From Agencia Proceso (APRO), Nov. 25 via Chiapas95 (our translation):

OAXACA -- The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) has announced the "forced disappearance" of the movement's spokesperson, Cesar Mateos Benitez, and of Jorge Sosa, cousin of its principal leader Flavio Sosa.

This, as we have noted before, is how censorship works in the USA: by other names—which, of course, makes it more insidious. From AP, Nov. 27:

DENVER -- A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Around it goes. One Jamal Miftah, a Pakistani immigrant in Tulsa, OK, to his great credit, sent a letter to the Tulsa World Oct. 29 entitled "Message of Islam is not jihad, fatwahs," taking Ayman al-Zawahri and other al-Qaeda leaders to task for hijacking his religion. For this (as he related to Tulsa's News 9 in a video interview) he was expelled from his local mosque, the Tulsa Islamic Center, for publicly condemning Islam (which, of course, he didn't do). The affair was picked up, with predictable glee, by the right-wing Islamophobic blog Western Resistance (yuck!)—which, of course, will only fuel the ultra-defensiveness of folks like the Tulsa Islamic Center. So a plague on all their houses. Except Jamal Miftah.

With all eyes on the Iraq horrorshow, very little media attention these days for Afghanistan. But... From AP, Nov. 27:

KABUL - A Pakistani suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowded restaurant Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding 24, including an Afghan special forces commander and a district chief, the provincial governor said.

Slovenia has prided itself on being the "civilized" ex-Yugoslav republic, which avoided the explosions of hatred and "ethnic cleansing" which have plagued the rest. Critics have argued that it was easy for the Slovenes to affect moral superiority, being largely ethnically homogeneous. Now these Slovo-skeptics are, alas, being decisively vindicated. From the New York Times, Nov. 26:

In Slovenia, Villagers Block Gypsies’ Return to Their Homes

LJUBLJANA — A group of Gypsies who had been forced to flee their homes in central Slovenia a month ago by local villagers tried to return late Saturday afternoon but were forced to turn back.

Hmmm, it seems that all the lefties who weighed in against the admittedly vile Judith Miller's journalistic privilege in the Plame affair will be in the uncomfortable position of having to cheer her on this time around. From AP, Nov. 22:

Court Rejects N.Y. Times on Leak Probe
The Supreme Court ruled against The New York Times on Monday, refusing to block the government from reviewing the phone records of two Times reporters in a leak investigation of a terrorism-funding probe.

Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, Nov. 26 (with some very gruesome photos of the autopsy online):

The family of slain Indymedia journalist Brad Will has renewed its call for an independent investigation of his shooting, which occurred while Will was covering protests in Oaxaca, Mexico. Family members accused authorities in Oaxaca of attempting a "ludicrous" cover-up after the Oaxaca state attorney general, Lizbeth Caña Cadeza, alleged earlier this month that Will was shot by the protesters he'd gone to Mexico to film.

Protesters trying to force out the Oaxaca state governor set fire to government buildings in two days of street fighting that began on the night of Nov. 26, when masked youths broke away from a march by about 4,000 people and hurled rocks and gasoline bombs at the federal police camped out in the city's central square. Police drove off the attackers with tear gas and water cannons, then advanced in massed ranks to drive protesters from a camp at a smaller plaza two blocks away. Bands of youth engaged police throughout the downtown area, pushing shopping carts loaded with rocks and gasoline bombs. Courts and other government offices in the city's historic colonial buildings were gutted by flames. Three hotels were also reportedly attacked with firebombs, and some 20 private vehicles were torched. (AP, Nov. 27)