So global warming is just a myth, eh? Somebody forgot to tell the frogs. From the Washington Post, Jan. 12:

Study: Global warming killing frog species
Rising temperatures are responsible for pushing dozens of frog species to extinction in the past three decades, according to new findings being reported today by a team of Latin American and U.S. scientists.

Local anger at the redevelopment plan that city bureaucrats have unveiled in New Orleans is making the country's top newspapers. From the Washington Post, via the Boston Globe, Jan. 12:

Angry homeowners screamed and City Council members seethed yesterday as this city's recovery commission recommended imposing a four-month building moratorium on most of New Orleans and creating a powerful new authority that could use eminent domain to seize homes in neighborhoods that will not be rebuilt.

The commission's recovery plan anticipates a city that will be only a fraction of its pre-Katrina size of nearly half a million residents. The city now has about 144,000 residents and is projected to grow to 181,000 by September and 247,000 by September 2008.

A Jan. 12 New York Times story, online at the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), indicates a civil war breaking out within Iraq's Sunni insurgency:

In town after town, Iraqis and Americans say, local Iraqi insurgents and tribal groups have begun trying to expel Al Qaeda's fighters, and, in some cases, kill them. It is unclear how deeply the split pervades Iraqi society. Iraqi leaders say that in some Iraqi cities, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and local insurgent groups continue to cooperate with one another.

A Jan. 12 communique from the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Colombia's northern Urabá region, via the Colombian independent human rights network Red de Defensores:

On Jan. 12, 2006, the army assassinated Edilberto Vasquez Cardona, 53 years old, a member of the humanitarian zone of Arenas Altas. Edilberto was the first leader of the Arenas Altas humanitarian zone, and was replaced by Arlen [Salas David], also assassinated by the army [in November].

At around 7 PM on Jan. 11, Edilberto laid down to sleep in his house located between Arenas Altas and Guineo Alto. With him was his son of 12 years. On the morning of Jan. 12, the army arrived very early, and forced him from the house. At some 20 minutes from his house, in the farmlands of the community of Arenas Altas at 7:15 AM, Edilberto was assassinated by gunshot.

OK, was the CIA behind this one? Pretty convenient timing, just as Iran has removed International Atomic Energy Agency seals on from three nuclear production facilities at Natanz, Pars Trash and Farayand Tec—announcing a resumption of uranium enrichment activities in defiance of the West. (IranMania, Jan. 13)

The lines are drawn ever more sharply in Latin America. Peru could be the next to join the growing anti-imperialist bloc if the indigenist/populist candidate Ollanta Humala takes the presidency in this year's election. And Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has wasted no time in showing whose side he is on. From Reuters, Jan. 13:

From AP via Mexico's El Universal, Jan. 12, via Chiapas95:

Mexico's foreign secretary on Wednesday criticized Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales for inviting Zapatista rebels to his inauguration. "There should be one invitation to the Mexican government, which represents the Mexican state," Luis Ernesto Derbez said, "and not to specific groups."

Morales, who was elected the first Indian president in Bolivia's history in December, has said he will invite leaders from various Latin American leftist organizations, such as the Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil and Mexico's Zapatistas, to his Jan. 22 inauguration ceremony.

Royal Dutch Shell has shut down a tenth of Nigeria's oil production, after armed militants kidnapped four foreign oil workers and blew up a major pipeline Jan. 11. The incidents followed attacks on pipelines owned by the Nigerian state-owned oil company in December, disrupting supplies from the world's eighth-largest oil exporter for several days.