From the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), Dec. 7:

Darkest Scenario for Women of Iraq:
Public executions of women by Islamist militias in Baghdad

Shia Militias: A new wave of public executions against women is undertaken by Al Mahdi army. Dragging, flogging, hanging and shootings fall within the routine procedure of these executions which are taking place in growing numbers.

Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990) died of heart failure at the age of 91 in the Santiago Military Hospital the afternoon of Dec. 10. Dozens of his right-wing supporters gathered outside the hospital as soon as they heard he had died. Heavily guarded by the police, they sang the national anthem, waved flags and photographs of the dictator and tried to assault reporters and photographers. Dozens of Pinochet's opponents gathered in the nearby Plaza Italia, embracing each other and carrying signs celebrating the general's death.

A sneak preview of our upcoming film review by cultural critic Shlomo Svesnik...

MEL GIBSON'S HEART OF DARKNESS
Apocalypto Reveals More About Mel than the Maya

Here we go again.

Mel Gibson's 2004 surprise mega-hit The Passion of the Christ was all the more unlikely a success because the dialogue was entirely in Latin and Aramaic, a pretension intended to portray an air of exacting historical authenticity. Astute critics, however, pointed out that the film deviated sharply from both history and scripture. And the linguistic affectation was not even accurate: the Roman troops and administrators in Judea more often spoke Greek than Latin, and the dialect of Aramaic was wrong.

Mexican federal police searched the offices of Oaxaca's state police forces Dec. 8, seizing hundreds of weapons. The federal Public Security Secretariat said in a statement that the search was carried out to check the permits for weapons used by the state police. Ballistics experts also checked the seized weapons to match them against bullets used in recent shootings, the secretariat said.

From India's Zee News, Dec. 10, link added:

LONDON -- Protests are planned around the world on Sunday against the mass rape of women and girls allegedly by Sudanese government soldiers and allied militiamen in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Got your scorecard out? Quick, which side is the US backing here? From Reuters, Dec. 9:

N'DJAMENA - The Chadian army clashed with rebels in eastern Chad on Saturday during several hours of heavy fighting in the desert, rebel and government sources said.

The US and Ethiopia appear to be grooming the northern autonomous regions of Somalia—Puntland and Somaliland—as proxies to fight the Islamic Courts Union that controls the traditional capital, Mogadishu. So: should we be supporting this as a defense of freedom against Islamist totalitarianism, or opposing it as destructive imperialist meddling? Sound off, readers. From the independent Shabelle Media Network, Mogadishu, Dec. 7, via AllAfrica:

Jimmy Carter describes how the separation wall, 80% of which Israel is building inside the occupied West Bank in contravention of international law, makes life terrible for the Palestinians who live in its destructive path. From Palestine: Peace not Apartheid:

The area between the segregation barrier and the Israeli border has been designated a closed military region for an indefinite period of time. Israeli directives state that every Palestinian over the age of twelve living in the closed area has to obtain a "permanent resident permit" from the civil administration to enable them to continue to live in their own homes. They are considered to be aliens, without the rights of Israeli citizens. To summarize: whatever territory Israel decides to confiscate will be on its side of the wall, but Israelis will still retain control of the Palestinians who will be on the other side of the barrier, enclosed between it and Israel's forces in the Jordan River valley. (pp. 192-3)