Calls are growing for a declaration of martial law in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in the wake of a series of attacks. In the most recent, on Dec. 13 dozens of Moro militants used sledgehammers and bolt cutters to smash their way into the Basilan provincial jail, freeing 31 inmates—including two commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). A jail guard and one of the raiders were killed in the pre-dawn assault. (Inquirer, Manila, Dec. 14)

The Uzbek government is cracking down on rights activists before Dec. 27 parliamentary elections, Human Rights Watch charges—while criticizing the West for staying silent. Uzbekistan this year mended ties with the West that had been all but severed after harsh repression in 2005. HRW charged Dec. 10 that Uzbek authorities in Karshi and Margilan have detained human rights advocates to prevent them from meeting with an HRW researcher. In Karshi, the HRW researcher was also attacked by an unknown assailant, then detained and forced to leave the city. "The attack appeared to be a setup," HRW stated. Additionally, seven human rights and political activists were detained last month, three of whom were also beaten, when they attempted to meet with a political opposition leader.

Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Astana Dec. 13 to unveil the Kazakh section of a 7,000-kilometer (4,300-mile) natural gas pipeline joining Central Asia to China. Hu was joined by Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the inauguration, where the two leaders together pressed a symbolic button to open the 1,833-kilometer Kazakh section. Nazarbayev said: "This is a grand construction project that will in time resurrect the ancient Silk Route." Hu is next due to head to a commissioning ceremony in Turkmenistan, where the pipeline actually begins. He is expected to be joined there by President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, the fourth country involved in the project.

The family of Kenyan Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohamed Abdulmalik has filed a lawsuit against the Kenyan government claiming that he was illegally detained, tortured, and renditioned to US authorities. The suit seeks Abdulmalik's return to Kenya and $30 million in damages.

The Mexican authorities must protect residents of disputed land who have been intimidated and attacked by the security guards of local landowners who are contesting the ownership of the land, Amnesty International said Dec. 11. The call comes after a woman living in the Lomas de Poleo area in Chihuahua state was shot and injured at her home by two men in balaclavas.

A US government investigation has found evidence of a massive drug smuggling operation out of Venezuela, linking a powerful trafficker who is accused of supplying arms to Colombian guerrillas with a fugitive Venezuelan businessman, according to a report in Miami's El Nuevo Herald. At the center of the investigation is Walid Makled, whose family controlled Venezuela's leading airline and operated one of the largest cargo facilities at Puerto Cabello, the country's second largest port.

On Dec. 10, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights delivered a sharp rebuke to the Mexican government, accusing it of inaction in preventing, investigating and prosecuting the murders of young women in the border city of Juárez. The Court specifically found that authorities failed to adequately investigate the murders of Claudia Ivette Gonzalez, 17; Irma Monreal Herrera, 15; and Laura Berenice Ramos, 20—who were among the eight victims whose bodies were discovered in 2001 in a cotton field across the street from the city's Association of Maquiladoras.

Washington's embassy in Ecuador Dec. 11 denied any US involvement in Colombia's 2008 raid on a FARC camp at Angostura in Ecuadoran territory. A new report by Ecuador's government says US military personnel stationed at the Pentagon's forward operating location (FOL) at Manta air base helped with intelligence to plan the attack. The embassy statement said "these accusations were made before... [T]he embassy strongly rejects them. Manta's FOL was not involved by any means, neither with the Colombian raid in Angostura nor giving intelligence information." (Xinhua, Dec. 11; NYT, Dec. 10)