A Greek government official's car was firebombed Dec. 26 while a petrol bomb was thrown at a bank and another group attacked a police car, authorities said. The car, used by a junior environment minister, Stavros Kaloyannis, was hit in front of his home in the northwestern city of Ioanina. The attack on a branch of the Greek Farm Bank in Psychiko, a suburb of Athens, caused minor damage. In the evening, youths attacked a police car passing in front of an Athens hospital. No injuries were reported.

China's official media reported the arrest of 59 Tibetans Dec. 25 on charges of inciting protests during the March unrest in the region. Reports cited Xin Yuanming, deputy director of the public security bureau of Lhasa, as saying "some people started making up stories and spreading rumors, posing a threat to the security of the region and its people." The 59 are accused of acting under orders of the Dalai Lama, and of downloading "reactionary" songs from the Internet for distribution within Tibet.

A deadly US military raid on an Afghan house Dec. 25 sparked protests and produced conflicting reports over who was killed. The US said the dead were 11 armed Taliban militants, part of a bomb-making cell in the Maiwand district west of Kandahar, on Thursday. US forces said they found dozens of land mines, grenades and bomb-making materials. But local Afghan officials said eight militants and four civilians were killed. Angry Afghans protested by blocking the highway between Kandahar and Herat with burning tires. (NYT, Dec. 26)

A suicide bomber on a bicycle in Iraq's northern city of Mosul targeted a protest against the Israeli air-raids on the Gaza Strip, killing one civilian and wounding 16 on Dec. 27. The protest was sponsored by the Sunni-backed Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP). (AFP, Dec. 28) The attack came days after raucous parliamentary sessions over the pending agreement allowing foreign troops to remain in Iraq.

UN rights officials praised the Nicaraguan government's decision to give the indigenous Awas Tingni community official title to its traditional lands, marking the culmination of a decades-long struggle by the group to gain recognition and protection of its ancestral territory. "This affirmative step by the government of Nicaragua represents an important advancement in the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide," said Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people James Anaya.

A member of Mexico's presidential guard was reportedly arrested as a spy for the Beltran Leyva crime machine (Sinaloa Cartel) Dec. 26. An anonymous official of the federal prosecutor's office identified Arturo González Rodríguez as an army major who was assigned to the unit that guards the president. Prosecutors announced that González Rodríguez had been placed under hour arrest for 40 days while he is investigated on claims that he passed information to the cartel in exchange for payments of up to $100,000. More than a dozen high-ranking police and judicial officials have been detained on similar charges in recent months, but none has been linked so closely to the office of President Felipe Calderón. (AP, Dec. 27)

Heavy fighting erupted in central Somalia Dec. 27, with two religious militias seeking control of the town of Guri El in Galgadud region, Radio Garowe reports. At least 10 people were killed and 12 others wounded during the battle, in which the town's hospital was hit by a mortar shell. Gunmen loyal to a Sufi group—Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a—reportedly took control of strategic locations inside Guri El, ousting al-Shabaab guerillas who had seized the town earlier this month.

A statement from Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, via the independent Palestinian Ma'an News Agency, Dec. 27:

Bloodshed and suffering on both sides of the border could have been avoided.

It is possible to return immediately to the ceasefire, make it stronger and firmer.