In Other News... for Tuesday December 12, 2006

A pair of suicide car bombs killed at least 70 Iraqis and wounded 235, mostly Shia day laborers, in downtown Baghdad. Witnesses said a BMW car rear-ended a police vehicle and exploded, prompting the workers and market-stall-keepers to shelter on the other side of the square. Minutes later, a pickup truck ploughed into them and exploded. Meanwhile insurgents again targeted a revered Shia shrine in the northern town of Samarra by placing a bomb at its entrance that exploded as it was being defused.
Main Source: AFP

Some 5,000 fervent supporters of Augusto Pinochet mourned on Tuesday at the funeral of the former Chilean dictator whose repressive 17-year rule resulted in the torture and murder of tens of thousands. The military said up to 60,000 people attended a public viewing of Pinochet's casket before the funeral. Pinochet’s opponents celebrated his passing with a memorial at the monument of his predecessor Salvador Allende. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people gathered at the monument, according to Chilean media.
Main Source: Reuters

A grey blanket of smog hangs over the mining town of La Oroya high up in the Andes in Peru, where several generations have suffered the effects of the lead dust and toxic fumes spewed out by a giant smelting complex. The local vegetation has been destroyed by acid rain and the dense air stings the eyes and throat. Nevertheless, dependency on the mining and metals industry means the people of Peru, and La Oroya in particular, are loathe to see such dangerous facilities shut down by regulations, making rights advocacy a tricky venture.
Main Source: InterPress Service

Sunday was International Human Rights Day, but leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples say they had no reason to celebrate, in response to the UN’s recent decision to withhold support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. While it was the African bloc of states that had called for further discussion of the draft, indigenous leaders blamed the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for orchestrating a negative campaign.
Main Source: InterPress Service

Following discussions with the Bush administration, several of Iraq’s major political parties are in talks to team up against radical Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr's influence within the government, Iraqi officials say. The 2 main Kurdish groups, the most influential Sunni Arab party and an Iranian-backed Shia party have invited PM Nouri Al-Maliki to join their talks. But Al-Maliki, a conservative Shia close to Al-Sadr, has held back for fear of an attempt to oust him, one legislator said. Al-Sadr leads the 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia.
Main Source: New York Times

Somalia's Islamic Courts movement threatened on Tuesday to wage war on more than 30,000 Ethiopian troops it said were in the nation unless they leave within 7 days. The Islamists took a swathe of southern Somalia in June, threatening the nominal authority of the interim Ethiopia- and UN-backed government. Witnesses say thousands of Ethiopian troops have crossed the border to protect the government in and around the only town it actually controls, but Ethiopia only acknowledges sending several hundred armed military advisers.
Main Source: Mail & Guardian

Hamas gunmen fired on demonstrators from the rival Fatah movement on Tuesday, wounding 4, officials said. The incident intensified fears of greater Palestinian infighting after the killing of a Fatah official's 3 children. The demonstration was held to protest the murders of those children, for which Fatah also blames Hamas. A local Fatah leader said the demonstration was peaceful, though he acknowledged that some children had first thrown rocks at the Hamas militiamen. A hospital confirmed 4 wounded, though Hamas denied shooting them.
Main Source: Associated Press

Independent exit polls show Irwandi Yusuf, a former separatist leader who was in an Indonesian prison for treason 2 years ago, has won the first direct election for governor of the country's Aceh province with almost 39% of the vote. Aceh gained a greater share of its considerable income and the right for freed and exiled Free Aceh Movement leaders to run for office under a 2005 peace deal. Yusuf set aside independence demands to participate in the election. About 75% of Aceh's 2.6 million voters turned out for the largely peaceful polling.
Main Source: Bloomberg

The Russian government is forcing Shell Oil to hand over its controlling stake in the world's biggest liquefied-gas project, provoking fresh speculation about the Kremlin's willingness to use the country's growing strength in natural resources as a political weapon. The Anglo-Dutch company has to cut its stake in the $20 billion scheme in the far east of Russia in favor of the state-owned energy group Gazprom. The Russian authorities are also threatening BP over alleged environmental violations on a Siberian field.
Main Source: The Guardian

Mexico's new government ordered thousands of troops to the western state of Michoacan on Monday to fight drug cartels locked in a vicious turf war. President Felipe Calderon's security cabinet said more than 5,000 soldiers and Marines were being deployed to crack down on drug gangs in the state, a key air and sea transshipment point for US-bound cocaine. This weekend, troops captured several alleged gang members in three separate raids in Michoacan. One involved a shootout.
Main Source: Reuters

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First have argued before a US federal court that Donald Rumsfeld, the outgoing secretary for defense, should be held accountable for torture and abuse. The hearing marked the first time a court has considered whether top US officials can be held accountable for torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. Plaintiffs argued that the US Constitution and international law clearly prohibit torture and require commanders to act when they know or should have known of abuses.
Main Source: Aljazeera

African Union peacekeepers killed 3 Darfur rioters when a crowd of angry refugees threatened to break into their base in the town of El Geneina, a UN official said Monday. It was the first time peacekeepers are reported to have killed noncombatants there, marking new deterioration in the war-torn region of western Sudan. Sudanese police then reportedly deployed around the AU base to protect the peacekeepers. In a separate incident, the AU force reported Monday that gunmen had kidnapped 2 of its peacekeepers the night before.
Main Source: Associated Press

Iraqi women appear to face ever-increasing risk of abduction by US and Iraqi forces, as well as militias and criminal gangs. The Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq says anecdotal evidence suggests that over 2,000 Iraqi women have gone missing since the US-led invasion. According to a study published by the Washington-based Brookings Institute Dec. 4, some 30 to 40 Iraqis were kidnapped every day as of March this year. Women are abducted by criminals seeking ransom, by US troops as bargaining chips, and by religious sects.
Main Source: InterPress Service