A group calling itself the "Army of Believers/Al-Qaeda in Palestine Organization" attacked the American International School in the northern Gaza Strip Jan. 13, setting ablaze five buses and a car. "Armed men entered the school in Beit Lahiya during the night and ransacked rooms as well as adminstration offices, and stole several computers," school director Rabhi Salem told AFP. Four days earlier, armed men fired anti-tank rockets at the school, causing serious damage to the building. A message left behind in the second attack read: "Polytheists and enemies of Islam are pursuing each day their work to destroy our youths, who are falling by the dozens into the swamps of vice and moral decadence. That is why we must re-establish the truth and warn everyone who might try to corrupt our youths or try to open such places of corruption."

Thousands of Mexican army troops and federal police have been mobilized to the Texas border in a new offensive against the "Zetas," paramilitary wing of the powerful Gulf Cartel. Authorities pledge to hunt down the Zetas and raid their safe-houses. "Since the first of January we have changed our operations," said Patricio Patiño Arias, deputy minister for intelligence and strategy at Mexico's Public Security Ministry. "It's no longer just patrolling, but rather a direct fight, a direct fight against specific objects, against specific targets that has grown out of important intelligence work."

Iran is contesting Washington's version of the Jan. 5 incident in the Strait of Hormuz. From the Los Angeles Times, Jan. 11:

Iran releases its own tape on Hormuz ship incident
BEIRUT -- Iran released a videotape Thursday to support its side of an ongoing propaganda battle with Washington over a weekend naval confrontation in the narrow waterway leading into the Persian Gulf.

Protests have been announced in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, California and Puerto Rico against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over subpoenas issued to activists in a grand jury investigation of the Boricua Popular Army–Macheteros. The protests will be held Jan. 10 in Puerto Rico, and the following day in cities across the United States, calling for non-collaboration with the grand jury.

Zapatista women at La Garrucha

To celebrate the 14th anniversary of their New Years Day uprising, Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) hosted a Women's Encuentro ("encounter" or "meeting") at the jungle settlement of La Garrucha, Chiapas state. Officially dubbed the "Encuentro of the Indigenous Zapatista Women with the Women of the World," the meeting brought together women from throughout Mexico and several other countries around the globe. In a case of self-conscious role reversal, men at the gathering were confined to cooking and cleaning, while women did all the talking. Accounts and images are online at Chiapas IMC.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners have gathered at the holy city of Touba to pay last respects to Senegal's late spiritual leader, Serigne Saliou Mbacke, who died at the age of 92 on Dec. 28. Saliou was the last surviving son of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, 19th-century founder of the Mouride sufi order, and had been "caliph" since 1990. About a tenth of Senegal's 11 million citizens are said to be Mourides, including President Abdoulaye Wade, who declared three days of national mourning. Mouhamadou Lamine Bara Mbacke, a grandson of Ahmadou Bamba, is to become the sixth caliph. (Press Association, Dec. 31; Reuters, Dec. 30; BBC, Dec. 29) Gambian President Yahya Jammeh also expressed sadness at the passing of the caliph, calling it a "great loss" for both Senegal and Gambia. (Afriquenligne, Dec. 31) However, Gambia is being accused in the assassination a week earlier of another prominent Senegalese marabout, or holy man, with intrigues over armed separatist movements in the background...

Two suicide attacks in Iraq killed at least 56 and wounded at least 42 this week—days after the US military delivered an upbeat report on security in the country, boasting that levels of violence had dropped over the past year. A female suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint of US-backed anti-al-Qaeda neighborhood patrol volunteers Jan. 2 in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province. The attack killed 10 and wounded eight. On Jan. 3, a suicide bombing killed 36 and wounded at least 35 in Baghdad's Zayouna neighborhood—the deadliest in the capital since August. The target was a crowd that had gathered to mourn a teacher killed with six others in a car bombing four days earlier in the crowded intersection at Tayaran Square (CSM, Jan. 2)

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the Jan. 2 suicide bombing in Algeria that killed five and injured 20. At 6:45 AM, a small truck laden with explosives drove at high speed towards a police station in Naciria, east of Algiers in the wilaya of Boumerdès. The driver reportedly detonated the Toyota Hilux after he was ordered to stop by police. In a statement aired by Al Arabiya TV, al-Qaeda franchise spokesman Salah Abou Mohammad said the truck carried at least 500 kilogrmas of explosives. A 10-year-old girl on her way to buy milk was among those killed by the blast. Algerian army forces immediately sealed off Naciria and began conducting "military operations" in nearby Sid Ali Bounab, a reported al-Qaeda stronghold. (Magharebia, Jan. 3)