Citing the "biohazard" created by blood-stained money, Judge Lynne Leibovitz of Washington's Superior Court has sentenced Ellen Barfield, a member of the national committee of the War Resisters League to 25 days in jail for a protest at a Senate hearing on US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Israel reacted angrily to the news that a warrant has been issued in Britain for the arrest of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, with President Shimon Peres calling it one of the "biggest political mistakes the UK has ever made" and warning that it is "high time" the British government changed a law allowing courts to grant such warrants. British ministers said they will look "urgently" at reforming the law.

Egypt has commenced construction of a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip that will extend 18 meters (55 feet) underground in an attempt to cut smuggling tunnels. The United States this year provided Egypt with $32 million for electronic surveillance and other security devices to prevent the movement of food, merchandise and weapons into Gaza—funds which are now likely being used in construction of the border wall. The barrier, which Egyptian officials say will be "impenetrable," is slated to be completed in 18 months. (Information Clearing House, Dec. 10; BBC News, Dec. 9)

The proposal by Porfirio Lobo, winner of Honduras' disputed presidential election on November 29, 2009, for an "amnesty for all" of those involved in the June coup d'état violates the country's international obligations and undermines the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said Dec. 11. The election was organized by the de facto government, and has been recognized only by the United States and four Latin American countries. The ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, urged his supporters to boycott the vote.

Walter Trochez, 25, a well-known LGBT activist in Honduras who was an active member of the National Resistance Front against the coup d'etat there, was assassinated on the evening of Dec. 13, shot dead by drive-by killers in central Tegucigalpa. Trochez, who had already been arrested and beaten after participating in a march against the coup, had been very active recently in documenting and publicizing homophobic killings and crimes committed by the forces behind the coup. He had been trailed for weeks before his murder by thugs believed to be members of the state security forces.

Students at North American campuses are demanding that their universities drop licensing agreements with the Oregon-based Nike, Inc sportswear manufacturer unless 1,800 workers for two Nike contractors in Honduras get legally mandated back pay and severance packages worth more than $2 million. Officials at Purdue University in Indiana announced on Dec. 2 that they were reviewing the situation, and on Dec. 7 University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor Biddy Martin said she was giving Nike four months to clear up problems with alleged labor abuses.

The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) reported on Dec. 10 that for the last several weeks Colombian human rights attorney Jorge Eliécer Molano-Rodríguez had "received worrisome visits to his apartment building by individuals who refused to give their names to the building watchman, and his companion has been stalked by strange men.... Molano's legal work has involved him in some of Colombia's most controversial cases, representing, among others, families of victims of the Palace of Justice murders; of the Feb. 21, 2005 massacre of members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó; and of the Army's 'false positives' kidnapping and murder of civilian youths in San José de Guaviare, and in Bolivar and Cesar departments."

Right-wing billionaire Sebastián Piñera led the presidential race in Chile's general elections on Dec. 13 with about 44% of the vote, followed by the candidate of the ruling center-left Concertation coalition, the Christian Democratic former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994-2000), with about 30%. The two candidates will face each other in a runoff on Jan. 17, with both seeking votes from supporters of former Socialist deputy Marco Enríquez Ominami, who came in third with 20%; he has refused to endorse either of the front-runners. Jorge Arrate of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh), in fourth place with 5% of the vote, threw his support to Frei after the voting on Dec. 13. (Agence France Presse, Dec. 14)