Afghan President Hamid Karzai Dec. 28 appointed a delegation to begin an investigation of 10 civilian deaths, including eight schoolchildren, believed to have occurred during a raid by international forces in Kunar province. The raid in the Narang district occurred on Dec. 26, and allegedly involved NATO forces, though this has not been confirmed. The same day that Karzai announced the formation of the special delegation, a UN committee released figures that show that civilian deaths in Afghanistan in 2009 are up by 10% over 2008. (Jurist, Dec. 29)

Another indigenous Guarani leader, Osmair Martins Ximenes, was killed in Brazil last week, the latest in a string of killings related to the theft of the people's land. Two other members of his community, Kuretê Lopez and Ortiz Lopez, were killed in 2007 by gunmen hired by ranchers, as they attempted to reoccupy ancestral lands. The Guarani of Kurusu Mba community demand that their land rights be recognized as soon as possible. They said "we are growing impatient with the delay; it is slowly draining us of our life, and exposing us to genocide."

Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba announced on Dec. 26 that she had asked the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to state whether they are responsible for the Dec. 21 abduction of Luis Francisco Cuéllar, governor of the southern department of Caquetá, whose body was found with a slashed throat outside the state capital, Florencia, on Dec. 22. Police agent Javier García Gutiérrez was also killed in the incident, and two agents were injured. The government of right-wing president Alvaro Uribe immediately blamed the FARC for the kidnapping and deaths. Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL), a news agency which carries communiqués from the rebels, called the government's claim "irresponsible," but as of Dec. 26 there had been no denial from the FARC.

Relatives of people who were killed when the US military invaded Panama in 1989 marked the 20th anniversary of the intervention on Dec. 20 with a protest outside the old US embassy in Panama City, burning effigies of US president Barack Obama and Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli. The Association of Relatives of the Fallen is calling for a Truth Commission to investigate the events of December 1989, including possible war crimes. The protesters said they have brought this demand to four Panamanian governments without success and are now trying to get action from right-wing president Martinelli, who took office on July 1.

At a ceremony in La Paz marking International Migrants Day on Dec. 18, Bolivian foreign minister David Choquehuanca said the leftist government of President Evo Morales had an "obligation" to help Bolivian migrants return to their country. "The recovery of our natural resources is important for us so that Bolivians who for different reasons have gone abroad to look for work or to study can return to our country and can build [their] dreams in our lands," Choquehuanca said, linking the issue to the government's nationalization policies. He also announced accords with Spain to make it easier for Bolivian immigrants to Spain to get drivers' licenses there.

On Dec. 21 Mexico City's legislature, the Federal District Legislative Assembly (ALDF), voted 39-20 to permit same-sex marriage; another 39-20 vote later in the session gave same-sex couples the legal right to adopt children. Deputies from the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the small leftist Workers Party (PT) voted for the measure, while the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and the small Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) opposed it. Two deputies from the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) voted with the opposition, and five abstained. PAN coordinator Mariana Gómez del Campo and PRI coordinator Israel Betanzos said they would challenge the law's constitutionality before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).

The Red Cross says that of the 39 killed Dec. 28 in a clash between government forces and the Yan Kala-Kato Islamic sect in the Nigerian state of Bauchi, some 60% were students aged between nine and 15. Sect leader Malam Badamasi was reportedly among those killed by a joint army and police squad at Zango. Fighting broke out at Zango, on the outskirts of Bauchi city, after a sermon delivered by the sect's leader created a disturbance. Preachers reportedly threatened those who refused to convert to their brand of Islam with being expelled from the area. (BBC News, IPS, Dec. 29)

A UN High Commissioner for Refugees official protested Thailand's move to forcibly repatriate some 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to Laos. "UNHCR is extremely dismayed that Thailand has commenced the deportations of the Lao Hmong today from the camp in Phetchabun," said Ariane Rummery, UNHCR spokesperson in Bangkok. "We don't have access to the area, but we have had reports that deportations began this morning and about 400 people have been removed so far."