There they go again. "We apologize, but I can't tell you that we wouldn't do the same thing again," says John McCain. Why do politicians always talk out of both sides of their mouths like this? What does an apology mean if you readily admit you would engage in the same behavior again? Absolutely nothing. From AP, Jan. 17:

Islamic groups yesterday vowed to step up anti-US protests in Pakistan over an alleged CIA airstrike on a border village, as intelligence officials said al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader was supposed to be in the village for an Islamic holiday when it was struck.

Yet another report of peasant protesters killed by the security forces in (nominally communist) China. Is there any national coordination to the fast-growing peasant movement? Is anyone working in the West to loan them solidarity? From the Jan. 17 New York Times:

SHANGHAI, Jan. 16 - A week of protests by villagers in China's southern industrial heartland over government land seizures exploded into violence over the weekend, as thousands of police officers brandishing automatic weapons and electric stun batons moved to suppress the demonstrations, residents of the village said Monday.

Two US-based groups that carry out solidarity activities with Cuba, the Venceremos Brigade and Pastors for Peace, confirmed on Jan. 9 that the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has fined hundreds of their supporters a total of $1.5 million for traveling to Cuba. In July and August 2005 OFAC sent letters to about 200 people who have traveled to Cuba with the two organizations, which both refuse to apply for licenses to travel to Cuba as a protest against US restrictions they say infringe on their constitutional right to free travel. People who violate the US embargo against Cuba can face fines as high as $7,500.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez weighs in on the accusations that he made anti-Semitic comments in a Christmas Eve speech. OK, maybe the accusations are part of an "imperialist campaign." But why is anti-Semitism the only form of ethnic hatred which it is acceptable in supposedly progressive discourse to simply dismiss accusations of as an "imperialist campaign"? Why is there no acknowledgement here of even the possibility that his comments were honestly interpreted as anti-Semitic? We do wish this Jan. 15 report from Israel's YNet gave more information. Did Chavez have anything else to say about the accusations?

Venezuela's Chavez says not anti-Semitic
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez denies allegations he is anti-Semitic, claims charges part of 'imperialist campaign'
Reuters

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez on Friday rejected as propaganda charges by the Simon Wiesenthal Center that he made anti-Semitic remarks during a nationally broadcast Christmas speech last month.

A statement from the Kurdistan Free Women's Movement—on the German-based website Hezen Parastina Gel, apparently linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerilla movement in eastern Turkey—notes the passing of Comandante Ramona of southern Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Army:

For the second time in as many weeks, Pakistan is protesting a deadly US airstrike in the northwest border zone—this time from a drone, and targeting (but missing) the notorious Ayman al-Zawahri. From the London Times, Jan. 15:

Airstrike misses Al-Qaeda chief
'Wrong information' blamed for Pakistan deaths
AN AMERICAN airstrike targeting Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al-Qaeda mastermind, was prompted by "wrong information" and killed Pakistani villagers including five women and five children, according to senior Pakistani officials.

The attack took place in the early hours of Friday, when CIA-operated Predator drones circled the village of Damadola in the Bajaur area in northwest Pakistan before launching four Hellfire missiles at a mud-walled compound. Three houses were razed to the ground and 22 people died.

A question raised by scientists four months ago—whether 2005 would be the planet's warmest year on record—has now been answered: almost. From BBC News, Dec 15:

2005 warmest on record in north
This year has been the warmest on record in the Northern Hemisphere, say scientists in Britain. It is the second warmest globally since the 1860s, when reliable records began, they add.

So global warming is just a myth, eh? Somebody forgot to tell the frogs. From the Washington Post, Jan. 12:

Study: Global warming killing frog species
Rising temperatures are responsible for pushing dozens of frog species to extinction in the past three decades, according to new findings being reported today by a team of Latin American and U.S. scientists.