Opposition leaders in Bolivia pledge further protests against a new draft constitution, after a one-day strike Nov. 28 closed banks, schools and public transportation in six of Bolivia's nine departments. The strike was most successful in Santa Cruz, where opposition leader Branko Marinkovic has announced an indefinite hunger strike to protest what he calls the "breakdown in democracy." President Evo Morales accused: "The strike... is against this process of change, the new economic model, against the nationalization of natural resources. At heart, it's about defending the neoliberal model that has done so much harm to the country." The Cuban agency Prensa Latina said the strike was enforced by violent and often drunken mobs who attacked those who defied it, with such scenes reported in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, and Trinidad (capital of Beni department). In Riberalta, Beni, offices of the ruling Movement towards Socialism (MAS) were destroyed. (BBC, Prensa Latina, Nov. 29)

Just days ahead of the referendum on President Hugo Chávez's proposed constitutional reforms, Venezuela has threatened to expel a US diplomat if a document outlining supposed CIA plans to foment unrest proves to be real. The document, entitled "Final Stage of Operation Pliers" ("Plan Tenaza"), is supposedly a memorandum from CIA officer Michael Middleton Steere to the director of the US agency, Gen. Michael Hayden. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro declined to name the diplomat, identifying him only as "a CIA official at the United States Embassy in Venezuela."

We wish we were joking. From Canada's The Tyee, Nov. 21:

Earth's Eighth Continent
It swirls. It grows. It's a massive, floating "garbage patch."
Located in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii and measuring in at roughly twice the size of Texas, this elusive mass is home to hundreds of species of marine life and is constantly expanding. It has tripled in size since the middle of the 1990s and could grow tenfold in the next decade.

From Newsday, Nov. 29:

Truck spills 3,000 gallons of diesel in Queens
A tanker-truck cartwheeled Thursday afternoon in Queens just after exiting the Whitestone Expressway, injuring the driver and sending at least 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel streaming across the roadway, New York police said.

Children exposed to World Trade Center dust are at much higher risk for respiratory problems, according to a New York City Health Department survey. The survey of the 3,100 children who are enrolled in the city's World Trade Center Health Registry found that being caught in the dust cloud in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 was the single biggest risk factor in developing respiratory problems. Half of all children enrolled in the registry developed a new or worsening breathing problem. But those who were caught in the massive dust plume were diagnosed with asthma at double the rate of those who were not. (Newsday, Nov. 29)

From the International Federation of Journalists, Nov. 23, via AllAfrica:

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today urged President Mamadou Tandja of Niger to take strong action for the release of two journalists accused of criminal offences following their coverage of the Tuareg rebellion in Niger.

The entire population of northern Niger's remote desert town of Iferouane has fled, a local official told BBC last week. Deputy mayor Mohammed Oumma said 5,000 residents were displaced following army reprisals in operations against Tuareg guerillas. The government in Niamey denies that Iferouane, home to several uranium mines, has become a ghost town. (BBC, Nov. 19) President Mamadou Tandja Nov. 23 prolonged an emergency zone in Niger's desert north region of Agadez, extending for a further three months the "state of alert" declared in August. (Reuters, Nov. 23)

Continuing to demonstrate hyper-priapism, oil inches unsteadily but seemingly inexorably towards the symbolic watershed of $100 per barrel despite high output. Prices briefly rose to over $95 a barrel before dropping back to just over $92 Nov. 29 as an Enbridge Inc. crude pipeline linking Canada to the US exploded in Minnesota. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi helped the price level off by reiterating OPEC's stance that crude supply is healthy, saying "there is no relationship between the fundamentals today and the price... We believe that the world market is well supplied and petroleum inventories are comfortable." (Thomson Financial, Nov. 29) This is precisely what is so scary. OPEC is already pumping it out like crazy, with Saudi Arabia the only member with real available spare capacity to bring to the market...