By LAWRENCE DAVIDSON - Counterpunch

What turns out to be the new aspect of this tale is the collusion of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority in this aggression toward the Palestinians of Gaza. It would seem that Fatah's leadership has actually decided to ally with the enemy that seeks to ethnically cleanse them. They remind this writer of the Jews who served the Nazis as policemen in the ghettos of German controlled Europe during World War II...The behavior of Fatah means that this organization and its leaders are almost certainly doomed.

By Sean Maher - Oakland Tribune

A [Bay Area Rapid Transit] police officer struggling to handcuff a 22-year-old man stood up over the facedown Hayward resident and fired a single shot into his back while a handful of officers watched, a video taken by a train passenger apparently shows...The attorney for the family of Oscar Grant III, fatally shot by an unidentified BART officer early New Year's Day, said Sunday he plans to file a $25 million lawsuit against the department and asked prosecutors to consider filing murder charges against the officer.

Lori informed us in mid September that she is pregnant. She was so elated and we, of course, were thrilled over news we never anticipated hearing. Lori has always loved children and, at age 39, this is her first pregnancy. For the past three months she has been busy reading about pregnancy, childbirth and childcare. We are now excitedly busy knitting Mark a blanket, Rhoda a matching sweater, cap and booties.

By Valia Kaimaki - Znet

The government...used the masked petrol-bombers to inspire fear of a "threat to democracy". "What democracy?" ask the protesters. It is true that schoolchildren and university students attacked police stations with rocks and that others damaged banks. But only a few days earlier the government, indifferent to the impoverishment of hundreds of thousands of Greeks, gave those banks a gift of €28bn ($39bn). And these are the banks which use private debt-collection agencies to insult and threaten anyone who owes them small sums of money, and to seize their property.

Innocent Muslim victims of America's "war on terror."

The 2010 Olympics are over, and we’re told that everything is back to normal. Wrong. Vancouver will never be the same.

By CrimethInc Ex-Workers Collective

We humbly present one of the first inside reports from participants in the upheavals that shook Greece after the police murder of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the anarchist neighborhood of Exarchia on December 6...This is only the first set of answers to come in from our Greek comrades. We hope shortly to receive further perspectives from other elements of the Greek uprising, so we can provide a comprehensive background on the context and dynamics of the revolt.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008 - Reuters

Hundreds of anarchists marched through Athens on Tuesday hours after a gunman opened fire at a riot police bus, in a third week of anti-government protests since police shot dead a teenager...Police said the unidentified gunman shot at the bus carrying 19 officers when it stopped at traffic lights outside a university campus in eastern Athens at around 5 a.m.

By Costas Panayotakis - December 24, 2008

In the evening of Saturday December 6th, 2008, a police officer shoots and kills Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 16-year old in Athens, Greece. In the days that followed this incident large numbers of people, in cities across Greece, have taken to the streets...The great protagonists of these demonstrations have been young people, including high school and university students, but other participants have included parents, labor unionists, immigrant workers, Greece's political Left, and Greeks from all walks of life.

By Liliana Segura - December 13, 2008

In the United States and Canada, more than 400 people have died after being Tasered since 2001...Despite the rather old news that Tasers can kill, the news media continue to be littered with reports of trigger-happy Taserers, many of whom should be relieved that their victims lived...Like guns, Tasers are about much more than self-defense. For civilians (and cops), the sense of power that comes from carrying a weapon is a central part of the appeal.

By Nikos Raptis and Chris Spannos - December 24, 2008

The most important aspects...are the joblessness, the salaries of...the "generation of the 700 Euros" [about US $ 970 per month], the University degrees that are almost useless, the flight of Greek companies to neighboring countries in search of cheap labor, the "flexible" treatment of hiring and firing, the unbelievably high prices in the Greek supermarkets much above the ones in the rest of the European Union, the scandalous treatment of the money of the taxpayers by the Government, the unbelievably bad condition of the National Health System, the exorbitant profits of the Greek banks, and finally the "strange" insistence of the Greek governing elite to follow the "neo-liberal" economic model after what has happened worldwide.

By Many Authors - December 23, 2008

The National Union of Mineworkers, Steelworkers, Steelmakers and Allied Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSSRM) is being subjected to fierce repression by the fraudulent government of Felipe Calderon and by the Grupo México, the mining monopoly that seeks to destroy the union.

Thursday, 18 December 2008 - National Terror Alert Response Center

A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks...State and local police in Arizona say they have broad plans to deal with social unrest, including trouble resulting from economic distress.

By Amira Hass - December 12, 2008

The committee coordinating the struggle to free [Israeli Prisoner of War] Gilad Shalit went all the way to Auschwitz where, it is reported, its members distributed 888 yellow flowers. That was in October, and we can only hope that this media gimmick will not be repeated, either because an agreement will be reached in the near future or because the organizers will understand how lacking in taste that move was.

An interesting thing happened at the Republican National Convention this past September. As police donned riot gear and readied their rubber bullet rifles and tear gas canisters to combat thousands of anti-war/anti-police state protesters, minute-to-minute updates of police brutality and resultant street fighting began to appear online.