From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), Nov. 6:

A letter to Mr. Barack Obama on his election as President of the United States of America
Greetings...
On behalf of the Iraq Freedom Congress, I would like to congratulate you on your success as President-Elect of the United States of America and say that we hope this can be the start of a new phase of U.S. policy toward the world, and Iraq in particular.

Greek Orthodox and Armenian worshipers got down to fisticuffs Sunday Nov. 9 in East Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christian denominations jealously guard their divided areas of the traditional site of the crucifixion. Dozens of worshipers dressed in denominational vestments traded kicks and punches, knocking down tapestries and toppling decorations. Israeli police entered the shrine, and two clerics were arrested.

Venezuela plans to build five military bases along its border with Colombia, Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami announced Nov. 9 on a visit to the mountainous border zone, saying the bases will help President Hugo Chavez's government fight drug smuggling, extortion and kidnapping. The bases will run along the Sierra de Perijá, a range that follows the 2,300-kilometer border. Chávez says Venezuela is doing all possible to crack down on Colombian guerillas, paramilitaries and other criminal groups that operate along the frontier. (Canadian Press, Nov. 9)

Mitsubishi, which plans to release its own electric car soon, estimates that the demand for lithium—a critical ingredient in the batteries—will outstrip supply in less than 10 years unless new sources come on line. And those sources are in the remote southern altiplano of Bolivia. "The demand for lithium won't double but increase by five times," according to Eichi Maeyama, Mitsubishi's general manager in La Paz. "We will need more lithium sources—and 50% of the world's reserves of lithium exist in Bolivia, in the Salar de Uyuni," the forbidding Andean salt flats. He adds that without new production, the price of lithium will rise prohibitively.

Grisly narco-terror continues to escalate in the Mexican border city of Juárez. A beheaded body was left hanging from an overpass on Nov. 7. A banner aimed at rival drug gangs was hung next to the body, and police found the victim's head in a black bag in a nearby plaza. Meanwhile outside Ciudad Chihuahua, the state capital to the south of Juárez, masked men gunned down two police officers at a supermarket—leaving a toy pig next to the bodies. And on Nov. 4, a victim was left hanging in house in Ciudad Juárez wearing a pig mask. A message next to the hanging corpse accused him of working for the Sinaloa Cartel and threatened to do the same to others.

A green-energy ballot initiative in Missouri, Proposition C, was approved by voters, calling for the state to increase the use of renewable energy to 15% by 2021, mandating steady yearly increases. Prop C made Missouri the 27th state to require its utilities to buy a set amount of power generated by renewable sources.

Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia Nov. 6 began habeas corpus hearings for six Algerians challenging their detention at Guantánamo Bay. The hearings are the first to be held since the Supreme Court granted detainees at the facility the right to challenge their captivity in Boumediene v. Bush in June. The government has not brought criminal charges against the men, but has said that they planned to join al-Qaeda in hostilities against the US. Lawyers for the men challenged the sufficiency of the government's evidence, and criticized Leon's decision to close the hearing to the public after he found that some of the evidence used against the six should be kept classified. His ruling on the petition is expected later this month.

On his Electronic Intifada Nov. 5, Ali Abunimah digs up the hardline pro-Israel dirt on Rahm Israel Emanuel, Barack Obama's first appointment, for chief of staff. While Emanuel was doubtless chosen for his "key role in delivering a Democratic majority in the 2006 mid-term elections," there is plenty here that will serve as grist for the theorists of conspiratorial Jewish control of the government: