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.

Some 2,000 protesters filled Tripoli's Martyrs' Square Dec. 7 to demand withdrawal of the militia forces that have been in the capital since the fall of Moammar Qaddafi pull out of the city. Jurists and police were among the leaders of the march, accusing the militiamen of terrorizing residents with impunity. Placards read "No to weapons; Yes to justice!" The rally was organized by the city council and backed by the interim government. The militias, mostly from the cities of Misrata and Zintan, continue to occupying buildings that formerly housed Qaddafi cronies to use as their headquarters. The interim government is pressuring militiamen to go home and leave security functions to the police and the new army it plans to create. Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib and the city council have given militias until Dec. 20 to leave. (Reuters, Reuters, AFP, Dec. 7)

In response to the victory of Islamist parties in run-off elections, Egypt's military rulers said Dec. 7 that the new parliament will not be representative enough to independently oversee the drafting of a constitution, and they will appoint a council to oversee the process. The constituent assembly will still be appointed by the parliament, but the military-appointed council will coordinate with the assembly to check the influence of extremists. "We are in the early stages of democracy," said Gen. Mukhtar Mulla, a member of the ruling military council. "The parliament is not representing all sectors of society."

With foreign journalists effectively barred from first-hand reportage on the violence in Syria, the situation is by definition murky. But accounts from the city of Homs suggest an outbreak of sectarian killings, with numerous bodies—many of them tortured or mutilated—left on the streets in recent days. On Dec. 5, 36 bodies were dumped in a square adjacent to both Sunni and Alawite areas of the city, and the violence is portrayed by opposition activists in Homs as a cycle of retaliatory killings by followers of the two sects. The cycle was apparently initiated by a pro-government militia known as the Shabiha, which is said to be arming Alawites and attacking Sunni protesters.The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called the 5th "one of the deadliest days since the start of the Syrian Revolution." Since then, at least 20 more bodies have been left in the streets around the city. Some 4,000 are believed to have been killed in Syria since the start of the uprising in March. (SAPA, NPR, Dec. 7; LAT, NYT, Dec. 6; AFP, Nov. 26)