Four people were wounded in an armed clash between rival factions of Tzotzil Maya settlers in the outlying colonia (neighborhood) of Molino de los Arcos in the Chiapas Highland city of San Cristobal Dec. 21. The settlers are originally from the nearby village of San Juan Chamula, but were forced to occupy lands on the outskirts of San Cristobal after being expelled by Chamula's authorities for practicing evangelical Protestantism. One faction in the land conflict was said to be led by the Council of Indigenous Representatives of the Chiapas Highlands (CRIACH), and the other by the National Union of Agricultural Workers (UNTA). Domingo Lopez Angel, director of CRIACH, said the violence began when members of his organization, who had gathered in Los Arcos to build a church, were set upon by a group led by UNTA director Mariano Lopez Cruz, armed with clubs and pistols. Two of the injured received bullet wounds. (La Jornada, Dec. 22)

From AP, Dec. 23:

OVENTIC, Mexico - About 5,000 Zapatista rebels, many in black ski masks, gathered in this village in southern Mexico to show their support for protesters in the historic city of Oaxaca who are trying to oust the state governor.

Thousands of supporters of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca again took to the streets of southern Mexico's Oaxaca City Dec. 22 to demand the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, as well as the release of "political prisoners" arrested in the protests and the withdrawal of federal police from the city. (La Jornada, Dec. 23) It was part of an international mobilization, with protests in solidarity with the APPO reported from some 35 countries around the world, including the USA, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Greece, Argentina, Brazil and Peru. (La Jornada, Dec. 23)

This is why the European laws against Holocaust denial are completely counter-productive. They just provide a media spotlight (and therefore a voice) to these sinister charlatans—and worse, allow them to legitimately accuse the establishment of silencing them. Every turn in David Irving's legal fortunes has provided another opportunity for him to play the victim and spew his filth into extended microphones. From The Australian, Dec. 21, emphasis added (superfluously, we hope):

As Christianity and Islam vie for the title of "religion of peace"... From AP, Dec. 21:

THESSALONIKI – Rival groups of monks wielding crowbars and sledgehammers clashed yesterday over control of a thousand-year-old monastery in a community regarded as the cradle of Greek Orthodox Christianity, police said. Seven monks were injured and transported by boat to receive treatment but released after several hours, police said. No one was arrested, but three monks were banned from re-entering the Orthodox sanctuary of Mount Athos, on a self-governing peninsula in northern Greece.

Shaikh Abdul Ameer al-Jamri, a Shiite cleric who led pro-democracy protests in Bahrain in the 1990s, died Dec. 18 at the age of 67. Shiites throughout the small island state went into mourning, hanging black flags and banners outside their houses and pasting pictures of al-Jamri on walls and car windows. Over 10,000 poured in the streets of the capital, Manama, to escort al-Jamri to his final resting place at the Bani Jamrah graveyard. Black-cloaked women and young men beating their cheasts chanted slogans in his honor, as police sealed off the main streets of the city. "He was a father figure for Shiite Bahrainis," said his son, Mansour al-Jamri, a leading columnist and editor. "His legacy will start today."

This Dec. 22 account from the Russian daily Kommersant reveals another recent win for Moscow in its bid to rebuild influence in the "near abroad" of Central Asia, and beat the American and European competition to the punch in securing strategic control of its hydrocarbon resources. This ups the ante on the US to exploit that passing of Turkmenistan's wacky despot Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov to effect another pro-West "revolution" in the region. We will be watching Turkmenistan closely in the weeks to come:

Iraq's government is drafting a new hydrocarbons law that will chart the course for the country's oil sector and determine how its revenues will be apportioned. The law would put much of Iraqi oil into the hands of foreign companies, allowing "production sharing agreements" (PSAs) between the Iraqi state and the multinationals. OPEC estimates Iraq has some 115 billion barrels of reserves, and only a small fraction of its oil fields are in use. Writes Joshua Gallu for Der Spiegel: "By signing oil deals with Iraq, oil companies could account for those reserves in their books without setting foot in the country—that alone is enough to boost the company's stock. And, by negotiating deals while Iraq is unstable, companies could lock in a risk premium that may be much lower five or ten years from now."