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)

Following a meeting with representatives of Haitian political parties on Dec. 30, Max Mathurin, president of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), announced the postponement of the presidential and legislative elections previously scheduled for Jan. 8. "Following our work schedule, some preparation operations will go on past Jan. 8," he said. "This explains why it is impossible for this date, set for the first round, to be respected." He did not announce a new schedule.

On Dec. 24 a hired killer shot to death Kaiowa Guarani indigenous leader Dorvalino Rocha at his community's makeshift roadside encampment in Antonio Joao municipality, in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul state. The killer shot Rocha in the chest after arriving at the encampment in a vehicle with two other men. The 500 residents of the Nande Ru Marangatu territory—demarcated officially in March 2005 but facing a court challenge by local ranchers—have been camping by the highway since Dec. 15, when they were forcibly evicted by more than 100 Brazilian federal police agents.

On Dec. 21, police agents from Chile's militarized Carabineros Special Forces attacked the Mapuche community of Juan Paillalef in Cunco commune in the 9th region (Araucania). The attack came as community members were protesting a decision by the Ministry of Public Works to widen and pave a road through Mapuche land without following required legal procedures. Police used tear gas, clubs and firearms against community members and badly beat lonko (chief) Juana Rosa Calfunao Paillalef; some children were among those injured in the raid.

The "Other Campaign," a tour of Mexico by leaders of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), set off from the Chiapas village of La Garrucha on New Years Day—the anniversary of the Zapatistas' 1994 uprising. Rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos, at the head of a procession of hundreds of Zapatista rebels (masked but unarmed), departed from the village on a black motorcycle with a Mexican flag tied to the back. (Xinhua, Jan. 2)