A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia Dec. 10 found the US Department of Defense in contempt for failing to videotape the testimony of Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohammed al-Adahi. Al-Adahi had petitioned for habeas relief in 2005, which the court granted in August, and Judge Gladys Kessler had directed the DoD to videotape the testimony at the merits hearing in June so that the public and news media could see it. The government failed to comply with that order, claiming it was "due to oversight and miscommunication."

Human rights conditions in 12 Arab nations continued to deteriorate last year, according to a report issued Dec. 9 by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS). The publication, entitled "Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform," is the group's second annual report. It condemns violations of human rights, including those against political and reform activists. According to the report, Iraq continues to be the region's worst offender despite "relative improvements," while Egypt, Morocco, and Bahrain are identified as having regressed significantly since last year.

Colombian officials are continuing to investigate three Chiquita Brands officials suspected of involvement in the payment of paramilitary death squads in the name of the banana company. According to a report by Bogotá's El Tiempo Dec. 7, Colombian prosecutors requested that the US Department of Justice notify Chiquita Brands executives John Paul Olivo, Charles Dennis Keiser and Dorn Robert Wenninnger that they are under investigation by the Colombian government for having financed paramilitary operations in the region of Urabá totaling $1.7 million between 1997-2004.

At a meeting on Dec. 3 at the headquarters of the Union of Workers of the Brewery Industry and the Like (STIBYS) in Tegucigalpa, 300 members of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d'Etat, a coalition of Honduran grassroots organizations, agreed not to end a five-month struggle that they started on June 28 when the military removed President José Manuel ("Mel") Zelaya Rosales from office. "We're going to continue the struggle, but only for the Constituent [Assembly], not for the restitution [of Zelaya]," general director Juan Barahona told the Agence France Presse (AFP) wire service, referring to demands for a convention to rewrite the country's 1982 Constitution. The Resistance Front also said it would institute a "pause" in its daily street demonstrations, although it was planning a march for Dec. 11.

On Dec. 4 the French wire service AFP reported that with 57% of the votes from Honduras' Nov. 29 general elections officially counted, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) had revised its earlier turnout estimate down from 61.3% to about 49%. Two days later, on Dec. 6, the CNN cable news network reported that it had gotten figures from TSE spokesperson Roberto Reyes Pineda showing that participation was at 56.6%, with 2,609,754 people voting out of a total of 4,611,000 registered voters. The TSE has to provide the final results within 30 days of the election. (Diario el Tiempo, Venezuela, Dec. 4; AFP, Dec. 4; CNN, Dec. 6)

On Dec. 4 tens of thousands of laid-off Mexican electrical workers and their supporters again took to the streets of the capital to protest President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa's sudden liquidation of the government-owned Central Light and Power Company (LFC) the night of Oct. 10. The center-right government claims it took the step because the company was inefficient and was losing money; opponents say the government is seeking to privatize the LFC and to break the powerful independent Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), which represented the company's 44,000 active employees and some 23,000 retirees.

According to exit polls by three different firms, Bolivian president Evo Morales appears to have won a second five-year term in general elections on Dec. 6 with 61-63.2% of the vote. Right-wing former Cochabamba governor Manfred Reyes Villa was projected to get 23-25%, followed by center-right business owner Samuel Doria Medina with 7%.

Greek police conducted raids in Athens Dec. 5 in an effort to avoid a repeat of last year's violent protests as the first anniversary of a controversial police shooting approaches. Over 6,000 officers spread across the city, arresting more than 150 people for throwing rocks or vandalism. Students preparing to commemorate the incident gathered in universities, and authorities estimate 150 anarchists converged on the country from across Europe. Prime Minister George Papandreou emphasized the importance of maintaining stability, and said the government had adopted a "zero tolerance policy towards violence."