In speeches before the annual Washington policy conference of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) March 22, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took barely veiled stabs at each other. "The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today," Netanyahu told 7,500 cheering delegates. "Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital." His remarks received a standing ovation—but also denunciations from a few protesters whose shouts were quickly drowned out by the AIPAC delegates.

A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on March 22 ordered the release of a Guantánamo Bay detainee who had been accused of planning the 9-11 attacks. Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian who has been in US custody for over seven years, brought a habeas corpus petition, claiming that he had been tortured in prison and had made confessions under duress. Slahi was once considered a key al-Qaeda leader and prosecutors had sought the death penalty against him. However, a prominent government prosecutor stepped down from the case in protest of the abusive treatment allegedly used against Slahi. The judge's decision is currently classified, although the court suggested that the files will become available at a future date.

In a possible sequel to the recent Dubai assassination, Israeli spy planes flew "uninvited and unannounced" over Budapest the same day a Syrian man was shot to death in his car in the Hungarian capital, the New York Post reports March 19. Two Israeli air force Gulfstream V-type jets flew more than 1,300 miles over Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania on March 17 before flying over Budapest and then disappearing, Hungarian media reports said.

The US detention center at Bagram in Afghanistan could be expanded into a military prison for terrorist suspects detained around the world under one option being considered as White House officials try to find an alternative to Guantánamo Bay, the London Times reports March 22. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, has voiced his opposition, because of the negative publicity it would generate.

The US Supreme Court on March 22 declined to rule in the case known as Kiyemba II, in which the court was asked to consider issues surrounding the transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainees. Lawyers for four Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantánamo were appealing an April 2009 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Columbia Circuit, which held that US courts cannot prevent the government from transferring Guantánamo detainees to foreign countries on the grounds that detainees may face prosecution or torture in the foreign country. The case is separate from a case the court remanded to the DC circuit court earlier this month, known as Kiyemba I.

Clodomiro Castilla, 49, publisher of Colombia's El Pulso del Tiempo newspaper—known for his exposés of official corruption and paramilitary terror—was shot dead by unknown gunmen in an attack on his home in the city of Montería, Córdoba department. Castilla had received death threats in recent months, after having testified in court that officials from the ruling party of President Alvaro Uribe had contacts to the outlawed paramilitary groups. He had been given police protection, but it was withdrawn shortly before the shooting. Castilla had also been arrested numerous times on drug and theft charges that his defenders claimed were fabricated. Last year, seven journalists were murdered in Colombia.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reportedly boycotted the official visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva. Lieberman declined to attend meetings with the visiting head of state or his address to the Knesset, Israeli and Brazilian media reported. Lieberman was reportedly upset that Lula refused to visit the grave of Zionist movement founder Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem, contrary to a new Israeli protocol for visiting dignitaries. Instead, Lula donned a keffiyeh around his shoulders and laid a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. "This is an insult," one senior Foreign Ministry official said. "It is offensive that he laid a wreath at the grave of a terrorist, but not at the tomb of Zionism's visionary." US Vice President Joe Biden last week was the first world leader to lay a wreath at Herzl's grave as part of the new protocol, initiated a few weeks ago to honor Herzl's 150th birthday.

From Human Rights Watch, Feb. 1:

Jordan: Stop Withdrawing Nationality from Palestinian-Origin Citizens
Authorities Arbitrarily Withdraw Nationality From More Than 2,700; Hundreds of Thousands at Risk
Jordan should stop withdrawing nationality arbitrarily from Jordanians of Palestinian origin, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Authorities stripped more than 2,700 of these Jordanians of their nationality between 2004 and 2008, and the practice continued in 2009, Human Rights Watch said.