One of Barack Obama’s first moves as president is to be nomination of Sen. George Mitchell as Middle East envoy. Mitchell headed the 2000 committee to probe the roots of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
A tense calm prevails over Gaza as aid agencies take stock of the massive destruction, with some 4,100 homes destroyed, while on the West Bank “al-Basha’er Army” claimed a shooting attack on an Israeli settler.
Tehran’s Revolutionary Court convicted four Iranians in an alleged CIA plot to overthrow the Iranian government. The court said the four had confessed; the US State Department called the claim “baseless.”
Putin’s capitulation in the “gas war” with Ukraine may be motivated by fears that his intransigence was reviving impetus for the Nabucco pipeline, an EU-backed project that would bypass Russia.
Days after violent protests over deteriorating economic conditions in Latvia, riots broke out in neighboring Lithuania, with thousands battling the police in Vilnius. Meanwhile, “Kill the Jews” and a swastika were painted on a Lithuanian synagogue.
Israeli forces began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip following a tentative truce with Hamas. Palestinian factions agreed to honor the ceasefire on the condition that Israeli troops are out of Gaza within a week.
The Defense Department announced the transfer of six detainees from Guantánamo Bay to Iraq, Algeria and Afghanistan. Barack Obama last week pledged to issue an executive order closing the prison camp.
In an opinion released late on Jan. 7, Attorney General Michael Mukasey wrote that “neither the Constitution nor any statutory or regulatory provision entitles an alien to a do-over if his initial removal proceeding is prejudiced by the mistakes of… Read moreAttorney General limits immigration appeals
Immigrant communities in South Florida held protests following abusive pre-Christmas raids on “fugitives” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Meanwhile, ICE carried out more raids in Texas.
Corrections Corporation of America officials placed Arizona’s Eloy Detention Center on lockdown following an uprising by immigration detainees over the New Year holiday.
Israeli troops and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire in northern Gaza early Sunday—hours after Israel declared a “unilateral cease-fire.” Hamas says it will continue resistance as long as Israeli troops remain.
Amnesty International is calling for urgent action in the case of Rubén Valencia Núñez, an activist with the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), who survived an assassination attempt last week.
