The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has warned it does not have enough money to feed more than 3 million Afghans who will depend on aid in the coming winter. A WFP spokesperson says a further 3 million Afghans are short of food and 2 million are affected by drought, which has wiped out much of the wheat crop in the south and the west. The WFP says it has received only a third of the donations it needs to feed the Afghans.

From AP, Nov. 16:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay were "enemy combatants," according to a new report.

From the Committee to Protect Journalists, Nov. 17:

José Manuel Nava Sánchez, former director of the Mexico City-based daily Excélsior and columnist for the national daily El Sol de México, was found murdered yesterday in his apartment. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether the killing is connected to his work.

From El Universal, Nov. 16 via Chiapas95:

Enough evidence exists to put Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz and three top federal officials on trial for rights abuses, according to a report released Wednesday by the president of the Senate Human Rights Committee. Sen. Rosario Ibarra said the toll in Oaxaca since June 14 - which she put at 15 dead, 98 disappeared, 109 injured and 93 detained - reveals widespread illegality on the part of state and federal officials.

From El Universal, Nov. 14 via Chiapas95 (our translation):

Mexican police officials on Monday rejected a critical report from the National Human Rights Commission, saying it relied on false information to accuse federal police of brutality during May protests in the state of Mexico.

In a communique, the Democratic Revolutionary Tendency-Army of the People (TDR-EP) denied that the Nov. 6 bomb attacks in Mexico City were "terrorist acts," saying instead "They were a cry of protest and indignation before the...abuse of the lords of power and money." The statement said that more such "political-military actions" would follow if federal forces remain in Oaxaca and Gov. Ulises Ruiz does not step down. (APRO, Nov. 15)

Follwing the conclusion of its "constitutive congress," the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) announced through its spokesman Flavio Sosa Villavicencio its intention to convert "the popular revolt into a peaceful, democratic and humanist revolution," on the model of the indigenous communities of Chiapas. (APRO, Nov. 15)

Media accounts have failed to emphasize that the folks cynically exploited by the sneering faux journalist are not only Romanian but Roma (Gypsy)—as if they don't have enough problems already. From The Guardian, Nov. 15:

The residents of a remote Romanian village used as stand-ins for Kazakhs in the Borat movie are threatening to sue the film's producers for paying them a pittance to put farm animals in their homes and perform other crude antics.