Peru's Prime Minister Salomón Lerner resigned Dec. 10 after less than five months in the post—immediately after his failed attempts to negotiate an end to protests that have blocked the $4.8 billion Conga gold mining project in Cajamarca region. His resignation letter, posted online by the newspaper La Republica, does not make direct reference to the conflict but suggests Lerner was unhappy with the government's handling of it. The letter states that "our direct mandate has been dialogue and the seeking of consensus to avoid confrontation between Peruvians." But it charges that this aim "requires an adjustment of the general conduct of the government."

El Salvador's Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez held a ceremony at El Mozote village to ask survivors' forgiveness for the "blindness of state violence" on Dec. 10, anniversary of the 1981 massacre there. "This event seeks to honour the memory of hundreds of innocent people who were murdered 30 years ago here in El Mozote and in nearby towns," said Martínez. El Salvador is today governed by the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the former guerilla movement that won the country's election in 2009. (BBC News, Dec. 10)

Human rights organizations in El Salvador noted the anniversary of the 1981 massacre at El Mozote, decrying continued impunity after 30 years. Between Dec. 11 and 13 of that year, at least 966 unarmed men, women and children were killed at the village in Morazán department after it was occupied by a special US-trained counter-insurgency unit of the Salvadoran army, the Atlacatl Battalion. Said a statement by the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL): "On the 30th anniversary of the events, the surviving victims continue to assert their rights to truth, justice and reparation. Nonetheless, none of the persons responsible for perpetrating the massacre have been tried for these acts to date."

The Dutch government on Dec. 9 formally apologized for a massacre at the village of Rawagede, in West Java, 64 years ago that day. Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia Tjeerd de Zwaan presided over a tearful ceremony at the now renamed village of Balongsari. The Dutch apology in the 1947 massacre of at least 150 boys and men at the village comes after a long legal battle by survivors and widows. Survivors and their advocates say the actual death toll was closer to 400. "Today, we remember your family members who died 64 years ago at the hands of the Dutch military troops," de Zwaan said at the ceremony. "On behalf of Dutch government, I deeply apologize for the tragedy."

At least four Palestinians are dead in new Israeli air-strikes on the Gaza Strip over the past two days. The first strikes came on Dec. 8, targeting cars carrying presumed operatives of Hamas' armed wing and Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, both of whom were killed. Militants responded with a barrage of rockets, some of which landed near Beersheba. No one was hurt in the rocket attacks, but aiir-raid sirens summoned residents of southern Israel to shelters. Another Israeli air-strike followed before dawn on Dec. 9, hitting a Hamas target in Gaza City. The blast flattened a nearby home, killing its owner; the man's 12-year-old son was pronounced dead hours later. The man's wife and five other children were wounded, hospital officials said. (Ma'an News Agency, Dec. 9)

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the good ol' Soviet-era KGB, applies pressure on the VKontakte social networking site—in a bid to snuff post-electoral protests, and put a long-escaped genie back into the totalitarian bottle. Good luck with that, guys. From Reuters:

Both the Bottom Line business blog at the San Francisco Chronicle and the On Deadline blog at USA Today make note of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's apparent dissent from the Occupy Wall Street movement's call for a West Coast Port Blockade on Monday Dec. 12. In a call to action, the Occupy movement states:

The representative to Colombia for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Dec. 8 reiterated his call for a peaceful solution to the country's ongoing armed conflict. Christian Salazar made his remarks at a press conference following an announcement by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) stating plans to move forward with the unilateral release of hostages currently being held by the rebels. Last month, a military raid led to the deaths of four FARC hostages, apparently killed by their captors during the fighting. But Salazar stated he believed FARC's plan to release other hostages signaled a new phase of hostage liberation that might help lead both sides to a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict. However Salazar recognized at the press conference that at this point even talking about the armed conflict in Colombia was "extremely sensitive." To that end Salazar also praised the actions of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who has maintained an open line of dialogue between FARC and the Colombian government, which Salazar held as important to preventing a longterm "spiral of violence" in the country. The rebels announced their plans for the upcoming hostage release in a missive to former Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba earlier this month.