No surer sign of creeping (or galloping) totalitarianism. From AP, Nov. 5:

ASMARA, Eritrea -- Gospel singer Helen Berhane, who belonged to a banned evangelical church in Eritrea, has been released after more than two years in detention, a human rights group said.

From The New Times, Kigali, Nov. 12 via AllAfrica:

An unprecedented public inquiry into France's role in the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda held hearings in Kigali last week, where the French army was accused of complicity in the massacre of Tutsi and modreate Hutu.

The election results from the Democratic Republic of Congo are in—and predictably contested. The incumbent Joseph Kabila (and son of the late Laurent Kabila, leader of the 1996 revolution) has been declared victor, while supporters of contender Jean-Pierre Bemba, a "former rebel warlord," pledge "the people will resist this fraud." (The Guardian, Nov. 16) Rarely do media accounts explore how Western powers and corporate interests have exploited, fueled and manipulated Congo's chaotic and incessant wars over the past ten years since the Mobutu dictatorship was overthrown. Here's a relevant nugget from Left-Green Weekly Nov. 9 via Toward Freedom:

It was inevitable, but that doesn't make it any more probable. How can the GWOT propagandists buy this thesis while Tehran's agents and al-Qaeda's local franchise are locked in a death struggle for control of Iraq? Maybe it's because they're too dumb to tell Sunnis from Shi'ites—or think we are. From The Telegraph, Nov. 15:

Iran 'is training the next al-Qa'eda leaders'
Iran is seeking to take control of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terror network by encouraging it to promote officials known to be friendly to Teheran, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

From the AP, Nov. 14:

ISTANBUL — Turkey warned Tuesday that allowing Iraq to split apart would force its neighbors to act and would usher in "an unbelievable new era of darkness."

From the Capital Times of Madison, WI, Nov. 8:

Organizers of a movement to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq are lauding success at the ballot box from Wisconsin to Massachusetts.

Classes resumed at Oaxaca's state university Nov. 13, even as 1,700 delegates of the leading coalition of protest groups emerged from a "constitutive congress" vowing to step up their actions. The Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) announced that its activists will re-install the barricades in the state capital and elsewhere, many of which were dismantled when the federal police moved in two weeks ago. APPO's Zenen Bravo Castellanos said the delegates also decided to retake over both state and municipal public buildings, and block highways. "The purpose is to demonstrate that there is no governability in this state," Bravo said. (El Universal, Nov. 14)

From EFE, Nov. 12 via Chiapas95 (our translation):

OAXACA - A group of 250 indigenous from the community of Acteal in Chiapas state marched today in the city of Oaxaca and held a religious ritual in support of peace for this state, which has suffered a political conflict since almost six months ago.