Mexican federal police searched the offices of Oaxaca's state police forces Dec. 8, seizing hundreds of weapons. The federal Public Security Secretariat said in a statement that the search was carried out to check the permits for weapons used by the state police. Ballistics experts also checked the seized weapons to match them against bullets used in recent shootings, the secretariat said.

From India's Zee News, Dec. 10, link added:

LONDON -- Protests are planned around the world on Sunday against the mass rape of women and girls allegedly by Sudanese government soldiers and allied militiamen in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Got your scorecard out? Quick, which side is the US backing here? From Reuters, Dec. 9:

N'DJAMENA - The Chadian army clashed with rebels in eastern Chad on Saturday during several hours of heavy fighting in the desert, rebel and government sources said.

The US and Ethiopia appear to be grooming the northern autonomous regions of Somalia—Puntland and Somaliland—as proxies to fight the Islamic Courts Union that controls the traditional capital, Mogadishu. So: should we be supporting this as a defense of freedom against Islamist totalitarianism, or opposing it as destructive imperialist meddling? Sound off, readers. From the independent Shabelle Media Network, Mogadishu, Dec. 7, via AllAfrica:

From NYC's The Villager, Dec. 6-12:

Drunk driver on Hudson Park bike path mows down cyclist

In a city where speeding cars and trucks rule the road and bicyclists ride at their own risk, the Hudson River Park bike path would seem to offer one of the safest places to cycle.

Pretty much dumb luck that they gunned this guy down before he hit anyone, which is why this isn't in the headlines. Perhaps blowback from Yemen's embroilment in the joint US-Ethiopia proxy war in Somalia? From SomaliNet, Dec. 6:

A gunman opened fire outside the U.S. Embassy early Tuesday, but was shot by Yemeni security guards and arrested before anyone else was wounded, an Interior Ministry official reported.

From Copley News Service via the San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 6:

MEXICO CITY – The leader of the six-month protest in Oaxaca state was arrested late Monday in Mexico City, just hours before he planned to meet with top officials in President Felipe Calderón's government in hopes of negotiating a peaceful solution.

Under threat of an imminent invasion of the campus by Mexican federal police and Oaxaca state law enforcement, activists representing the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) formally turned over control of Radio Universidad Nov. 30 to the state university rector Francisco Martinez Neri. The rector announced at a press conference that none of the station's equioment was damaged or missing. (Noticias de Oaxaca, Nov. 30) The following morning, the university, which had been APPO's principal stronghold, re-opened its doors to regular classes. El Universal reported that "for the first time in over five months, this state capital awoke with no barricades in sight," and an "eerie calm" reigned over the city. (El Universal, Dec. 1)