the latest news on Hate crimes, AIDS, Iraq, Pakistan, Israel_Palestine, US prisons, Somalia, Sudan, Homeless in NYC, and selected Op-Eds.

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Hate crimes. Hate Crimes Rose 8 Percent in 2006 "Hate crime incidents rose nearly 8 percent last year, the FBI reported Monday, as civil rights advocates increasingly take to the streets to protest what they call official indifference to intimidation and attacks against blacks and other minorities." FBI: Hate crimes escalate 8% in 2006 "Hate crimes in the USA increased 8% in 2006, but some groups, including gays, Muslims and people with mental disabilities, experienced larger spikes in attacks."

AIDS. U.N. to Cut Estimate Of AIDS Epidemic "The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement." World HIV infection estimate is cut by third "The international bodies said the estimates reflected improvements in country data collection and analysis, as well as a better understanding of the natural history and distribution of HIV infection." U.N. to Say It Overestimated AIDS Cases by Millions"The United Nations' AIDS-fighting agency plans to issue a report today acknowledging that it overestimated the size of the epidemic and that new infections with the deadly virus have been dropping each year since they peaked in the late 1990s."

Iraq. Baghdad Starts to Exhale as Security Improves"The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad's streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer" U.S. prods Iraq to act during drop in violence "As Iraq's government trumpeted a dramatic decline in violence, describing it as a sign that sectarian warfare is waning, U.S. officials warned that the gains would be short-lived if the nation's leaders did not use the relative calm to advance political reconciliation." General Says N. Iraq Most Violent Region "Despite a decline in violence in Iraq, northern Iraq has become more violent than other regions as al-Qaida and other militants move there to avoid coalition operations elsewhere, the region's top U.S. commander said."

Pakistan. Pakistan begins protesters' release "Pakistan has freed about 3,400 prisoners and will soon release the remaining 2,000 people who have been detained under the state of emergency, the interior ministry says." Pakistan frees 3,000 detainees "Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's party (PPP), said the claims were "lies", adding that only around 40 PPP supporters had been released in Karachi since yesterday. … The PPP estimates that 17,000 of its supporters have been arrested since emergency rule was imposed on November 3."

Israel-Palestine. Long-awaited peace conference set for Nov. 27 "An international conference on Middle East peace will take place in Annapolis, Md., on November 27, with roughly 40 countries and entities expected to attend and follow-up meetings planned for the next day," Israel and Palestine fail to agree before conference "A meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders has failed to produce a joint declaration for a Middle East summit due next week in the United States, after they could not resolve key differences." Olmert, Livni try to resolve crisis ahead of Annapolis "Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over the text of the joint declaration to be made at the upcoming Annapolis meeting are making progress."

US prisons. US prisons are full, but crime, cost to taxpayers soar " The number of people in US prisons has risen eightfold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to taxpayers and society, researchers said yesterday in a report calling for a major justice-system overhaul."

Somalia . Somalia Worst Humanitarian Crisis in Africa, U.N. Says"Top United Nations officials who specialize in Somalia said the country had higher malnutrition rates, more current bloodshed and fewer aid workers than Darfur, which is often publicized as the world's most pressing humanitarian crisis and has taken clear priority in terms of getting peacekeepers and aid money." 'One million' homeless in Somalia "One million people are now living rough in Somalia, the UN refugee agency says. The figure includes 60% of Mogadishu residents who have fled their homes - 200,000 in the past two weeks - leaving many districts empty,"

Sudan. Bashir 'preparing for Sudan war' "The leader of South Sudan's former rebels has accused President Omar al-Bashir of "mobilising for war". On Saturday, the president threatened to rearm northern militias despite a 2005 peace deal."

Homeless in NYC. New York Tightens Shelter Policies "Homelessness in the city has been under special scrutiny since 2004, when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg promised to reduce the number of homeless people by two-thirds by 2009. While the number of homeless single adults has declined 19 percent since then, officials acknowledge that the number of homeless families is at an all-time high, with more than 9,500 in the shelter system."

Op-Ed.

You First, Governor Huckabee (Richard Cohen, Washington Post) "To the many people, both domestic and foreign, who are asking Mitt Romney to do as John F. Kennedy once did and make a speech explaining why his religion is not a threat to our cherished American way of life, I suggest that Romney respond by pointing to his Republican opponents and uttering two words: "You first."

The asterisks should start in the pre-blacks baseball era (DeWayne Wickham, USA Today) "The indictment of Barry Bonds last week has a lot of people clamoring for an asterisk to be affixed to his home run record. Such a footnote, presumably, would proclaim that Major League Baseball's reigning home run hitter title is tainted. … If baseball is going to start putting asterisks on the records that were aided by the misconduct of people inside the sport, then they should begin with all of the records achieved before 1947. That's when baseball ended its whites-only era."