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."

The quaint traditions of Saddam's Iaq survive in the US-created new order. From Los Angeles Times, Dec. 15:

NAJAF — The audience knew what to expect when Iraqi commandos took the stage at the stadium here Wednesday with frogs and a rabbit in hand, preparing to celebrate with a bloody flourish the transfer of local authority from U.S. to Iraqi troops.

But the Americans were in for a surprise.

Fighting exploded between Islamic Courts Union (ICU) forces and the "official" Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia Dec. 20, just as the ICU's deadline for Ethiopian troops to quit the country or face a declaration of "jihad" expired. Rocket, mortar and machine-gun battles since have centered on the area around Baidoa where the TFG is based. But ICU leaders emphasize that they consider the real enemy to be the Ethiopian forces. "We are at war with Ethiopia, but not with the (Somali) government," ICU leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told Reuters by telephone. (Reuters, Dec. 21)