The Afghan government accused US forces of killing up to 14 security guards for a construction company in the eastern province of Khost Nov. 10. The US says the victims were militants who were carrying rocket-propelled grenades and opened fire on coalition forces. US-led troops responded with ground fire and helicopter attack. President Hamid Karzai released a statement condemning the actions of the US forces involved in the fight.

At least 28 people were killed—including women and schoolgirls—and dozens wounded in a triple bombing in a Baghdad market on Nov. 10, the deadliest attack to rock the Iraqi capital in months. The attackers first detonated a car bomb, blowing up a bus full of schoolgirls; minutes later a suicide bomber ran into the resulting crowd and blew himself up. A third explosion around 30 yards from the first two tore through the market moments later.

Via the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), Nov. 4:

The Iraqi parliament voted on Monday, November 3rd on the issue of reserved seats for the Assyrians, Yezidies, Shabaks and Mandeans. The final vote of the Iraqi parliament is a huge disappointment for the mentioned communities in Iraq.

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.