An explosion in the northern Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian militant and critically wounded another, medical workers reported Nov. 15. The Popular Resistance Committees said an Israeli air-strike targeted a group of its militants as they approached the Israel-Gaza border near the town of Beit Hanoun. An Israeli army spokesman denied that any air-strike had been carried out. (Reuters, Nov. 15)

Iran's judiciary has sentenced a Sufi leader to five years in prison, flogging and exile on charges of spreading lies, the moderate Kargozaran newspaper reported Nov. 15. The report identified the man as Amir Ali Mohammad Labaf, of the Nematollahis or Gonabadi Dervishes order based in the northeastern province of Khorassan Razavi. Labaf was convicted by a court in Iran's clerical center of Qom, finding that his holding of traditional Sufi prayers constituted "a case of spreading lies," the report said, without elaborating. In addition to the five-year prison term, Labaf was sentenced to 74 lashes and internal exile to the southeastern town of Babak. (AFP, Nov. 15)

A veteran crime reporter in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez was fatally shot as he left his home Nov. 13. The reporter, Armando Rodríguez Carreon, worked for the newspaper El Diario. He was in a car with his young daughter when he was shot at least eight times, authorities said. The gunmen fled. Rodríguez, 40, had extensively covered the narco-violence wracking the city. (NYT, Nov. 13)

A criminal complaint has been filed in the Spanish High Court in connection with the Salvadoran army's Nov. 16, 1989 slaying of six Jesuit priests in one of the most notorious events of El Salvador's civil war. Human rights lawyers filed the complaint on Nov. 13 against the Salvadoran president at the time, Alfredo Cristiani Burkard, and 14 former members of the military, for their roles in the killings of the priests and two female employees, and in the official cover-up that followed.

Days after the arrest of nine by police in India's Maharashtra state as a "terrorist cell" responsible for the September Malegaon attack, the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) announced a campaign for their release. The nine, including Hindu nun Pragya Singh Thakur, is said to be linked to the right-wing Abhinav Bharat. The Congress has also accused the right-opposition BJB of having "direct links" with the blast. (Times of India, Nov. 15; NYT, Nov. 12; The Hindu, Oct. 29)

The anti-terrorist NEFA Foundation Nov. 13 reports a new statement from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban) addressed to US President-elect Barack Obama. The statement says that "the overwhelming victory of Barrack Obama [sic]...reveals the collective willingness of American people not to continue the current despicable and anti-human wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—wars that have been launched by W. Bush." It says is "imperative for Obama to put an end to all the policies being followed by his Opposition Party, the Republicans and pull out US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq forthwith.... He should respect the rights of the people to independence and observe the norms of human rights. In short, he should set out on a policy that will have a message of peace for the war-stricken world which has been victimized by the arrogance and tyranny of USA."

At least 12 people were killed in a missile strike apparently carried out by a US drone in Pakistan's Tribal Areas. The raid is believed to have killed neo-Taliban fighters, five of them foreigners, Pakistani officials said. The attack targeted a house in a village near the border between North and South Waziristan, in a stronghold of local militant commander Baitullah Mehsud. The attack came a day after Pakistan's foreign ministry accused the US of violating international law by launching missile attacks on the region. (AlJazeera, Nov. 13)

Israeli forces detained six Palestinians and stormed one village across the West Bank before daybreak Nov. 14. Israeli sources said that the troops arrested six "wanted" Palestinians from al-Ubeidieh in the Bethlehem governorate, from Hizma and Abu Dis in the central region and the village of Beit Ur near Ramallah. The village of Tuqu south of Bethlehem was also raided, with no detentions reported. The detainees were taken to an unknown location for questioning. (Ma'an News Agency, Nov. 14)