On Nov. 16, a group of Israeli soldiers disobeyed orders to assist in the dismantling of two wooden structures that Jewish settlers had built without Israeli government authorization near Hebron. A military official said two of the soldiers were sent to prison for 30 days and permanently dismissed from command or combat positions. Several others are still being investigated. The area was secured by soldiers from an infantry battalion, some of whom "did not follow orders given to them," the official told Reuters, declining to provide exact numbers. The YNet news service said six soldiers were relieved of duty.

Violent clashes erupted between Palestinian residents and Israeli troops Nov. 18 as military forces razed two houses in al-Bustan neighborhood of East Jerusalem's Silwan district. The demolitions were the second and third of the day. Seven Palestinians were injured and dozens of others assaulted as Israeli troops fired tear gas at the growing crowd that gathered to confront the continued program of home demolitions in the neighborhood. Crowds gathered as Israeli bulldozers wrecked the homes, and protests began as the equipment moved on to the second building.

Neo-Nazis attempted to disrupt the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Velvet Revolution in Prague Nov. 17, and clashed with police who tried to keep them from marching on the main parade. Some 300 right-wing extremists, many wearing masks, threw stones and bottles at the police, while chanting "Communists!" and "police state!" They also reportedly attacked three random people. There were 48 arrests. (Romea, Prague, Nov. 18)

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City affirmed the conviction of civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart Nov. 17, and ordered her to begin her prison sentence. Stewart, along with Mohammed Yousry and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, were convicted of various crimes based on association with convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman. As part of his conviction, Rahman is subject to Special Administrative Measures (SAMs), which limit his ability to communicate with individuals outside the prison. The court found that despite being a lawyer, Stewart was bound by the SAMs but knowingly and willfully lied about her intentions to comply. The court also found that Stewart provided and concealed material support to a conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country.

In a press conference in Managua, Nicaragua, on Nov. 13, the mayor of San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city, confirmed that he was no longer running for another term in general elections scheduled for Nov. 29. "The people don't believe in this process, because these are elections where absolutely nothing is going to get elected," Mayor Rodolfo Padilla Sunceri said. A member of the center-right Liberal Party (PL), Padilla joined a growing number of candidates who have withdrawn from the race in order to protest the control of the process by a de facto government put in place after a military coup removed President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales from office on June 28. Padilla was the frontrunner in polls taken before the coup. The Nov. 29 general elections are intended to elect the president, the 128 members of the National Congress, 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), and members of the country's municipal governments.

Tens of thousands of unionists, campesinos, students, and members of grassroots organizations and left and center-left parties demonstrated in Mexico's Federal District (DF, Mexico City) and more than 20 of the country's 31 states on Nov. 11 to express solidarity with some 44,000 electrical workers laid off when President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa abruptly liquidated the government-owned Central Light and Power Company (LFC) the night of Oct. 10.

In Oaxaca on Nov. 9, Mexican federal magistrate Javier Leonel Santiago Martínez ruled that evidence the federal government had presented against activist Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) for the murder of New York-based independent journalist Brad Will was "false" and "prefabricated." Will was shot during a demonstration against Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz on Oct. 27, 2006; activists and Will's friends and family have insisted that he was killed by Ruiz's supporters, not by APPO activists. Magistrate Santiago ordered district judge Rosa Ileana Ortega Pérez to free Martínez Moreno within 48 hours. The government can appeal, and the activist's attorney, Gilberto López, said he didn't expect his client to be released immediately. (EFE, Nov. 9; Milenio, Mexico, Nov. 9)

Students from the Student Revolutionary Front (FER-29) and the University Popular Bloc closed off one of Panama City's main arteries for more than an hour on Nov. 11 to protest what they said were plans to open US military bases in Panama. Police agents dispersed the demonstrators with water cannons and tear gas and arrested 16 students, most of them from the Arts and Trades College. On Nov. 12 Governance and Justice Minister José Raúl Mulino told reporters that the four bases the students were protesting would be "100% Panamanian." They are to be under the control of the Air-Navy Service (SENAN) and the National Border Service (Senafront) as part of the agencies' effort to control the transport of narcotics through Panama, he said. "They are not military bases."