The US Department of Justice is investigating whether Blackwater, now known as Xe, bribed Iraqi officials to allow the company to continue operating in the country following shooting deaths in 2007, the New York Times reported Jan. 31. The Justice Department's fraud division reportedly began an inquiry into the alleged $1 million bribery in late 2009. Bribery of foreign officials is a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Blackwater will likely claim that the $1 million was restitution to the families of the individuals killed in 2007, which would exempt the company from violation of federal law. A conviction under the FCPA may include both criminal and civil penalties. (Jurist, Feb. 1)

More than 50 countries, including the US, China, and EU member states, submitted plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) prior to a Jan. 31 deadline set by the non-binding Copenhagen Accord. Relative to 2005 levels, the US has pledged to reduce emissions to 17%, while China has targeted a 40 to 45 percent reduction per GDP unit. EU members pledged a 20% reduction below 1990 levels. The countries submitting plans to the UNFCC represent two-thirds of worldwide emissions. Critics of the Copenhagen Accord say it lacks the enforcement mechanisms needed to ensure compliance, and is unlikely to limit global temperature rise to the indicated levels. Another round of climate change talks are scheduled for December, with the hope being that a binding resolution can be developed from the pledges made under the current accord. (Jurst, Feb. 1)

As incoming Honduran president Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo was inaugurated with a celebration at a Tegucigalpa stadium Jan. 27, some 250,000 marched to the city's airport to see off ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who was flying to the Dominican Republic under terms of an agreement reached with the new administration. Zelaya was escorted from the Brazilian embassy by Dominican President Leonel Fernández. The resistance movement pledges to carry on the struggle, now for "refounding" the country with a new constitution. (Los Necios, Jan. 31; Rights Action Jan. 27)

Ciudad Juárez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz announced Jan. 31 that the city is calling on artists across Mexico to submit proposals for a monument to memorialize the city's murdered women. The monument will likely focus on the eight victims whose bodies were found in 2001 in a cotton field across from the Association of Maquiladoras. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Mexican government earlier this year to erect a monument to dignify the memory of the victims. (Las Cruces Sun-News, Jan. 31)

Gunmen burst into a party and killed 14 high school students Jan. 31 in Ciudad Juárez. The assailants jumped out of sport utility vehicles, entered the house near the US border, where the students were celebrating a birthday and victory in a local American Football championship, and began killing them one by one. (Reuters, KVIA, El Paso, NM, Jan. 31)

Moroccan authorities ordered closed the independent news magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire and seized its assets this week, following what editors and press freedom advocates call a long campaign of harassment. Liquidators took control of the country's most critical publication this week after a Casablanca commercial appeals court declared Jan. 25 that Le Journal Hebdomadaire's former publishing group, Media Trust, and its current one, Trimedia, were bankrupt.

A new bomb explosion killed one and injured five in Somalia's self-declared independent republic of Somaliland Jan. 28. Among those injured in the blast was the governor of Sool region, Askar Farah Hussein, who was admitted to a hospital in the town of Las-anod. Commenting on the bombings that have hit the region since last October, Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin told reporters: "I have heard the opposition accusing the government of being behind the bombs; this is unfortunate, the government is investigating, but we need to know that the enemy wants [to stage] more attacks against Somaliland..."

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, at a meeting on earthquake recovery aid in Ottawa, played down reports of growing violence in ravaged Port-au-Prince. "There is a lot of talk about violence, it's not true in Haiti," he said, insisting that the city is calm. "I am extremely impressed as prime minister by the resilience of people." (Bloomberg, Jan. 24) The following day, 15-year-old Fabienne Cherisma was shot dead when police opened fire on looters in Port-au-Prince. (The Guardian, Jan. 26) The day after that, Uruguayan UN peacekeepers fired rubber bullets while attempting to contain a thousands-strong mass of desperately hungry Haitians who had mobbed a food distribution point. Asked by a reporter why the peacekeepers weren't giving instructions to the crowd in French or Creole, one shot back in Spanish, "Whatever we do, it doesn't matter—they are animals." (Herald Sun, Australia, Jan. 26)