A report released by the B'Tselem human rights group Dec. 22 states that the West Bank settlement of Ofra, northeast of Jerusalem, is in fact an "illegal" outpost even under Israeli law. Ofra, part of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, is a 168-acre community located between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Nablus, with some 3,000 residents. B'Tselem found that Ofra must be evicted under the stipulations of the Sasson Report, complied by Attorney Talia Sasson at then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's request.

Tuareg guerillas killed at least at least nine soldiers in an attack on an army post in Mali's remote north Dec. 22. The government claimed 11 rebel fighters were also killed when when gunmen in more than 20 four-wheel-drive vehicles raided the post at Nampala. The attack came despite a five-month-old Algerian-mediated ceasefire between the government and the rebels. Early reports put government casualties at 14.

At least two missiles believed to have been fired from a US drone struck villages near Wana in Pakistan's South Waziristan region Dec. 22, killing seven people. Tribesmen reportedly opened fire on the drones after the attacks. US forces have carried out nearly 30 air-strikes in Pakistan this year despite objections from Pakistan. The attacks have killed more than 220 people, according to a tally of reports from Pakistani intelligence agents, local officials and residents. (AlJazeera, Reuters, Dec. 22)

Media accounts are generally not recalling the similar incidents earlier this year. Why is nobody seeing patterns here? From Network World, Dec. 22:

Undersea robot searches for severed cables
A robot submarine was scouring the seabed 200 meters under the Mediterranean Sea on Monday trying to locate the ends of undersea cables that were cut on Friday, disrupting voice and Internet traffic.

Read the fine print. "Five Muslim immigrants from South Jersey were convicted today of plotting to kill American soldiers, a crime that prosecutors said demonstrated how Al Qaeda was using the Internet to recruit, train and incite supporters for attacks in the United States and around the world." So states the lead paragraph in the Newark Star-Ledger's Dec. 22 coverage of the verdict in the Fort Dix pseudo-conspiracy case. Except that it's the usual bait-and-switch: al-Qaeda had absolutely nothing to do with it...

On Dec. 12 a judge in Mexico's Coahuila state ordered the release of Carlos Pavón Campos, political affairs secretary of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM), on 5.611 million pesos bail (about $426,600). Pavón Campos had been held for eight days; he was arrested Dec. 4 on charges of defrauding union members. On Dec. 15, it was reported that another SNTMMRM leader, Vigilance and Justice Council president Juan Linares Montufar, had been denied bail on charges in a similar case. The union's general secretary, leader Napoleon Gómez Urrutia, is also charged; he fled to Vancouver in 2006 but continues to direct the union. The original charges reportedly included officials of the Scotiabank, but no action seems to have been taken against them. (La Jornada, Dec. 13, 15)

From Dec. 15 to Dec. 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries held overlapping meetings of several regional groups in Costa do Sauipe, a luxurious tourist complex near Salvador in the eastern Brazil state of Bahia. The overall intention was to increase regional cooperation and integration in response to a growing world economic crisis and the waning influence of the US.

On Dec. 10 a Haitian court sentenced journalist Joseph Guyler Delva to one month in prison for alleged defamation and public insults against former senator Rudolph Boulos. Delva and his lawyer were not present at the trial, since it had been postponed several times. As of Dec. 18 Delva was free pending an appeal. On Dec. 15 he wrote that over the previous three weeks he had received a number of death threats, including two that mentioned Boulos' name.