The US House of Representatives voted 285 to 132 on Nov. 8 to approve the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA, or TLC for its initials in Spanish). The agreement, which eliminates tariffs and establishes new rules for foreign investment, was approved by Peru's Congress in June 2006. It still requires ratification by the US Senate, but the measure is expected to pass when it comes up for a vote the week of Nov. 12.

On Nov. 7 Chilean authorities suddenly moved prisoners José Huenchunao and Patricia Troncoso Robles to the hospital in Angol in Region IX, apparently because of the effects of a 28-day hunger strike. Along with three other prisoners—José Millalen, Jaime Marileo and Hector Llaitul—Huenchunao and Troncoso started an open-ended hunger strike on Oct. 10 to demand the release of more than 20 indigenous Mapuche activists they consider political prisoners; an end to the militarization of the traditional Mapuche territories; and an end to repression.

From the all too appropriately named political blog Morons.org, Nov. 12:

We apparently have a new Attorney General....
Last Thursday, Judge Michael Mukasey was confirmed as Attorney General by the Senate in a vote of 53-40 in the dead of night, at 11:04PM. This happened just two days after Mukasey was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, making it an unusually quick confirmation. So quick, in fact, that none of the Senators running for President were able to return to Washington in time to vote on it. So quick that no one had any time to arrange a filibuster, should they have desired to block the nomination.

David Adler on his Lerterland blog exposes the latest ugly manifestation of idiot leftism—which, unfortunately, seems to be rapidly eclipsing any legitimate critique of empire. Arundhati Roy's latest seems to be an advocacy of revolutionary suicide—a cheerful admission that the jihadists and Maoists she roots for would hang feminists, bohemians and dissident intellectuals such as herself if they ever acheived power. We don't know whether to laugh or cry over this one:

Spain's King Juan Carlos (now famously) told Hugo Chavez to "shut up" after the Venezuelan president repeatedly referred to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist" at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 10. (AP, Nov. 11) The following day, Chavez upped the ante by suggesting that Juan Carlos knew in advance of the abortive 2002 coup d'etat in Venezuela. Chavez asserted that Spain's ambassador had appeared at Venezuela's presidential palace during the two-day coup to support interim "president" Pedro Carmona—with the King's blessing. "Mr. King, did you know about the coup d'etat against Venezuela, against the democratic, legitimate government of Venezuela in 2002?" Chavez rhetorically asked at a news conference "It's very hard to imagine the Spanish ambassador would have been at the presidential palace supporting the coup-plotters without authorization from his majesty."

With the despoilation of San Francisco Bay still in the headlines, comes far worse news from the Sea of Azov. This should give pause just after Russia has announced a series of new oil hubs in the Arctic Passage—newly opened to ship traffic due to global warming. From Environment News Service, Nov. 11:

MOSCOW - Stormy seas and gale-force winds in the narrow Kerch Strait between Russia and Ukraine have smashed a Russian oil tanker in half, spilling at least 2,000 metric tonnes of fuel oil, the Russian Ministry for Emergencies said Sunday. Environmentalists and Russian officials are calling it the worst oil spill in the region for decades and "an ecological catastrophe."

Some 400 neo-Nazis were blocked from marching in Prague by a group of approximately 2,000 anti-fascist activists Nov. 10—the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Six were reported injured in clashes between the two camps. The far-right Young Nationalist Democrats (MND) received back-up from two busloads of German supporters for their march on Prague's Jewish Quarter. Clashes broke out in front of the 13th-century Old New Synagogue—Europe's oldest Jewish house of worship—after one of the Nazis used pepper spray against a counter-protester. Two neo-Nazis lay in a pool of blood after being beaten by a group of German anarchists. Police arrested over 40 neo-Nazis, and reported some of them carried weapons such as iron rods and explosives. Prague authorities had banned the march, and sealed off subway stations to prevent neo-Nazis from reaching the quarter.

The government of Niger reports three soldiers were wounded and four are missing after Tuareg rebels attacked a civilian convoy escorted by the military Nov. 9. The rebel Movement of the People of Niger for Justice (MNJ) claimed it had killed 15 soldiers and captured four. They also said they had destroyed three military vehicles and seized another, but denied having attacked civilians. The ambush took place on the road between Agadez, the regional capital of the desert region of that name, and Arlit to the north.