Two car bombs detonated on the morning of Dec. 11 at an Algiers court building and a UN facility, leaving over 60 dead, scores injured and more still missing in the rubble of collapsed buildings. When the first bomb exploded at 9:40 AM outside the Constitutional Council in the downtown district of Ben Aknoun, it was heard up to 15 kilometers away. A bus carrying law students to class along the major thoroughfare was crushed in the blast. Just as first responders were arriving the site of the bombing, a second car bomb destroyed the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the neighboring residential district of Hydra. (Magharebia, Dec. 11)

Gee, good thing we don't have to worry about anti-Semitism anymore. From AP via Newsday, Dec. 11:

Police: NYC subway riders beaten after 'Happy Hanukkah' greeting
NEW YORK — Four Jewish subway riders who wished other people "Happy Hanukkah" were pelted with anti-Semitic remarks before being beaten, police and prosecutors said. The incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Meeting in Oruro rather than its official seat of protest-wracked Sucre, Bolivia's Constituent Assembly approved all 411 articles of the new constitution in a marathon 16-hour session dominated by the ruling Movement to Socialism (MAS) and its allies—and boycotted by the opposition. Said Assembly president Silvia Lazarte at the end of the session Dec. 9: "Although suffering many sacrifices, we have approved...this new constitution. We have done this for the people, and not for the parties of the right who want failure." Boycotting Assembly member Samuel Doria Medina said the new document "undermines democracy." (Univision, Dec. 10)

Marking his first year in office, Mexican President Felipe Calderón said Dec. 1 that fighting the war on drugs and organized crime remain his highest priority. The speech came as the death toll in 2007 narco violence topped 2,000—making it the bloodiest year yet. "The biggest threat to Mexico's future is lack of public safety and organized crime," Calderón said in a speech at the National Palace. "But with one year in office, I am more convinced than ever that we are going to win this battle." Having started his first year by sending army troops into Baja California and Michoacán, Calderón marked its end by dispatching army special forces into Reynosa, Tamulipas, on the Texas border.

Three popular Mexican musicians met violent deaths in six days this week. José Luis Aquino Lavariega, 33, trumpet-player with the band Los Conde, was found Dec. 5 under a bridge in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, bound with a plastic bag over his head. On Dec. 3, the tortured body of Sergio Gomez, 34, singer for K-Paz de la Sierra, was found the night after he was abducted while leaving a stadium concert in Morelia, Michoacán. Zayda Peña, 28, singer for Zayda y Los Culpables, survived an attempt on her life only to be shot to death in the hospital in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Dec. 1. A friend and hotel manager were killed in the initial attempt Nov. 30. Eight popular musicians have been murdered this year in Mexico.

Faiz Mohammed Baluch and Nawabzada Herbiyar Marri, two exiled human rights activists from Baluchistan, were arrested Dec. 4 by London Metropolitan Police in a supposed anti-terrorist operation code-named "Super-Sweep." Fellow rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: "I know one of the detained men, Faiz Baluch, and have worked with him on campaigns against Pakistani human rights abuses in occupied Baluchistan. In all the work that I have done with him, he [has] been engaged in an entirely lawful, constitutional struggle for the independence of their homeland."

Ashish Khetan, the journalist who secretly taped Hindu rightists boasting of their role in the mass murder of Muslims in the 2002 Gujarat pogroms, says he now fears for his life and is frustrated by the lack of response. Khetan's "sting operation" for the left newsweekly Tehelka caused a national scandal, but the Hindu nationalists linked to the killings seem set for re-election in Gujarat state polls this month. "I got them to speak to me, make self-damning revelations, details of the killings and rapes," Khetan told AFP. "Despite the evidence, the political reaction to the exposé has been at best tepid and I feel very, very disappointed. There has been no action." Khetan said he was also shocked to receive "hate mails and even threats from journalists." He added: "My work has angered a lot of people. Who knows, some fanatic sitting in some corner of the country may have made a plan to kill me. Yes, I am afraid that I could be on the hit list of some fanatic or another." (AFP, Dec. 5)

However ugly the Taliban may be, there is a truly perverse sense of deja vu in watching British troops battle Pashtun insurgents. This would actually be "fourth time as farce," given that there were three Anglo-Afghan Wars in the "Great Game" period (which is manifestly back on again). At least 12 insurgents—and, oh yeah, two children—are reported dead in British-led airstrikes by international forces on Musa Qala, a town in Helmand province which was taken by the Taliban earlier this year. One British solider was also killed in the battle for Musa Qala. The campaign to re-take the stronghold is dubbed "Operation Mar Karadad," and also includes US, Dutch, Danish and Estonian forces. (Radio Netherlands, AFP, Dec. 9; DPA, Dec. 8)