Yemeni authorities should stop using unjustified lethal force against protesters and end attacks on the media in southern Yemen, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Dec. 14. The 73-page report, "In the Name of Unity: The Yemeni Government's Brutal Response to Southern Movement Protests," documents attacks by security forces on supporters of the so-called Southern Movement as well as on journalists, academics, and other opinion-makers.

A new Human Rights Watch report, "'You Will Be Punished': Attacks on Civilians in Eastern Congo," documents in detail the deliberate killing of more than 1,400 civilians between January and September 2009 during two successive Congolese army operations against a Rwandan Hutu militia, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The report is based on 23 HRW fact-finding missions this year and interviews with over 600 victims, witnesses, and family members.

Saudi Arabian warplanes bombed a market in Bani Maan village in Yemen killing 70 civilians, rebels in the north of the country said Dec. 14. The rebels, known as Houthis, have accused the Saudis of several cross-border raids. Additionally, Iran's Press TV, citing claims on the rebels' Almenpar website, reported that US fighter jets took part in the air-raids in the northwestern province of Sa'ada. (BBC News, Press TV, Dec. 14)

The US Supreme Court on Dec. 14 declined to hear a lawsuit by four UK citizens and former Guantánamo Bay detainees against former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other military officials. The Court denied certiorari in Rasul v. Myers, leaving in tact a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

Calls are growing for a declaration of martial law in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in the wake of a series of attacks. In the most recent, on Dec. 13 dozens of Moro militants used sledgehammers and bolt cutters to smash their way into the Basilan provincial jail, freeing 31 inmates—including two commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). A jail guard and one of the raiders were killed in the pre-dawn assault. (Inquirer, Manila, Dec. 14)

The Uzbek government is cracking down on rights activists before Dec. 27 parliamentary elections, Human Rights Watch charges—while criticizing the West for staying silent. Uzbekistan this year mended ties with the West that had been all but severed after harsh repression in 2005. HRW charged Dec. 10 that Uzbek authorities in Karshi and Margilan have detained human rights advocates to prevent them from meeting with an HRW researcher. In Karshi, the HRW researcher was also attacked by an unknown assailant, then detained and forced to leave the city. "The attack appeared to be a setup," HRW stated. Additionally, seven human rights and political activists were detained last month, three of whom were also beaten, when they attempted to meet with a political opposition leader.

Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Astana Dec. 13 to unveil the Kazakh section of a 7,000-kilometer (4,300-mile) natural gas pipeline joining Central Asia to China. Hu was joined by Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the inauguration, where the two leaders together pressed a symbolic button to open the 1,833-kilometer Kazakh section. Nazarbayev said: "This is a grand construction project that will in time resurrect the ancient Silk Route." Hu is next due to head to a commissioning ceremony in Turkmenistan, where the pipeline actually begins. He is expected to be joined there by President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, the fourth country involved in the project.

The family of Kenyan Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohamed Abdulmalik has filed a lawsuit against the Kenyan government claiming that he was illegally detained, tortured, and renditioned to US authorities. The suit seeks Abdulmalik's return to Kenya and $30 million in damages.