Chilean police evicted indigenous Rapa Nui protesters who had occupied the central plaza and a luxury hotel in Hanga Roa, capital of Easter Island, over the new year. At least 17 Rapa Nui are facing charges from the occupation and were ordered to appear in court this week. The occupation was launched to press ancestral land claims over 16 sites on the island. The eviction order came from Mayor Raul Celis of Valparaiso, Chile, which has jurisdiction over Easter Island despite being more than 2,000 miles away. (Radio New Zealand International, Jan. 13; UPI, Jan. 4)

A March 2009 US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks reports that Peru's new military head was involved in narco-corruption, a charge that the general adamantly denies. The document, written by then-Ambassador Michael McKinley, stated that an unnamed source "saw signs that officers may have continued to cooperate with drug traffickers." The document referenced a 2007 meeting between Peruvian Gen. Paul da Silva and a local fishing industry boss, Rolando Eugenio Velasco Heysen, where the two allegedly discussed drug shipments. In October 2007, Velasco was arrested on charges that he attempted to export 840 kilograms of cocaine hidden in frozen fish.

Bolivia's state energy company YPFB last month awarded Argentina's Astra Evangelista SA a $160 million contract to build a natural gas processing plant at in Rio Grande in the eastern province of Santa Cruz. The plant, due to come online in 2012, will process will producing 380 metric tons of liquefied petroleum gas and 600 barrels of gasoline per day, mostly for export to Brazil. The original plan called for the plant to be built in 2009, but the project was stalled after a corruption scandal that led to the dismissal and subsequent jailing of YPFB chief Santos Ramírez.

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is interrogating 12 foreign oil firm executives over bribes worth more than $100 million. Executives from US oil services firms Tidewater, Transocean and Noble Corporation are being held. The panel accuses them and executives of Lagos-based Murphy Shipping of offering bribes to Nigerian officials. Last month, Nigeria dropped charges against Houston-based oil services giant Halliburton and executives—including former US vice president Dick Cheney—after a $35 million settlement. (Bloomberg, Jan. 13)

Three bombings near mosques in central and northern Baghdad on Nov. 13 killed two people—hours after US Vice President Joe Biden arrived for meetings with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other senior officials. One bomb exploded near the Husseiniya Shi'ite mosque in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, killing one and wounding four. Another went off near the Abdel Qadir Gilani Sunni mosque, also in the city center, killing one and wounding five. A third exploded near al-Assaf, a Sunni mosque in Adhamiyah in the north of Baghdad, wounding four.

On the morning of Jan. 12, a convoy of military vehicles and bulldozers arrived at the Palestinian village of Dkaika in the Jordan Valley, demolishing 16 homes, an animal pen, a store and one of the village school's classrooms. The demolition orders were issued because the structures were built without official permission—which is almost impossible for Palestinians to get. Dkaika—a community of around 300 people, without electricity or running water—is in Area C, under full Israeli military and civil control, which accounts for 60% of the West Bank. Residents said they believed the demolition orders were on hold while a plan to regularize the village was under consideration by the Israeli authorities.

More than 5,000 took to the streets across Jordan in "a day of rage" to protest escalating food prices and unemployment Jan. 14—the same day that Tunisia's president fled after weeks of violent demonstrations. Angry protests are reported from Amman, Irbid, Karak, Salt and Maan, demanding that Prime Minister Samir Rifai step down. "We are protesting the policies of the government—high prices and repeated taxation that made the Jordanian people revolt," former Karak mayor Tawfiq al-Batoush told Reuters at the protest outside Karak's al-Omari mosque. (The Guardian, Jan. 15; Reuters, Jan. 14)

Recent weeks have seen a spate of angry protests by the Bedouin minority in both Jordan and Israel. On Jan. 4-5, thousands battled security forces in the southern Jordanian city of Maan, in the third major incident of Bedouin unrest in the Hashemite kingdom as many months. Protesters torched government buildings and police vehicles after the killing of two Bedouin men. Authorities said the men died in a clash between rival clans over a water project, suggesting Muslim Brotherhood agitators exploited inter-tribal tension to fuel unrest in Maan province. They said at least 37 were arrested. (World Tribune, Jan. 6)