A Lebanese military court on Nov. 12 convicted cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed of terrorism and sentenced him to life in prison. Bakri was found guilty of belonging to an armed group that plotted to carry out terrorist acts against Lebanese soldiers and was sentenced along with 54 others who fought in clashes with the Lebanese army in 2007. Tried and convicted in absentia, Bakri was reportedly surprised when his lawyer informed him of the verdict. He claims to have never received a summons or an arrest warrant. As Bakri lives openly in Tripoli, a city in the north of Lebanon, and appears regularly on television, it is not immediately clear why he was not arrested. Bakri maintains that the charges are fabricated and has refused to turn himself in.

Nicaragua has refused to withdraw troops from a disputed island along the river border with Costa Rica, and is asking Internet giant Google not to change its maps with respect to the contested Isla Calero. The request came from Nicaragua's foreign minister, Samuel Santos, in a letter sent to Jeffrey Hardy at Google, a copy of which was made available to the press.

No criminal charges will be brought against Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials for destroying videotapes of controversial interrogations of terror suspects during the Bush administration, a federal prosecutor announced Nov. 9. US Department of Justice special prosecutor John Durham "has concluded that he will not pursue criminal charges for the destruction of the interrogation videotapes," said DoJ spokesperson Matthew Miller.

On Nov. 1 the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released the full text of a declassified 2008 report on the agency's involvement in the April 2001 downing of a small civilian plane in Peru. A Peruvian Air Force jet shot the plane down on orders from CIA agents as part of the US "War on Drugs," killing US missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter Charity. Bowers' husband and son and a pilot were also on the plane but survived the attack.

At least eight people died and two disappeared when Hurricane Tomas struck Haiti the night of Nov. 5 and the morning of Nov. 6. The worst damage was reported in Grand'Anse, Nippes and South departments, located on the long peninsula that makes up the southwestern part of the country, according to a preliminary report by the government on Nov. 6. Homes and camps were flooded in Port-au-Prince, where more than 1 million people still live in improvised shelters 10 months after a Jan. 12 earthquake devastated the capital, but the rains there weren't as heavy as had been feared. (Radio Métropole, Haiti, Nov. 6; Radio Kiskeya, Haiti, Nov. 6)

A group of Costa Rican environmental activists held a "Cultural Festival for Life" on Nov. 2 to conclude a hunger strike they began on Oct. 8 against the projected Las Crucitas open-pit gold mine in San Carlos in the north of the country. The hunger strike started with 14 activists encamped in front of the Presidential Residence in San José; all but two had dropped out for medical reasons by Nov. 1, when striker David Rojas was taken by ambulance to the state-run Carlos Durán Clinic to be treated for serious dehydration and gastritis. The remaining striker, Andrés Guillén, apparently decided to end the action the next day.

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)