian Authority of tax remittances collected by Israel in October. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman additionally announced that Israel will "review its relations" with the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (Haaretz, Nov. 2; YNet, Oct. 31)

Thousands of protesters blocked the Port of Oakland Nov. 2, bringing work there to a halt. "Maritime operations are effectively shut down at the Port of Oakland," port authorities said in a statement. "Maritime area operations will resume when it is safe and secure to do so." Protesters, who streamed across a freeway overpass to mass at the port gates, stood atop tractor-trailers stopped in the middle of the street. Others climbed onto scaffolding over railroad tracks as a rock band played using amplifiers powered by stationary bike generators. Protesters also blocked streets near City Hall. The general strike was called by Occupy Oakland and supported by residents, a few small businesses, teachers and nurses with the California Nurses Association. The Oakland Education Association (OEA) executive board unanimously endorsed Occupy Oakland's "General Strike/Mass Day of Action" call, urging members to participate by "taking personal leave to join actions at Frank Ogawa Plaza, doing informational picketing at school sites, and holding teach-ins on the history of general strikes and organizing for economic justice." The general strike is the first event of its kind in Oakland since 1946.

OK, we asked our readers to either show us some support or offer some criticism on what we are doing wrong. So far, eight of you have responded. Do we really only have eight readers? Our web states indicate we have thousands. We need to hear from you. Other lefty websites can reliably raise much, much more than the mere $5,000 we are asking. We really don't get it.

At least five people, including three children, were killed when a displaced persons camp at Jilib in southern Somalia was bombed yesterday, the charity Doctors Without Border (MSF) says. Now, predictably, the Kenyan army and Shabab rebels are blaming each other. Kenya's military released a statement saying the camp had come under fire by a Shabab "technical battle wagon" mounted with an "anti-aircraft gun." Sheikh Abukar Ali Ada of the Shabab countered: "Kenya has brutally massacred civilians already displaced by hardship. We will ensure that Kenya mourns more than we did." (The Telegraph, BBC News, Capital FM News, Nairobi, Oct. 31)

The UN Security Council voted unanimously Oct. 27 to lift the no-fly zone over Libya, bringing to a close the seven-month international military action in the country. But the war on the ground may not be over. Following demands by Human Rights Watch, the NTC says it will investigate allegations of reprisal attacks against residents of Tawergha and Sirte—towns said to have supported Moammar Qaddafi and sheltered his forces. HRW reports that militias from Misrata are terrorizing the displaced residents of outlying Tawergha, accusing them of having collaborated in the Qaddafi forces' long and bloody siege of the city. The entire town of 30,000 people is abandoned—some of it ransacked and burned, according to HRW investigators. (CNN, HRW via AllAfrica.com, Oct. 30; WSJ, Oct. 28)

From the San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 28:

S.F. crash badly injures person in wheelchair
SAN FRANCISCO — A person in a wheelchair suffered life-threatening injuries today after being hit by a pickup truck in a South of Market intersection, San Francisco police said.

If reports on the recent two-part BBC documentary "Secret Pakistan" are to be believed, Pakistan's security service is providing weapons, training and logistical support to Taliban insurgents fighting US and British troops in Afghanistan, despite official denials. A number of middle-ranking Taliban commanders revealed the extent of Pakistani support in interviews for the documentary, the first part of which was broadcast Oct. 26. One purported insurgent commander, Mullah Qaseem, told the BBC: "Pakistan plays a significant role. First they support us by providing a place to hide which is really important. Secondly they provide us with weapons." Another commander, Mullah Azizullah, said the men overseeing the training are members of Islamabad's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), or are closely linked to it: "They are all the ISI's men. They are the ones who run the training. First they train us about bombs; then they give us practical guidance." (Reuters, Oct. 26)

President Barack Obama announced Oct. 21 that he will be bringing US forces home from Iraq by year's end. "I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year," Obama said, referring to his campaign pledge in 2008. "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over." But reading past the headline, of course, reveals a bunch of caveats about whether this really means that all US troops are coming home. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that once US troops have left, negotiations might take place over how many of them might return, and when. "We're prepared to meet their training needs," he said. But you've got to read pretty deep into the Wall Street Journal account to get to the real deal: