With 70% of southern Mexico's Gulf Coast state of Tabasco under water following weeks of heavy rains, Gov. Andrés Granier has compared capital Villahermosa (pop. 500,000) to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The Rio Grijalva, which flows through Villahermosa, has surged six feet above its normal height. Television shows images of Mexican Navy helicopters scooping up children from rooftops and rescuers lowering elderly people into boats. Many thousands more waded or swam though chest-high water out of the stricken city. The state's critical oil infrastructure is in ruins, and up to a million have been displaced. (NYT, Nov. 4; NYT, Nov. 3; eFluxMedia, Nov. 2) Gov. Granier is demanding that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) shut down the Peñitas hydro-dam upstream from Villahermosa on the Grijalva, in the foothills of the Chiapas Highlands. The CFE has reduced the flow through the dam by two-thirds to 800 cubic meters per second, but refuses to shut it completely. Said Granier: "The game is over; they must completely stop the pumping through Peñitas, because I demand respect for the people... Energy generation is now secondary, today the most important thing...is to lower the level of the river." (La Jornada, Nov. 4)

The government of Ghana has sent in hundreds of army troops and declared a curfew in the township of Keta, Volta Region, after four people were killed in a longstanding chieftaincy dispute Nov. 1. One of the dead was a police officer, reportedly kidnapped by one of the rival factions after the clash. Security officials said one royal family in the district of Anloga was preparing a ceremony to install a new chief, when some 100 people from a rival family—armed with AK-47s and clubs—raided the site. The group opened fire on the some 40 police who were guarding the site, and the police returned fire. Three civilians died in the shooting, including a woman. The two royal families, both of the Anlo people, have been fighting over who should succeed the paramount chief—the Awoamefia in the Ewe language —who died 10 years ago.

Five people were killed and six others wounded when a missile—allegedly fired from a US drone—hit a suspected militant compound in the restive North Waziristan region of Pakistan, near the Afghan border Nov. 2. Residents said a pilotless US drone fired two missiles into the compound in Dandi Darpakhel in the outskirts of Miran Shah, the regional capital. At least two of the wounded were said to be of Uzbek origin. The casualties were given first aid and taken away by men associated with a militant commander from South Waziristan. Militants sealed off the entire area and did not allow anyone to get to the compound. Some residents put the death toll at 10 and the number of wounded at 12. The compound was located near the madrassa of Waziristan Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, who is said to have close ties to Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon denied the US military was responsible for the missile strike. A spokesman for the CIA, which operates drones as well, declined to comment. (NYT; Dawn, Pakistan, Nov. 3)

Japan has ordered the withdrawal of its two ships supporting US-led operations in Afghanistan following the government's failure to agree a deal with the opposition to extend the mission beyond the end of its mandate on Nov. 1. The administration of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has said it would try to pass new legislation to allow a more limited mission. "The government will make its utmost effort... to resume an important mission in the Indian Ocean," chief Cabinet spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said. Japan has refuelled coalition warships in the Indian Ocean since 2001.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse student protesters who turned out by the tens of thousands in Caracas Nov. 1 to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely. Chanting "Freedom! Freedom!," protesters marched on the National Electoral Council (CNE) to deliver a document calling for the referendum on the reforms, scheduled for Dec. 2, to be postponed. Authorities broke up the protest outside the CNE headquarters, where six police officers and one student were reported injured. Protesters said the 69 amendments drafted by Venezuela's Chavista-dominated National Assembly would derail democracy. But as the march passed through the poorer area of Parque Central, the protest was met with spontaneous cries from Chavez supporters of "Chavez is not going" and "They will not return"—a reference to the political leaders of the pre-Chavez era. (AP, Nov. 3; VenezuelAnalysis, Nov. 2)

An appellate court in Tehran confirmed a five-year sentence against imprisoned union leader Mansur Osanlu Oct. 30. The court also upheld a two-year prison sentence against another senior member of Osanlu's union, Ebrahim Madadi, for acting against Iran's national security. Osanlu, head of the Syndicate Workers of the Tehran Bus Company, has been incarcerated at Tehran's Evin prison since July, when he pulled from a bus, beaten, and abducted. Madadi was detained along with four other union members in August after they visited Osanlu's home.

Uruguayan police clashed with Argentine environmentalists who were on a boat to protest a Finnish paper mill they fear will spew pollution into a border river Oct. 27. Police boarded one of 20 boats in a protest flotilla on the Rio Uruguay in front of the paper mill owned by Finnish company Botnia which is due to open soon. "We were conducting a peaceful protest near the Uruguayan coast when three Uruguyan police boats surrounded us and wanted to detain us," protester Gustavo Zapata, told reporters. Zapata claimed that he was struck by one of the officers, who tried to detain him. Another activist said an officer and a protester fell in the river. Argentine environmentalists have maintained a human blockade on one border bridge for nearly a year in protest over the mill, which has been a source of tension between the two countries' governments. Argentina has asked the International Court of Justice to halt the project on the grounds that it violates a bilateral agreement on water quality. (AFP, Oct. 27)

WORLD WAR 4 REPORT editor Bill Weinberg led another modestly-attended presentation this evening about the Iraq Freedom Congress, this time at a meeting of the New York chapter of the Socialist Party USA. An announcement for the event, which featured a screening of the Japanese-produced video Go Forward Iraq Freedom Congress!, sparked this predictable exchange on the always-reliable NYC Indymedia site: