A military contractor that was accused in a lawsuit by former detainees of the Abu Ghraib prison of conspiring to commit torture has paid $5.28 million to detainees held at the prison and other US detention centers in Iraq. The detainees filed suit against two military defense contractors in federal court in 2008 for alleged torture occurring over a period of four years. The cases against CACI International Inc.and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc were dismissed in September 2011 on the grounds that the companies have immunity as government contractors. A 14-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled 12-2 in May that the dismissal was premature. L-3 Communications Holdings Inc settled the dispute and each of the former detainees who were parties to the lawsuit received a portion of the settlement. The case against CACI is likely to go to trial this summer.

The Mikisew Cree First Nation and the Frog Lake First Nation, both located in Alberta, filed documents in Canadian Federal Court on Jan. 7, arguing that omnibus budget legislation that reduces federal environmental oversight violate the government's treaty obligations to protect traditional aboriginal territory. The plaintiffs are challenging Bill C-45 and it predecessor, Bill C-38, legislation that significantly restricts federal environmental assessments and cuts the number of waterways protected by the Navigable Waters Protection Act.

As record-breaking scorching temperatures persist across Australia, the country's Bureau of Meteorology notoriously added a new color to its weather forecasting map,—extending the range to 54ºC, or 129ºF, from the previous cap of 50ºC, or 122ºF. The new deep purple "dome of heat" swirls above South Australia. (WP, Jan. 8) Fire crews are battling hundreds of wildfires, with New South Wales hardest hit. (Reuters, Jan. 9) Authorities fear a reprise of the devastating brush fires of 2009. One fire broke out at the  the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) research facility in Sydney's south, sparking fears of a radiation release before it was extinguished. (TVNZ, Jan. 8) If this had happened, it would have been a nice convergence of the climate crisis and the nuclear threat, as we noted two summers ago when the flooded Missouri River threatened to overwhelm the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska.

The deadly gang-rape of a 23-year-old medical student in a moving bus in Delhi has sparked outrage across India. But it remains to be seen if the protest movement will address the institutionalized use of rape to enforce India's caste system. Since the notorious Delhi case, horrendous incidents against low-caste women and girls have been reported in India's press—but have failed to galvanize the same outcry.  A 15-year-old Dalit ("untouchable")  girl was apparently held captive and repeatedly raped for 15 days by three men in Dharauli village in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The incident was reported after she was "freed" on Dec. 30. According to police the girl went missing on Dec. 14 while going to school.

A Qatari poet who has been sentenced to life in prison for insulting the Emir has been granted an appeal now scheduled for Jan. 27, according to his lawyer. Muhammad al-Ajami, 36, was imprisoned in November 2011 after a judge found him guilty of calling for the overthrow of the government of the Gulf sate. Al-Ajami was studying literature at Cairo University when the Tunisian revolution broke out in December 2010. Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, al-Ajami wrote a short poem, "Tunisian Jasmine," which he recited to private audiences. The audio of one performance appeared on YouTube, apparently without al-Ajami's knowledge. Al-Ajami was arrested months later when Qatari authorities took note of the video, and held in solitary confinement for nearly a year before being brought to trial. He was charged with "insulting" Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and "inciting to overthrow the ruling system"—an offense that carries the death penalty. Qatar's Court of First Instance sentenced him to a life term on Nov. 29, 2011. The sentence will now be reviewed by Qatar's Court of Appeal. (Al-Jazeera, Dec. 29; Consortium News, Dec. 12)

More than 100 protesters stormed the lobby of TransCanada's Keystone XL office in Houston the morning of Jan. 7, dancing, releasing a cascade of black balloons to represent tar sands oil, and hanging neon orange hazard tape. After being forced out of the lobby by police, the protesters gathered on the sidewalk and performed street theatre in which a "pipe dragon" puppet destroyed homes and poisoned water until being slain by knights representing the grassroots coalition of the Tar Sands Blockade, Idle No More, Earth First and others. The protest was the first held in Houston to oppose the pipeline project, which follows a campaign of tree-sits to actually block pipeline construction in rural areas of Texas. "From the Texas backwoods to the corporate boardrooms, the fight to defend our homes from toxic tar sands will not be ignored," said Ramsey Sprague, a Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson. "We're here today to directly confront the TransCanada executives who’re continuing on with business as usual while making our communities sacrifice zones." (Your Houston News, Jan. 7)

On Dec. 23, an encampment of indigenous Copala Triqui in front of the Government Palace in Oaxaca City was evicted by municipal and state police in full riot gear, just ahead of the Noche de Rábanos (Night of the Radish) festival in the main square—an annual tradition now marketed as a tourist spectacle. The evicted claimed that an expectant mother among their ranks received several blows from the police. She prematurely gave birth to a baby boy the next day, but he died four days later. The infant was buried on Dec. 29, following a vigil at the scene of the evicted camp. "As the coffin was carried to a nearby church, state police blocked the path of the funeral procession, forcing mourners to take a different route," wrote reporter Jen Wilton of the blog Revolution Is Eternal.

Argentina's President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Jan. 3 issued an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, published as a paid advertisement in British dailies, urging the UK, a "colonial power," to abide by a UN resolution to "end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations" and return the Malvinas/Falkland Islands to Argentina. In The Telegraph, Nile Gardiner, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher, responded by charging the letter is "stuffed full of falsehoods and has no regard for reality." Gardiner asserts: "The Falklands are not a colony, but a self-governing British Overseas Territory." (The Guardian, Jan. 3)