On Nov. 23, Israel's Supreme Court issued a decision to allow the state until May 2009 to implement its ruling of February 2006 concerning the "National Priority Areas" (NPAs). In its 2006 decision, the court ruled that the government's division of the country into NPAs that are awarded special educational benefits discriminated against Arab citizens and must be annulled. The court originally gave the state one year to implement its ruling, until February 2007.

In an e-mail to local news outlets, an organization calling itself the "Deccan Mujahedeen" claimed responsibility for the coordinated shooting attacks in Mumbai that left at least 100 dead Nov. 26. Fighting continued as the e-mail arrived, with army commandos moved into the luxury Oberoi and the Taj Mahal hotels to flush out gunmen holed up on the premises. Attackers hit ten places in Mumbai, including the rail station, mostly targeting foreigners. Hostages are still being held in the hotels and an office bloc, and fighting continues between security forces and militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades. The army has been called in, and residents have been told to remain indoors. Pakistan's ISI has formally denied involvement. (Pakistan Daily Times, Times of India, BBC World Service, Nov. 27)

Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, a dissident cleric imprisoned since October 2006 for criticizing the Islamic Republic's system and advocating separation of religion and state in Iran, was "exiled" from Tehran's Evin Prison to another facility in the city of Yazd Nov. 24. Boroujerdi was taken away blindfolded, according to a report on the Human Rights Activists in Iran website.

Farzad Kamangar, a teacher, trade unionist and rights activist from Iran's Kordistan province, sentenced to death on what his attorney calls "absolutely zero evidence," could be hanged today, his supporters say. Sources report that he has been taken from his cell at Tehran's Evin prison in preparation for execution. Security officers at the prison are reported to have informed him that he is to be executed imminently, taunted him and called him a martyr.

From Radio Australia, Nov. 26:

10 arrested over acid attack in Afghanistan
Afghan police have arrested 10 men accused of spraying acid in the faces of several schoolgirls and teachers. The attack happened outside a girls' high school in the southern city of Kandhar.

From the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), Nov. 3:

To the Kurdish Parliament and the Kurdistan Regional Government:

We demand the repeal of polygamous marriages and all other discriminatory laws against women in Kurdistan.

Much has been made of the fact that the bomber was a woman, but note that the victims were overwhelmingly women as well. From The Guardian, Nov. 25:

Woman in suicide attack as 19 die in Baghdad bombings
A volley of explosions killed 19 people in Baghdad yesterday, including five who were caught up in a suicide attack by a woman whose bomb vest was apparently detonated remotely.

Defend femicide, get a cabinet position. From The Guardian, Nov. 12:

"Anti-women" cabinet riles Pakistan activists
Two notorious politicians accused of brutal attitudes towards women have been made cabinet ministers in Pakistan, causing outrage among human rights activists.