Now, obviously the reality of Abu Ghraib and the Iraq horrorshow generally is an essential backdrop to the anti-cartoon protests. But isn't there something pretty sick about the paucity of coverage the release of the new torture photos has received in comparison to the seas of ink spilled over the cartoon controversy? About the fact that the rioters throughout the Muslim world are at least ostensibly reacting to offensive cartoons rather than real torture? And, finally, about the utter hypocrisy of "free speech" in the West—as manifested by the Bush administration's protests over the photos being printed and broadcast? Big ups to Australia's Special Broadcasting Service for resisting White House pressure. From The Australian, Feb. 17:

On Feb. 16 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) declared former president Rene Garcia Preval (1996-2001) the winner of the Feb. 7 presidential election. The declaration followed an agreement the night before that the CEP would leave some of the 85,000 blank ballots (almost 4% of the total 2.2 million ballots casts) out of the official count; this would automatically change Preval's total from 48.76% to 51.15%, eliminating any need for a runoff with second-place candidate Leslie Manigat, who trailed badly with less than 12%. Preval, formerly a close associate of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was the candidate of the Lespwa ("Hope") coalition. Manigat, who was president briefly in 1988, ran for the Coalition of Democratic National Progressives (RDNP).

Hundreds of Dominican activists have reportedly held a series of demonstrations recently to protest the presence of 800 US soldiers in Barahona, capital of the southwestern province of Barahona. In one protest, apparently on Feb. 14, demonstrators gathered in the city's central park and then marched to the encampment where the US soldiers are staying. Dominican soldiers guarding the site pointed their rifles at the protesters, who later burned an effigy of Uncle Sam. The protest was organized by a coalition, the Bolivarian Continental Coordinating Committee.

During the week of Jan. 30, US federal judge G. Mallon Faircloth in Columbus, Georgia, sentenced 31 activists to prison terms of as much as six months for peacefully entering the US Army's Fort Benning on Nov. 20 as part of an annual protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). Judge Faircloth also imposed fines of as much as $1,000. He sentenced one additional protester to a year of probation. Some 19,000 people took part in the demonstration in 2005, the largest since the demonstrations began in 1990. The school trains Latin American soldiers, and many of its graduates are among the region's most notorious human rights violators. Some 180 people have served prison sentences for civil disobedience at the base over the years. (SOA Watch Action Alert, Feb. 2)

On Feb. 6 police arrested six leftist activists in the community of Antebi Cue, town of Sgto. Jose Felix Lopez (also known as Puentesinho), in San Carlos municipality in the northeastern Paraguayan department of Concepcion, near the border with Brazil. The six were in a Toyota SUV owned by the Campesino Organization of the North (OCN); police say they were carrying food, medicines, ammunition and explosives. Police confiscated the vehicle.

From Haartez, Feb. 19:

Jewish group: Try Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide
The European Jewish Congress (EJC) is set to file a complaint in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide, EJC president Pierre Besnainou told Haaretz.

From Mexico's El Universal, Feb. 16, via the Miami Herald:

Fox calls for probe in Lydia Cacho case
The governor of Puebla is under fire after he is allegedly heard discussing the jailing of a journalist on a tape released to the media
The federal government on Wednesday condemned an alleged plot by a state governor and a prominent businessman to jail a journalist for libel after she wrote a book about networks of pedophiles and child pornographers.

From the Times of India, Feb. 19:

ISLAMABAD: Security forces put a cordon around the Pakistani capital and made hundreds of arrests, before using tear gas and gunfire to quash a banned protest Sunday against cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, witnesses and officials said.