President-elect Barack Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized Nov. 14 for disparaging remarks made by his father about Arabs. Benjamin Emanuel, speaking about his son to an Israeli newspaper last week, said, "Obviously, he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House." Rahm Emanuel called the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee to apologize, saying "These are not the values upon which I was raised or those of my family." (Fox News, Nov. 14)

Palestinian security forces arrested 12 followers of Hamas in West Bank Nov. 16, in an ongoing crackdown against the Islamic movement. The arrests, by forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, took place in Nablus, Salfeet and Hebron, a Hamas statement said. The arrests could further complicate efforts to reconcile the Hamas and Fatah movements. Hamas days earlier rejected an Egyptian initiative to hold a Palestinian reconciliation dialogue, saying it cannot sit with Fatah while its followers on West Bank face a Fatah-led clampdown.

Iraq's cabinet Nov. 16 approved a security pact with the US that will allow American forces to stay for three years after their UN mandate expires at the end of the year. The decision follows months of negotiations and, pending parliamentary approval, would remove a major point of contention between Baghdad and Washington. Parliament's deputy speaker, Khalid al-Attiyah, said he expected the 275-member legislature to begin debating the document this week and vote on it by Nov 24.

A Moroccan criminal court Nov. 13 convicted Moroccan citizen Said Boujandia of crimes related to terrorist acts. The Salé Criminal Court sentenced Boujandia to 10 years in prison. Boujandia admitted his association with with an organization which sought to aid the Afgahn Taliban, but denied committing any crime. Boujandia was held in US custody in Guantánamo Bay from 2001 until May 2008.

Speaking before the General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Israel's ongoing efforts to build settlements in the West Bank is "illegal," a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and have lead to widespread human rights abuses against Palestinians. Ban's statement came as he announced the findings of two new reports prepared for his office last week.

An explosion in the northern Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian militant and critically wounded another, medical workers reported Nov. 15. The Popular Resistance Committees said an Israeli air-strike targeted a group of its militants as they approached the Israel-Gaza border near the town of Beit Hanoun. An Israeli army spokesman denied that any air-strike had been carried out. (Reuters, Nov. 15)

Iran's judiciary has sentenced a Sufi leader to five years in prison, flogging and exile on charges of spreading lies, the moderate Kargozaran newspaper reported Nov. 15. The report identified the man as Amir Ali Mohammad Labaf, of the Nematollahis or Gonabadi Dervishes order based in the northeastern province of Khorassan Razavi. Labaf was convicted by a court in Iran's clerical center of Qom, finding that his holding of traditional Sufi prayers constituted "a case of spreading lies," the report said, without elaborating. In addition to the five-year prison term, Labaf was sentenced to 74 lashes and internal exile to the southeastern town of Babak. (AFP, Nov. 15)

A veteran crime reporter in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez was fatally shot as he left his home Nov. 13. The reporter, Armando Rodríguez Carreon, worked for the newspaper El Diario. He was in a car with his young daughter when he was shot at least eight times, authorities said. The gunmen fled. Rodríguez, 40, had extensively covered the narco-violence wracking the city. (NYT, Nov. 13)