Last weekend, presumed neo-Nazis firebombed the Cyclops autonomous social center in the Stockholm district of Högdalen, burning the building down. Two days later, on Dec. 1, presumed right-wing militants poured in gasoline through the mail slot into the apartment of a young couple and their child, and set it on fire. The couple are active in the anarcho-syndicalist Swedish Central Workers' Organization (Sveriges Arbetares Central Organisation-SAC), and had recently been "exposed" on the Swedish neo-Nazi website Info-14. All three survived, by climbing down from the balcony of their thrid-floor apartment. (Anarkisterna, Stockholm, Dec. 3)

 AA youth uprising spread in Greece for a second day Dec. 7, with thousands battling police in Athens and Thessaloniki, despite the arrest of two officers over the killing of a 15-year-old boy. At least 34 have been injured and 13 detained in street clashes. Protests erupted after Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot in Athens' left-wing enclave of Exarchia after the boy allegedly tried to throw a firebomb at a patrol car. As soon as news of his death in a local hospital was confirmed, hundreds of youths in Exarchia began attacking police cars with stones and firebombs, burning dozens of cars and smashing shop windows. Police responded with tear gas, but the uprising quickly spread to Thessaloniki and the resort islands of Crete and Corfu. Tourist zones have been evacuated and streets closed to all traffic. (AlJazeera, Dec. 8)

As Americans mark the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, an imbroglio breaks out in Japan over World War II revisionism and calls for rearmament. Japan's former air force chief Gen. Toshio Tamogami, forced into retirement for denying the empire's wartime aggression, wasted no time in making even more controversial comments. "I think there should be debate about this, because nuclear deterrence would be enhanced as a result," the former head of the Air Self Defense Force told reporters Dec. 1 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. Tamogami said that if Japan had had nuclear weapons in 1945, it should have retaliated in kind for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "Once you have been hit with something, then there is no choice but to hit back with it," he said.

Colombia recalled its top diplomat in Venezuela's second largest city last week after President Hugo Chávez threatened to expel the official for allegedly expressing support for his political opponents. Chávez criticized Colombia's consul in Maracaibo, Carlos Galvis, for privately welcoming the opposition victory in Zulia state, which borders Colombia, in the recent gubernatorial elections. In a secretly recorded telephone conversation broadcast on state TV, Galvis called the opposition's electoral gains "very good news." Chávez demanded Colombia recall Galvis, adding, "If not, I'll expel him."

Former FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt met with Ecuador's President Rafael Correa in Quito Dec. 3 on her tour of South American capitals to line up leaders' support for her campaign to free those still being held by the Colombian guerillas. Said Correa: "Ecuador will do everything it can, everything in our power to ensure these people are freed." Betancourt next headed to Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela. (AFP, Dec. 3)

A worldwide slump in zinc prices threatens Bolivia'ss second-largest export as companies reduce output and close mines, officials said. "We're worried about zinc not only because of falling prices but because it's the principal mineral that we mine in Bolivia," Freddy Beltran, director of Bolivia's Mining and Metallurgy Ministry, said told Bloomberg. Zinc "has traditionally been our top mining export," he said.

Bolivian opposition leaders Dec. 4 accused an international commission of bias toward President Evo Morales in its report on a September jungle "massacre." The new report by the Union of South American Nations names 19 people confirmed killed in the clash in Pando province, including 17 Morales supporters and two opponents. Opposition leaders accused investigators of favoring Morales supporters’ testimony over that of pro-autonomy groups, and of reporting unsubstantiated allegations—including charges that anti-Morales factions raped young girls.

BPZ Resources of Houston received a permit from Lima's Energy Ministry to build a gas plant in northern Peru near the border with Ecuador this week. The plant, to be supplied by BPZ's offshore Bloc Z-1 field, will fuel a 135-megawatt power plant after $120 million in financing is procured from the World Bank's International Finance Corp. The project is part of $10  billion in energy investment commitments expected in Peru over the next seven years, including a $3.8 billion export project by Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co. (Bloomberg, Dec. 4)