Anonymous Israeli security officials told Haaretz newspaper Nov. 23 that they believe Turkey is preparing a military intervention in Syria, seeking to create a secure buffer zone on the border for armed opposition forces. Ankara has already given shelter to some 20,000 refugees fleeing repression by Syrian President Bashar Assad's security forces, and also hosts Syrian opposition groups. Unnamed Israeli officials said that Ankara is expected to set up bases that would be protected by the Turkish army from which Syrian opposition forces can operate. (Haaretz, Nov. 23)

Protests rocked Cairo for a sixth day Nov. 23, as security forces again used tear gas in another effort to clear Tahrir Square. Clashes raged in surrounding streets, and the square was illuminated by floodlights mounted on armored personnel carriers. Health officials say 32 are now dead in the six days of unrest. Protests also broke out in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, the canal city of Suez, the central city of Qena, the northern city of Port Said, Assiut and Aswan in the south, in the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya, and the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The case against Jose Pimentel, the latest accused would-be Islamist terrorist who was busted in New York City, is starting to smell more and more dubious. It seems the case was left to the NYPD and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance because the FBI—not exactly known for its caution or scrupulous reverence for defendants' rights—declined to get involved, fearing a weak case. City authorities are portraying Pimental as an "al-Qaeda sympathizer" (note: "sympathizer," not "operative") but also as a "lone wolf" with no actual overseas connections. He was impecunious (hardly a condition for an effective terrorist), and openly maintained a website espousing his jihadist beliefs and bad-assing about blowing shit up (ditto). The FBI was apparently worried about entrapment—which has already been invoked as a possibility by Pimentel's attorney.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Nov. 23 that the ICC would allow Libya to conduct the trial of Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi. Despite concern from human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, about whether Saif al-Islam Qaddafi can receive a fair trial in Libya, Ocampo said he trusts the new Libyan government will be able to try him fairly and maintained that the ICC will not intervene as long as it does not stray from ICC standards. The ICC issued a statement clarifying that, "[s]hould the Libyan authorities wish to conduct national prosecutions against the suspect, they shall submit a challenge to the admissibility of the case before Pre-Trial Chamber I... Any decision on the admissibility of a case is under the sole competence of the Judges of the ICC." On the issue of the trial of Moammar Qaddafi's former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, Ocampo denied reports by Libya's National Transitional Council that he had been captured.

The relatives of 57 people killed in a 2009 Philippines massacre on Nov. 22 sued former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for allegedly assisting the perpetrators. The families seek five million pesos (USD $345,000) from Arroyo for damages caused by her alleged support of the Ampatuan family, whom government prosecutors claim were behind the November 2009 Maguindanao Massacre. Arroyo has denied any wrongdoing. The lawsuit comes at a particularly difficult time for Arroyo after Philippine authorities formally charged her on Nov. 19 with electoral sabotage, a day after she was arrested on a warrant [text] issued for charges of corruption and election fraud that occurred during her time as president.

Thousands of activists attended the 21st annual protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the US Army School of the Americas (SOA), in front of the US Army's Fort Benning base in Columbus, Georgia, on Nov. 20. The SOA Watch movement, which sponsors the protests, opposes the army's training of Latin American soldiers, noting that SOA graduates have been among the region's most notorious human rights violators.

On Nov. 16 the largest US labor federation, the AFL-CIO, presented its 2011 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award to Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, general secretary of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM). AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and United Steelworkers (USW) president Leo Gerard made the presentation at ceremony in the federation's Washington, DC headquarters; Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) and Rep. Mike Machaud (D-ME) also attended. The two US labor leaders both have links to the Mexican miners' union: Trumka is the former head of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), and Gerard and the USW have been working closely with the SNTMMSRM, which represents steelworkers as well as miners.

Haitian activists have started an international campaign to force Port-au-Prince apparel assembly plants to rehire six union members who were dismissed in the last week of September, allegedly for their union activities. As part of the campaign, Yannick Etienne, an organizer with the Haitian leftist group Batay Ouvriye ("Workers' Struggle"), was in Montreal on Nov. 14 meeting with local labor rights activists and with media to put pressure on Gildan Activewear Inc., a Montreal-based apparel firm that has garments stitched at one of the Haitian plants.