Protests against the killing of a youth by police in Athens spread across Europe Dec. 11, as street-fighting in Greece entered its sixth day. At least 30 were arrested in Copenhagen, as masked youth hurled bottles and paint bombs at buildings, police cars and officers. Eleven were arrested, and police officers reportedly injured, in clashes in Madrid and Barcelona. In Moscow and Rome, protesters threw petrol bombs at the Greek embassies. In neighbouring Istanbul, protesters splashed red paint over the facade of the Greek consulate. And in Athens and Thessaloniki, protesters and police continued to trade hurled rocks and tear-gas cannisters, with more shops and banks damaged and windows smashed. The major Greek trade unions have taken up the issue, calling for "the democratization of the police and an end to violent and arbitrary acts by state organs." (The Telegraph, London Times, AFP, Dec. 11)

Critical Mass scores a win over Scotland Yard. From The Telegraph, Dec. 2:

Critical mass can carry on cycling
There is no need for the organisers of a mass cycle ride to give the police notice of their planned destination when there are no organisers and the destination is unplanned, the law lords ruled today.

We wish we were joking. From CNN, Dec. 2:

Behavioral screening—the future of airport security?
TEL AVIV — Keep your shoes and belts on: Waiting in long airport security lines to pass through metal detectors may soon be a thing of the past. Security experts say focus is shifting from analyzing the content of carry-ons to analyzing the content of passengers' intentions and emotions.

President-elect Barack Obama's reported pick for Drug Czar, Minnesota's Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad, is called out by Maia Szalavitz on Huffington Post Dec. 9 under the lurid title "Obama Drug Czar Pick Tied to Abusive Christian Rehab Linked to Contributor Charged with $3.5 Billion Fraud":

Relatives of 9-11 victims were brought to Guantánamo Bay to witness as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four co-defendants appeared before a US military tribunal. The five men told a military judge they intend to confess in full—an evident challenge to the government to put them to death. (NYT, AFP, Dec. 9) A Dec. 9 New York Times piece, "Relatives of 9/11 Victims Add a Passionate Layer to Guantánamo Debate," explicitly states that the survivors are being played in a political strategy over the prison camp's future under President Barack Obama:

About 20,000 peasant families in La Paz department have been affected by drought for months, the Bolivian Information Agency reports. If there is no rain in the next 30 days, there will be a massive loss of livestock, warned Victor Saravia of Bolivia's Early Warning and Risk Prevention Bureau. "We traveled to four regions: Camacho, Ingavi, Pacajes and Loayza, and found that there is a shortage of water for both human consumption and for animals'," said Saravia. He also named Ixiamas district in the north of La Paz as at risk, saying that 6,000 head of cattle could die in the department in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, hailstorms have wiped out crops in lowland Cochabamba department. Civil defense authorities are considering declaration of a state of emergency. (Xinhua, Dec. 8; Prensa Latina, Dec. 5)

Bolivian President Evo Morales, defending his decision to expel the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said the agency was actually involved in the drug traffic, and "did not respect the police, or even the [Bolivian] armed forces." Announcing that the staff from the US agency has three months to leave the country, he added: "The worst thing is, it did not fight drug trafficking; it encouraged it." He said he had "quite a bit of evidence" backing up his charges. Morales said that after a 1986 operation in Huanchaca National Park, it was determined that the largest cocaine processing plant "was under DEA protection." He also accused the agency of spying on and even killing cocaleros and other opponents of US policies.

Unions and social organizations held a commemoration Dec. 6 at Ciénaga, in the Colombian Caribbean coast department of Magdalena, marking the anniversary of the 1928 "Masacre de las Bananeras," carried out by the army against hundreds of striking workers of the United Fruit Company. Hundreds gathered in what is now called Plaza of the Martyrs to hear speeches and testimony from aging survivors and descendants of the massacre victims. Up to a thousand were killed by some estimates when the army surrounded and opened fire on a union rally in Ciénaga's central plaza in the midst of a strike over collective bargaining rights—although the official death toll was put at nine. (Radio Caracol, Dec. 6)