The New York Times on Jan. 6 ran a story, "US Sends Warning to People Named in Cable Leaks," finally giving some play to a critical issue in the WikiLeaks affair that neither supporters nor detractors of Julian Assange have been quick to examine: the impact of the leaks on dissidents under authoritarian regimes. But the story is more noteworthy for what it omits than what it reports:

Italian authorities say an anarchist cell has claimed responsibility for parcel bomb attacks on the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome, in which two staff members were injured Dec. 23. A note found at at the scene of the Chilean embassy blast was signed by the "Lambros Fountas Cell" of the Informal Federation of Anarchy (FAI). Lambros Fountas was a Greek anarchist killed in a shoot-out with Athens police in March. "We have decided to make our voice heard with words and deeds," the note read. "We will destroy the dominant system, long live FAI, long live anarchy."

From Human Rights Watch, Oct. 28:

Roma and related minority groups deported from Western Europe to Kosovo face discrimination and severe deprivation amounting to human rights abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

A group of 15 Spanish police officers went on trial Oct. 26 in Guipúzcoa Provincial Court, in the northern Basque country, for the torture of two ETA activists. The alleged victims, Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, were convicted and sentenced to 1,040 years in prison in the 2006 Madrid airport bombing that killed two people. Portu and Sarasola claim police mistreated them physically and psychologically. The Guardia Civil police force maintains the two were trying to escape, and that limited use of force was necessary. Prosecutors seek two to three years in prison for the accused officers.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced Oct. 11 that police have arrested Mal Rt [Reuters backgrounder] CEO Zoltan Bakonyi on criminal negligence charges for the company's role in last week's Akja chemical spill. Orban also announced an emergency law that was easily passed allowing the government to take control of Mal Rt, which owned the plant from which the spill originated. The spill occurred Oct. 4 when one of the plant's reservoirs cracked, releasing nearly 200 million gallons of toxic sludge, killing eight people, injuring hundreds more and causing environmental damage that some fear could take years to clean up. Police initiated their criminal investigation last week. If convicted, Bakonyi faces up to 11 years in prison.

A flood of red toxic sludge spilled by an aluminum plant in western Hungary has advanced along a secondary tributary to the Danube River and could reach the international waterway by the weekend, a local defense authority official said Oct. 6. One million cubic meters of sludge flooded the villages of Devecser, Kolontar and Somlovasarhely on Oct. 4 when a waste impoundment wall broke at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant owned by MAL Magyar Aluminium in the town of Ajka, 160 kilometers southwest of Budapest.

The popular major of Pollica, a town south of Naples on Italy's Tyrrhenian coast, was assassinated Sept. 6 next to his home in the fishing hamlet of Acciaroli. Angelo Vassallo, noted for his efforts to preserve the environment and for standing up to organized crime, was killed with nine lethal shots as he drove his car. Anti-mafia judge Raffaele Marino stressed that Vassallo paid for his stand on respect of the law.

An international day of action has been called for Sept. 17 to support Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov, two young anti-fascist activists arrested following a July 28 protest against the cutting of the Khimki Forest outside Moscow for a new Moscow-St. Petersburg toll highway, the first of its kind in Russia. Khimki town authorities and the highway project contractor have recruited nationalist thugs to break up a peaceful protest camp organized by environmentalists and local residents, and illegally arrested and beat up journalists covering the story. After the July protest in Khimki, in which some windows were broken, the FSB (former KGB) and its affiliated (and ironically named) Center for Extremism Prevention carried out a sweep of local anti-fascist youth, in which Gaskarov and Solopov were arrested. They face up to seven years in prison for disorderly conduct, although there is no evidence of their complicity in illegal activities.