More than 3,500 Congolese soldiers, supported by 600 UN troops and helicopter gunships, launched attacks Dec. 24 on guerillas operating in the eastern Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sixteen government troops and some 35 guerillas are reported killed in fighting near the city of Beni in Nord-Kivu province. An Indian blue beret peacekeeper was killed and four of his colleagues wounded when their camp was hit by a guerilla rocket-propelled grenade. But 300 Nepalese peacekeepers and 1,500 government troops captured the guerilla-held village of Nioka, 50 miles north-east of Bunia, the main town in Ituri district. The guerilla militia the operation was launched to uproot, the ADF/NALU (Allied Democratic Forces/National Army for the Liberation of Uganda), is seeking the overthrow of President Yoweri Museveni's regime in Uganda, across the eastern border.

One of the real signs of hope in Afghanistan is that the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), until recently active only in the refugee camps in Pakistan, has been able to establish an open presence in the country. Forced underground and into exile by the Taliban and Mujahedeen warlords decades ago, RAWA is now running a network of small shelters for Afghanistan's many war orphans where equality between the genders and progressive values are fostered. RAWA is seeking donations in a year-end fund drive for this initiative, and we urge our readers to participate.

Dear Supporter:

RAWA are helping to bring very poor and often homeless girls and boys off of the streets in Afghanistan and give them a chance for a brighter future. The shelters are run like a family home; a local husband and wife care for the children and make sure they have a warm bed, warm and clean clothing, regular meals, and a place to call home. Your help will enable RAWA to further help the neediest of Afghan children, by providing them with an environment of love, tolerance and respect for others. Not only will you providing these children with a brighter future, you will helping to provide them with the skills they need help build a modern and peaceful Afghanistan.

From AP, Dec. 23:

PARIS — A French military tribunal opened an investigation Friday into allegations that French peacekeepers facilitated attacks on ethnic minority Tutsis during the 1994 genocide of more than half a million Rwandans, judicial officials said.

From Indian Country Today, Dec. 16:

PORTLAND, Maine - American Indian leaders from four tribes in Maine met with representatives of the Venezuelan Embassy and became the first tribes in the nation to begin working out details for the delivery of low-cost heating oil to tribal members.

For the second time this year, Republicans resorted to the sneaky tactic of slipping a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling into a big appropriations package. Last time, it passed the Senate but the measure was removed from the House version following a revolt by moderate Republicans. (Outside, Nov. 11) This time it failed to get through the Senate—even though Republicans tried to play the patriotism card by slipping it into a military appropriations bill. Almost mind-bogglingly sleazy (even by contemporary Republican standards) was the blatant attempt to hold Katrina recovery funds hostage to the rape of Alaska's North Slope. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec. 22:

The outcome, which both sides said was too close to predict until the very end, was an especially sharp setback for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Stevens, who has pushed doggedly for 25 years to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, added the provision to a must-pass $453 billion defense spending bill, reasoning that even some ANWR opponents could not oppose a bill that supports troops in a time of war.

It seems the NYPD has ben busy infiltrating bicycle rides in the name of the War on Terrorism for the past year and change. From the Dec. 22 New York Times—fortunately the front page:

Undercover New York City police officers have conducted covert surveillance in the last 16 months of people protesting the Iraq war, bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident, a series of videotapes show.

More ironically positive developments in the José Padilla case. First, his lawyers demanded that the Justice Department charge him with a crime, rather than hold him in military custody indefinitely as an "enemy combatant." Now that the Justice Department has done so, the 4th Circuit is refusing to approve his transfer to civilian custody—which could force the "enemy combatant" designation to go to the Supreme Court, something the Administration evidently sough to avoid. From the AP, Dec. 22:

A government request to transfer terrorism suspect Jose Padilla from military to civilian custody was rejected by an appeals court that said the administration's shifting tactics in the case threatens its credibility with the courts.

Sounds like the way to win hearts and minds:

US forces demolish education building near military base in western Iraq

Text of report by Iraqi Al-Sharqiyah TV on 17 December

US forces today completely demolished the building of the College of Education at Al-Ahliyah University in central Al-Ramadi, in the centre of Al-Anbar Governorate in western Iraq.

Ahmad Abd-al-Malik, dean of the College of Education, which was established in 1993 and included five academic departments, has told Al-Sharqiyah's correspondent that US forces demolished the building because it was located in the vicinity of a US military base.