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Nov 3 President Musharraf suspends the constitution and declares a state of emergency, saying he will not allow Pakistan to commit suicide. He blames militant violence and judges who have paralysed government. Restrictions are put on the media and hundreds arrested.

Nov 4 A suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, installs four pairs of sunpowered traffic lights.

Nov 4 A BBC Poll taken in twenty-two countries, including China, suggests that three out of four people "would back energy taxes if the cash [were] used to find new sources of energy, or boost efficiency."

Nov 7 In Russia, according to a C.J.Chivers article in the New York Times, inattention to public safety has created a death rate from fire more than ten times what is typical for Western Europe and the United States. In Russia in 2006 nearly 13 people in every 100,000 died in a fire.

Nov 9 Major-General Joseph Fils, U.S. commander of forces in Baghdad, describes murders there being down 80 percent since June and adds that "the Iraqi people have decided that they've had it up to here with violence." (See Oct 26 for another report of declining violence in Iraq.)

Nov 10 In Iraq, Abu Ibrahim, leader of former insurgents, tells the Associated Press that his fighters ambushed al-Qaida members near Samarra on Friday, killing 18 people and seizing 16 prisoners.

Nov 11 China sentences six Muslims charged with having been involved in a violent separatist movement, including bomb making, in the far west province of Xinjiang. The punishment for at least three of the six will be death.

Nov 11 A survey done by the South African Institute of Race Relations reveals that in 2005 South Africa had 4.2 million living on $1 dollar a day, up from 1.9 million in 1996.

Nov 11 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a plan for Liberia that involves a three-year growth program to reduce poverty and help finance its international debt obligations. The IMF is cancelling Liberia's debt to the agency.

Nov 15 In Saudi Arabia an appeals court gives a 19-year-old rape victim, a Shi'a, a sentence of 200 lashes and five years in jail. Her seven Sunni assailants receive a prison sentence of between one and five years. The woman was faulted for having been in the company of men with whom she was not related.

Nov 16 In Russia a group calling itself the "True Russian Orthodox Church" has barricaded itself in a cave with supplies as they wait for the end of the world, which they expect in May. Four children are with the group. They threaten to blow themselves up if authorities attack. Their leader is a former engineer, Pyotr Kuznetsov, who is being held by authorities and examined psychologically.

Nov 17 A Japanese whaling fleet leaves for the South Pacific on the 18th and plans to take 1,000 whales including 50 humpbacks until mid-April. Japanese fishery officials claim that the humpback's have returned to "substantial numbers" - after having been hunted to near extinction four decades ago. Taking 50 from a population of tens of thousands, they say, "will have no significant impact whatsoever."

Nov 23 In Michoacan, Mexico, a Chinese and Mexican investment partnership begins contruction of an auto assembly plant for cars that will retail for as low as $6,280. Production is scheduled to begin by 2010.

Nov 27 Of the 1.5 million or so Iraqi exiles in Syria, around 800 begin their return on busses provided by the Iraqi government, encouraged by news of improved security.

Nov 27 Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, complains that the lack of a united Somalian government and not enough peacekeepers in Somalia prevents Ethiopian forces from withdrawing from their fight against Islamists there, whom the Ethiopians see as a threat to their country.

Dec 3 Australia's new Labor Party government joins most of the rest of the world and signs the Kyoto Protocol, to become effective for Australia in March, 2008. The Kyoto Protocol is designed to reduce greenhouse gasses that cause climate change. President, George Bush, has remained opposed to the U.S. joining Kyoto agreement.

Dec 3 In Venezuela a close special election denies President Hugo Chavez constitutional reforms that included allowing him to run for president for life and to chosing mayors and state governors. Among the opponents of the reforms: students, human rights activists and the Catholic Church. The results are 51 to 49 percent. Chavez' present term in office expires in 2012.

Dec 3 The school teacher Gillian Gibbons is returning to the UK, pardoned by Sudan's President al-Bashir after she served eight days of a fifteen-day sentence for naming a teddy bear Muhammad in her classroom. Outraged Muslims who packed the street shouting for her death have been described as not representing majority Sudanese opinion.

Dec 3 In the U.S., a National Intelligence Estimate states that Iran was "less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005," contradicting its report in May 2005 that said "with high confidence" that Iran was "determined" to build nuclear weapons.

Dec 4 The UN force in the Democratic Republic of Congo increases its support for democracy by moving from logistic to fire-power support against the renegade general Laurent Nkunda.

Dec 8 In recent weeks in the extreme northeast of Pakistan, Pakistan's army is reported to have killed 290 "pro-Taleban" forces and arrested 143. The army is pushing the remaining "pro-Taleban" forces, said to be between 200 and 400 in number, back from the villages they have been harrassing and pursuing them into the mountains.

Dec 10 A BBC poll of 11,344 persons in 14 countries describes 40 percent as saying "it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully." People contributing to this number tended to be from India, Singapore and Russia. People in Western Europe and North America were recorded as much the stronger in their support for press freedom and truth in reporting.

Dec 12 In the city of Algiers, an al-Qaeda faction has taken responsibility for two bombs that shattered offices of a United Nations refugee agency, described by the faction as "the headquarters of the international infidels' den." The faction says it has struck the "slaves of America and France." Algeria's government describes the death toll at 31. The BBC records disgust among Algerians. Al-Qaeda appears on track in alienating people rather than winning converts.

Dec 14 According to the International Energy Agency, Iraqi oil production has risen above levels before the US-led invasion in 2003.

Dec 16 In Basra Province, British troops turn responsibility for controlling insurgents over to Iraqi troops. Political power is also being transferred to the Iraqis. In a poll of 1,000 province residents, more than 85 percent say that British troops in the province have had a negative effect since 2003, and two-thirds believe that security will improve following the handover of power.

Dec 17 In Bolivia, President Evo Morales wants indigenous peoples - 62 percent of the population - to have greater autonomy and control over their land, correcting what he describes as centuries of discrimination by a corrupt class dominated by those descended from Europeans. With the draft of a new constitution that Morales supports, leaders in Bolivia's more wealthy regions are intensifying their threat to breakaway away from President Morales and the central government into regions with greater autonomy.

Dec 17 The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization warns that a 40 percent rise in food prices in the past year is creating a crisis in poorer countries. The rising prices are attributed to climate change, rising oil prices and demand for bio-fuels.

Dec 17 Saudi kings routinely pardon select convicts. Following an international outcry, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah pardons the rape victim who was to receive 200 lashes in addition to five years in jail. (See November 15)

Dec 18 A U.S. Pentagon report warns that sustained progress will require political and economic reforms. It describes Iraqi police forces as afflicted by corruption and sectarian divisions and Iraq's army losing up to 17 percent of its troops per year because of high casualty rates and desertion.

Dec 27 In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto is assassinated. (Recommended reading: "Assassination Aftermath " by Stephen Cohen.)