Guatemala's Environment Ministry filed a criminal complaint on Sept. 28 against Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, SA, for possible pollution of the Quivichil River at the controversial Marlin mine near the San Miguel Ixtahuacán community in the western department of San Marcos. According to the complaint, Montana, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Goldcorp Inc, acted without government authorization on Sept. 23 when it discharged water which might contain heavy metals used in the gold extraction process. The Environment Ministry also asked the Foreign Ministry to notify the Mexican government, since the Quivichil flows into Mexico.

China's Foton Motor Group signed a preliminary agreement in Bogotá Nov. 2 with Colombiana de Comercio SA to build an auto assembly plant in Colombia. The agreement was signed by representatives of the Colombian Trade Ministry, the Colombian Export Promotion Fund (Proexport), and the vice president of the Chinese group, Wang Xiangyin. The plant, to be built at a cost of some $4 million, will manufacture light vehicles for export to markets within the region. Proexport president Maria Claudia Lacouture said the decision to build the plant "shows the importance that Colombia is gaining...as an investment destination. We are pleased with this show of trust that Foton today is giving the country." (EFE, Nov, 4)

The guerilla fighter who in 2008 killed "Ivan Rios," one the FARC's top commanders, has been sentenced to 31 years for kidnapping and rebellion, local media reported on Nov, 6. Pedro Pablo Montoya AKA "Rojas" was was convicted in the 2001 kidnapping of a farm owner from the Caldas department. The former guerrilla was also sentenced to pay a $170,000 compensation to the farm owner. "Rojas" was apprehended in March 2008 when he and his girlfriend surrendered to security forces delivering them the hand and the computer of his boss. A year after his surrender, the demobilized guerilla complained he felt betrayed by the authorities, who had put a reward on the head of Rios. (Colombia Reports, Nov, 7)

Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe on Nov. 3 was subpoenaed to testify in a civil case against Alabama coal giant Drummond over the company's alleged ties to paramilitary death squads. A group of 500 Colombian victims of the paramilitary violence demand compensation from Drummond and claim Uribe "has direct knowledge of a number of key cases, including until what point the armed forces supported the paramilitary protection of mining properties of Drummond," Terry Collingsworth, the attorney of victims of the paramilitary organization AUC, told radio station La FM. The former president "knows the levels of cooperation between the armed forces and the AUC, specifically in regions like Cesar where Drummond was active," the lawyer added.

From the Oakland Tribune, Nov. 4:

Two killed in East Oakland after CHP chase
OAKLAND -- Mark Aragon was driving to one of two jobs he worked to support his wife and three stepdaughters when he died in an East Oakland car wreck Thursday morning, a family member said.

The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a lawsuit Nov. 4 challenging the constitutionality of State Question 755, which amends the state constitution to ban the use of Islamic or international law in state court decisions. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, seeks to block the Oklahoma State Board of Elections from certifying this week's election results, in which voters approved the measure by a vote of 70 to 30%. CAIR argues that the law violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The law would prevent Oklahoma courts from "look[ing] to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures," requiring them only to look to legal precedents of other states for guidance, provided that state does not use Islamic law.

Lawyers acting for more than 140 Iraqi civilians are challenging the British government's refusal to hold a public investigations of the treatment of detainees in British-occupied areas of Iraq following the 2003 invasion. The British government has already held one inquiry into claims of abuse, with a second due to hold hearings next year. But Public Interest Lawyers say the two inquiries only cover a fraction of the cases, asserting that at the current pace it would take more than 100 years to hear them all. (AP, Nov. 5)

President Hosni Mubarak on Nov. 6 condemned threats by the al-Qaeda franchise in Iraq against Coptic Christians in Egypt and promised to protect them. The Islamic State of Iraq, claiming responsibility for a bloody hostage taking in a Baghdad church last weekend, threatened to target the region's Christians if the Coptic church did not release two women the group claimed had were being held against their will after converting to Islam. Mubarak told Pope Shenouda III in a phone call that he rejected "pushing Egypt's name into the terrorist act that targeted a church in Baghdad."