Still think freedom's on the march in Afghanistan? Or, for those of you on the other side of the coin, that the Taliban insurgents are heroic anti-imperialists? From The Independent, Nov. 29:

Disembowelled, then torn apart: The price of daring to teach girls
The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.

We wonder if a year from now the big semantic debate in the US media will be whether there is a "civil war"...in Mexico. From The Scotsman, Dec. 2:

MEXICO CITY — Felipe Calderon took the oath of office as Mexico's president yesterday in a lightning-fast ceremony before congressmen who exchanged punches and insults over the conservative leader's narrow victory.

From AP, Nov. 29:

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican court reinstated an arrest warrant for former President Luis Echeverria on Wednesday, just four months after a federal judge dismissed the same charges of genocide in a 1968 student massacre.

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.