Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Jan. 14 he is breaking diplomatic ties with Israel in protest against its offensive in Gaza, which has left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead. Morales also said he would seek to have top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, charged with "genocide" in the International Criminal Court.

Somali pirates reportedly received a $3 million ransom for the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star and its crew, including two Brits—but in the words of one former captive "got their comeuppance." Pirate captain Mohamed Said, speaking yesterday from Xarardheere, north of Mogadishu, said six of his crew were killed when their boat capsized while returning from the transfer site. Capt. Said said his men feared capture by the Combined Maritime Forces which are now patrolling Somalia's coast. (The Independent, Jan. 11)

Outgoing CIA director Michael Hayden told reporters in Washington Jan. 15: "The great danger was that—I'm going to use a little euphemism here—the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan was a safe haven for al-Qaeda. It is my belief that the senior leadership of al-Qaeda today believes that it is neither safe, nor a haven. That is a big deal in defending the United States." (Reuters) Four days earlier, hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked an outpost of Pakistan's Frontier Corps in the Mohmand district, sparking a gun-battle that left at least 40 militants and six soldiers dead. (NYT, Jan. 12)

Attacks by presumed Baluch militants are reported from both the Pakistani and Iranian sides of the divided Baluchistan region. In Quetta, capital of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, gunmen riding a motorbike sprayed a police vehicle with bullets Jan. 14, killing four officers. (AFP, Jan. 14) On Dec. 29, the Sunni militant group Jundallah carried out a suicide attack on a police station in Saravan, in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, killing four and injuring 20. Iran says the group, led by Abdolmalek Rigi, has links to al-Qaeda. (Tehran Times, NYT, Dec. 30)

Jinous Sobhani, secretary of the independent Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran, was detained by Iranian authorities Jan. 14, Narges Mohammadi, deputy head of the center, told Reuters. "People from the intelligence ministry arrested her on Wednesday morning," she said "They had an arrest warrant and search warrant." She said the authorities did not explain why Sobhani was detained. Sobhani is a follower of the Baha'i faith, and at least six Baha'is were arrested in Tehran that same day in raids on 11 homes. Baha'i books, literature and computers were also confiscated in the raids. (World Bulletin, Turkey, Baha'i News Service, Jan. 15)

In the lead-up to Iraq's provincial elections, there is growing anger that the published version of the election law has only a weak provision to set aside seats for women. Early versions of the law, which governs the election of Iraq's 18 provincial councils, included a firm guarantee that women would have at least 25% of the seats—the same percentage mandated by the Constitution for the national parliament. But the provincial election law was changed several times, and the quota language was gone by the time it went to the Presidency Council, where it awaits approval. "We've been told it was a mistake, but this is not good enough," said Maysoon al-Damluji, a woman from a secular bloc in Parliament. "We're trying to be sure that women get not less than 25 percent of the seats."

A spate of morning rush hour bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least five and injured 14 Jan. 12. (Middle East Online, Jan. 12) Iraqi Education Minister Abed Theyab narrowly escaped injury Jan. 15 when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy in Baghdad, injuring three by-standers. In another attack, a security guard was killed when a bomb exploded near a convoy carrying Housing Ministry employees to work. Also that day, two rockets or mortars struck the Green Zone, injuring one. (AP, Jan. 15)

Mohammed el Gharani, 21, of Chad, held for seven years at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, was ordered released Jan. 14 by federal district Judge Richard Leon (Washington DC), who found that the government had not proven that Mohammed el-Gharani was an "enemy combatant." "The government's evidence was a mosaic of allegations" Leon said in his ruling, calling the claims against el-Gharani "murky." He ordered that el-Gharani be released soon either to Saudi Arabia, where he was raised and his family lives, or Chad. (Reuters, Jan. 14)