US Rear Admiral Gregory Smith accused Iran-backed "special groups" of being behind the bombing of a Baghdad pet market, which left 15 dead and 55 wounded Nov. 22. Two bombs hidden in a cardboard bird box exploded simultaneously at al-Ghazl market while it was crowded with people. The market's recent re-opening was hailed as sign of returning normalcy in Baghdad. "In raids overnight, Iraqi and coalition forces were able to identify and detain four members of a militia extremist group we assess as responsible for this horrific act of indiscriminate violence," Smith said. "Based on subsequent confessions, forensics and other intelligence, the bombing was the work of an Iranian-backed special groups cell operating here in Baghdad." However, Smith said there was "no evidence that the Iranian government ordered the attack."

Indian army troops are patrolling the streets of Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, following a wave of arson and violence this week. Protesters repeatedly clashed with police, and torched several vehicles and the local offices of the state's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). The street-fighting was sparked by protests both of atrocities earlier this year against Muslim residents in the nearby town of Nandigram, Purba Medinipur district, and the presence in the city of exiled Bangladeshi feminist writer Taslima Nasreen—who was flown to Delhi for her safety. The protests were called by the Muslim-supported All India Minority Forum (AIMF), which threw up roadblocks around the city—then fought back when police tried to break them up. AIMF leader Idris Ali was arrested Nov. 24 and charged with riot and property destruction. (IANS, BBC, Nov. 24; IANS, Nov. 21)

Boy, does this ever speak to WW4 Report's existential dilemma! Your struggling writer recently griped: "The dumbing-down and contraction of print media generally has dried up much of the freelance market and forced me into self-publishing on the Net. The irony is that the hypertrophy of the Net has been a key factor in the decline of print media. So I have been forced into the arms of my enemy, so to speak. It seems to be like the Borg. Resistance is futile." It is very vindicating to see Jaron Lanier, one of the original cyber-utopians, eating crow in the New York Times Nov. 21, and admitting the Internet has been a bad deal for writers:

From the New York Times, Nov. 21:

The American military is sending an Iraqi photographer for The Associated Press it accuses of aiding the insurgency into Iraq’s criminal justice system, according to the American authorities and The A.P.

The Nov. 21 New York Times includes a profile of Venezuela's recently retired army commander-in-chief Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel, a longtime confidant of Hugo Chavez who led the paratrooper raid that restored him to power following the abortive 2002 coup d'etat, but has now publicly broken with the president and spoken out against his proposed constitutional reform. Apart from chavista calls to send Baduel to the "paredón" (execution wall), some of the rhetorical reaction against the general will recall the firestorm sparked on this blog last year over accusations of anti-Semitism in Bolivarian Venezuela:

Pakistan's atomic weapons are secure, Muhammad Khurshid Khan, deputy director of Islamabad's Strategic Plans Division, told a meeting of nuclear counter-terrorism specialists in Edinburgh Nov. 20. "There's nothing to worry about the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons," Khan told the meeting sponsored by the IAEA, emphasizing that the people guarding the weapons "are not the fundamentalists." (Bloomberg, Nov. 20)

The rural community of Cutumay Camones, in Santa Ana department, El Salvador, is demanding justice following a series of violent attacks by the national police and army troops. On Oct. 12, security forces invaded Cutumay Camones, using tear gas and rubber bullets against community members, including children and elders, for protesting against the construction of a garbage dump they say will contaminate local water sources. The scene was repeated on Oct. 25, when a TV journalist was also attacked. National Civilian Police authorities have removed the officers implicated in the attack on the journalist, but community leaders are demanding further measures.

A statement by Las Abejas, the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center and other civil organizations in conflicted Chiapas state finds that the Mexican national state "is responsible for the Acteal massacre" of Dec. 22, 1997. The statement says the terror campaign in the highland municipality of Chenalhó really began Aug. 19, 1996, with the assassination of six youths who were part of the support base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). The statement says "the massacre was the product of a deliberate and directed State policy to exterminate the EZLN, its support base and any organization of civil society whose demands were uncomfortable for the government." (La Jornada, Nov. 4)