US pilots targeting a farmhouse in the northern town of Baiji where they apparently believed insurgents had taken shelter killed a family of 12, Iraqi officials said Jan. 3. The dead included women and children whose bodies were recovered in the nightclothes and blankets they had been evidently sleeping in. The Pentagon says that it does not count civilian deaths from US attacks, and that investigating deaths caused by any one strike is impractical in dangerous insurgent areas.

A US military statement said that an unmanned drone detected three men digging a hole in a nearby road. Insurgents regularly bury bombs along roads in the area. The three men were tracked to a building, which US forces then hit with precision-guided missiles, the statement said. (Boston Globe, Jan. 4)

From the Jerusalem Post, Jan. 1:

The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran.

The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel collected various reports from the German media indicating that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are examining the prospects of such a strike.

According to the report, CIA Director Porter Goss, in his last visit to Turkey on December 12, requested Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide military bases to the United States in 2006 from where they would be able to launch an assault.

From the BBC, Jan. 3:

Hundreds of Indian tribespeople have blocked a main road in Orissa state, a day after police opened fire during protests over a planned steel mill. At least 12 tribals and a policeman died in clashes at Kalinganagar, 120km (80 miles) north of Bhubaneswar. Police say they fired in self-defence after they were attacked with arrows.

The tribesmen have now handed over for post mortems the bodies of four of their dead which they had used to block the road, but are refusing to move. The road block has brought traffic in the area to a complete halt and seriously affected the movement of iron ore from the mineral-rich Keonjhar district.

From Editor & Publisher, Jan. 3:

NEW YORK The Iraq conflict has become the most deadly conflict for journalists to cover in the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) 24-years history, the group's most recent analysis shows. A total of 60 journalists have been killed on duty in Iraq since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, including 22 in 2005. That figure surpasses the Algerian conflict from 1993 to 1996, in which 58 journalists were killed.

Multiple ethnic struggles in Indonesia made headlines over the New Year's weekend. On Jan. 2, local police announced they have detained at least one man in connection with the New Year's Eve bombing at a Christian market in Palu, Central Sulawesi, in which seven people were killed and 56 wounded. The town is some 300 kilometers west of Poso, where three Christian schoolgirls were decapitated on their way to school Oct. 29 by presumed Islamic militants. The province has seen escalating violence between its roughly equal Christian and Muslim communities. (AKI, Jan. 2)

Iraq's largest oil refinery has been shut down following death threats to tanker drivers. The threats followed a steep government-ordered rise in the price of petrol earlier this month. The oil ministry said the shutdown at the Baiji refinery was costing $20 million a day. Fears of severe shortages have led to long lines at petrol stations in Baghdad.

The ministry said it hoped the refinery, which has been out of action since the weekend, would be back up and running within days. Although billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure since Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, fuel and electricity production have not reached the levels maintained before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (BBC, Dec. 30)

A disturbing clip from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:

Chavez makes anti-Semitic slur
Venezuela's president said in his Christmas speech that "the descendants of those who crucified Christ" own the riches of the world.

"The world offers riches to all. However, minorities such as the descendants of those who crucified Christ" have become "the owners of the riches of the world," Chavez said Dec. 24 on a visit to a rehabilitation center in the Venezuelan countryside. (JTA, Dec. 30)

From the Financial Times, Dec. 28:

Colombian insurgents have killed 28 soldiers in the deadliest attack on the military since President Alvaro Uribe was elected three years ago, setting the stage for heightened tensions ahead of elections in May.

The assault by 300 rebels from the leftwing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) took place on Tuesday near the Sierra Macarena national park, in the province of Meta, south-east of Bogotá, the capital. Farc guerrillas opened fire when 80 troops were trapped in an area sown with anti-personnel mines, the military said, hampering rescue efforts.