Two US-based groups that carry out solidarity activities with Cuba, the Venceremos Brigade and Pastors for Peace, confirmed on Jan. 9 that the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has fined hundreds of their supporters a total of $1.5 million for traveling to Cuba. In July and August 2005 OFAC sent letters to about 200 people who have traveled to Cuba with the two organizations, which both refuse to apply for licenses to travel to Cuba as a protest against US restrictions they say infringe on their constitutional right to free travel. People who violate the US embargo against Cuba can face fines as high as $7,500.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez weighs in on the accusations that he made anti-Semitic comments in a Christmas Eve speech. OK, maybe the accusations are part of an "imperialist campaign." But why is anti-Semitism the only form of ethnic hatred which it is acceptable in supposedly progressive discourse to simply dismiss accusations of as an "imperialist campaign"? Why is there no acknowledgement here of even the possibility that his comments were honestly interpreted as anti-Semitic? We do wish this Jan. 15 report from Israel's YNet gave more information. Did Chavez have anything else to say about the accusations?

Venezuela's Chavez says not anti-Semitic
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez denies allegations he is anti-Semitic, claims charges part of 'imperialist campaign'
Reuters

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez on Friday rejected as propaganda charges by the Simon Wiesenthal Center that he made anti-Semitic remarks during a nationally broadcast Christmas speech last month.

Business and commerce in Sri Lanka's port city of Trincomalee were paralyzed as a three-day strike in protest against renewed violence by the Tamil Tiger guerillas entered its last day Jan. 14. Main roads in the town were deserted except for government troops on patrol. Shops, government offices, schools, public markets, banks and transportation were all closed in the hartal (strike) called by the Sinhala Vimukthi Sanvidanaya, a civil organization of the dominant Buddhist Sinhalese ethnicity. A Jan. 13 rally in support of the strike was reportedly attended by Tamils and Muslims as well as Sinhalese. (Qatar Gulf Times, Jan. 15) Authorities said they also suspected that the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) was involved in the work stoppage. The Marxist JVP is currently a key ally of President Mahinda Rajapakse's government. (PTI, Jan. 13) The TamilNation website accuses the JVP of representing "Sinhala Buddhist fundamentalism in Marxist garb."

Maoist guerrillas bombed two police stations and a municipal office on the outskirts of Kathmandu Jan. 14, killing at least 11 officers in the first attacks in the capital region since the rebels ended their cease-fire on Jan. 2. Hours earlier, 16 guerillas and a government soldier were killed in a firefight in Syangja, a Maoist stronghold 140 miles west of Kathmandu. Two days earlier, 10 rebels were killed in the same area, the army said.

The real issue behind Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's latest political clash with Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud appears to really be continued perceived Syrian domination of the country. Tensions between the Druze and the regime have dramatically escalated since late December, with Jumblatt openly calling for US military intervention against Damascus.

A statement from the Kurdistan Free Women's Movement—on the German-based website Hezen Parastina Gel, apparently linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerilla movement in eastern Turkey—notes the passing of Comandante Ramona of southern Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Army:

For the second time in as many weeks, Pakistan is protesting a deadly US airstrike in the northwest border zone—this time from a drone, and targeting (but missing) the notorious Ayman al-Zawahri. From the London Times, Jan. 15:

Airstrike misses Al-Qaeda chief
'Wrong information' blamed for Pakistan deaths
AN AMERICAN airstrike targeting Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al-Qaeda mastermind, was prompted by "wrong information" and killed Pakistani villagers including five women and five children, according to senior Pakistani officials.

The attack took place in the early hours of Friday, when CIA-operated Predator drones circled the village of Damadola in the Bajaur area in northwest Pakistan before launching four Hellfire missiles at a mud-walled compound. Three houses were razed to the ground and 22 people died.

A question raised by scientists four months ago—whether 2005 would be the planet's warmest year on record—has now been answered: almost. From BBC News, Dec 15:

2005 warmest on record in north
This year has been the warmest on record in the Northern Hemisphere, say scientists in Britain. It is the second warmest globally since the 1860s, when reliable records began, they add.