Another turn of the screw. From AlJazeera, Dec. 13, emphasis added:

A Guantanamo prisoner who won a landmark US Supreme Court ruling in June lost his bid to challenge his detention when a federal judge dismissed the case because of a new anti-terrorism law signed by George Bush, the US president.

Another sign of de-escalation in Oaxaca? From AP, Dec. 11:

OAXACA - A labor group allied with the government of the southern state of Oaxaca announced on Monday that it was ending a controversial, 1 1/2-year blockade of the offices of Noticias, a newspaper frequently critical of state authorities.

From Afrol News, Dec. 11:

An Algiers bomb attack against oil workers that killed an Algerian driver and wounded nine people, including several Western citizens, has raised fears that Algeria's trend towards peace and stability may end. As the US Embassy in Algeria today advises Americans to review their personal security, foreign oil companies already have decided to invest into protection against terrorist attacks.

From The Guardian, Dec. 13:

Bushmen forced out of the Kalahari desert by Botswana's government won a landmark legal victory today as the country's high court ruled they had been illegally removed and should be allowed to return.

A press release from the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at Harvard, Dec. 13:

Retaliatory Attacks Also Kill Highlanders in Gambella Region
Cambridge, MA – Soldiers in the Ethiopian military have killed, raped, and otherwise abused hundreds of Anuak civilians in the Gambella region of the country, the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program said today.

Hermann Bellinghausen noted some salient comments in his report from Zapatista Subcommander Marcos' tour stop at Bagdad Beach (on the Rio Grande, just outside Matamoros) for La Jornada, Nov. 24. Via Chiapas95:

BAGDAD, Tamaulipas - December 1, the day that Felipe Calderon takes office, will be "the beginning of the end for a political system that, since the Mexican Revolution, became deformed and began to cheat generation after generation, until this one arrived and said, 'Enough,'" warned Subcomandante Marcos during a press conference. Calderon, he added, "will begin to fall from his first day."

Maria Antonieta Trinidad Ramirez del Valle, popularly known as La Trini, returned to the conflicted central Mexican village of San Salvador Atenco Nov. 25 after more than six months in clandestinity at an unknown location. She was accompanied by Don Samuel Ruiz, bishop emeritus of Chiapas who won national acclaim for brokering the dialogue with the Zapatista rebels. Her sons América and Alejandro del Valle remain in hiding. Another son, César del Valle, is incarcerated in the high-security prison at La Palma, as is her husband Ignacio del Valle. La Trini is director of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), the group which has led protests against the confiscation of Atenco's farming lands for a new international airport. Her lawyer said judicial orders had been issued barring her arrest. Del Valle said that during her time in hiding, the family's home had been left "in ruins" when it was ransacked by the Federal Preventative Police. (La Jornada, Nov. 26 via Chiapas95 and Nov. 23 via El Porvenir)

From La Jornada, Dec. 11 via Chiapas95 (our translation):

GUADALAJARA - Some 100 sympathizers of the popular movement in Oaxaca announced the formation of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Jalisco (APPJ), whose primary aim will be "the unity of the distinct resistance movements in the state against the attack of the ultra-right now in power."