Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Saudi Arabia to dismiss a criminal case escalated last week to a senior Saudi court on apostasy charges. Website editor Raif Badawi, 30, was originally charged with "insulting Islam through electronic channels" for co-founding the religious discussion website Free Saudi Liberals, but he now faces the death penalty for renouncing Islam. After presiding over five sessions of the trial at the Jeddah District Court, Judge Abdulrahim al-Muhaydeef was replaced without explanation by Judge Muhammad al-Marsoom, who referred the case to the Public Court of Jeddah on Dec. 17 with a recommendation to try Badawi for apostasy. Shariah-based Saudi law is not codified and judges do not follow a system of precedent, but apostasy is a capital offense punishable by death. HRW claims that Badawi's arrest violates his right to freedom of expression. Badawi was detained by security forces in June. The website was originally founded in 2008 and included articles that were critical of senior religious figures, and has since been removed.

President Mohammed Morsi signed Egypt's new constitution (PDF) into law late Dec. 25, which was supported by over 63% of those who voted in the referendum. However, only 32.9% of Egypt's total of 52 million voters actually participated in the referendum, leading many to debate its results. Egyptian press and commentators are divided over the approval of the new constitution, with some declaring the results to be "fake", and supporters from the Muslim Brotherhood claiming it to be the valid choice of the people. Immediately after the referendum, a coalition of Egyptian rights group called for a redo of the referendum, alleging widespread irregularities.

Ejidatarios (communal peasants) from the community of Salaverna, in Mexico's north-central Zacatecas state, have partially shut operations at a gold mine owned by magnate Carlos Slim, in protest over the destruction of natural resources and health risks to local residents, according to Edith Ortega González, local director of the activist network El Barzón. Ortega said six of the campesinos have formed a permanent plantón, or protest vigil, at the gates of the Frisco Tayahua mine, "in defense of their land." She said state and federal authorities had "abandoned" the community, in Mazapil municipality, while dynamite explosions and other mining activity cause landslides on the slopes above the ejido (communal land-holding). Several homes were damaged in a Dec. 6 landslide, and the mining operations have also released toxic gases, Ortega said. The explosions in the area remain ongoing. Ortega added that there is a title despute to the land-holding, and many of the campesinos have already abandoned the ejido. The 40 or so who remain "run the risk of being violently evicted by the company's gunmen." (OCMAL, Dec. 26)

At least 13 people, including seven police officers, were killed and eight others wounded in three shootouts involving police and "armed commandos" on the border of Jalisco and Michoacán states in west-central Mexico Dec. 23. The first incident came when Michoacán state police responded to a report of a traffic accident in Briseñas  municipality and were ambushed. Similar gunfights shortly followed in the nearby municipalities of Quitúpan and Ayotlán. The following day, bullets flew in the central plaza of Yurécuaro, Michoacán, in what authorities called a shootout between the Knights Templar and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, leaving an unarmed bystander dead. Also on Christmas Eve, a group of armed men stormed the town of El Platanar de Los Ontiveros in the mountains of northwestern Sinaloa state, killing nine with assault weapons and dumping their bodies on a sports field. Authorities called that one a fight between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas. (AP, Dec. 26; AFP, Dec. 25; EFE, Dec. 24; Milenio, Dec. 23)

Dakota Indians and their supporters commemorated the largest mass execution in US history at a ceremony Dec. 26 in Mankato, Minn. On that day in 1862, a public hanging was held of 38 Dakota men, for crimes allegedly committed in that year's US-Dakota War—the execution order personally signed by President Abraham Lincoln. A new monument was dedicated as part of the ceremony at the town's old hanging ground, now called Reconciliation Park. Participants included a group of some 50 Dakota horseback riders and supporters who left South Dakota three weeks ago for Mankato. One organizer of the ride, Peter Lengkeek, told the crowd: "In 1862, those 38 were hung as criminals. They died because they were protecting the children, the women, our way of life. And for that I am ever thankful."

Rebels in the Central African Republic Dec. 23 seized the key city of Bambari—the country's third largest—as part of their new offensive. The rebels—known as the Seleka coalition—have seized several towns north of the capital in recent weeks, charging that President Francois Bozize has failed to uphold a 2007 peace deal. The Libreville Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed with former rebel groups, called for the release of prisoners and compensation to ex-combatants. The renewed insurgents also oppose plans by Bozize to alter the constitution to seek a third term, according to a statement signed by Seleka secretary general Justin Mambissi Matar.

The government of Puerto Rico and the US Justice Department signed a 106-page agreement on Dec. 21 for reforming the island's 17,000-member police department. The reforms are intended to address numerous police abuses detailed in a September 2011 Justice Department report; the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued its own report on abuses in June 2012. The Justice Department also filed a lawsuit requiring the Puerto Rican government and police department to comply with the Justice Department's earlier directives, but this was considered a legal formality, since the agreement apparently represents the compliance the US was seeking.

An Argentine federal court handed down life sentences on Dec. 19 to former Buenos Aires province interior minister Jaime Smart (1976-1979), former Buenos Aires province police investigations director Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz and 14 former police and military personnel for genocide and crimes against humanity in the cases of 280 people detained during the 1976-1983 "dirty war" against suspected leftists. Another seven police agents and civilians were given sentences of two to 25 years.