Ethan Bronner in the New York Times took note Jan. 21 of the controversy surrounding Israel's high-profile rescue mission to Haiti in a story entitled "For Israelis, Mixed Feelings on Aid Effort." But the statements quoted are pretty tame compared to much of what is buzzing around the blogosphere. There is certainly something fundamentally perverse about the Israeli Defense Forces establishing a field hospital in Port-au-Prince as their blockade of the Gaza Strip is actively creating an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Commentators within Israel have made the point repeatedly. "Israel's compassion in Haiti can't hide our ugly face in Gaza," wrote Akiva Eldar in Haaretz Jan. 18. Paul Woodward on the War in Context website Jan. 23 notes a piece in the Israeli daily Maariv entitled "The painful truth: Haiti's disaster is good for the Jews." Blogger Richard Silverstein Jan. 19 noted a piece in Israel's Yediot by Yoel Donchin, a doctor who is himself a veteran of Israeli international disaster response teams—who accuses Israel of "Public Relations instead of saving lives." Donchin actually blasts the IDF field hospital as a scam, saying that "sending portable toilets to Haiti would have been a better option, but this does not provide good photo opportunities."

Continuing global economic growth "is not possible" if the world is to stop devastating climate change, according to a report by the New Economics Foundation (Nef). The study, entitled "Growth Isn't Possible," finds that "unprecedented and probably impossible" carbon reductions would be needed to hold temperature rises below 2 degree C (3.6 F), the limit beyond which global warming will become dangerous for human civilization. "We urgently need to change our economy to live within its environmental budget," said Nef's policy director Andrew Simms. "There is no global environmental central bank to bail us out if we become ecologically bankrupt."

The US is set to hold talks with European and Arab partners in London on Jan. 27 to build support for a drive to defeat the perceived growing al-Qaeda threat in Yemen. The impetus for the meeting comes from the failed Christmas Day jetliner bombing by a Nigerian passenger allegedly trained by the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Hillary Clinton will likely attend the London meeting, which comes days after the United Kingdom raised its terrorism threat assessment from substantial to severe.

An Indian court on Jan. 25 rejected a request by suspected Mumbai terror attack gunman Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab to be tried in an international court. Kasab claimed he would not receive a fair trial in India and that police had falsely accused him of taking part in the 2008 terror attacks. Special Court Judge ML Tahaliyani denied Kasab's request, calling it "premature." Kasab also requested that he be allowed to examine defense witnesses, including passport officers and government staff, from Pakistan and that he be allowed to meet with Pakistani officials. Tahaliyani told Kasab he should file a petition through his lawyer. Kasab faces 86 charges, including murder, for his role in the attacks and, may face the death penalty. A verdict is expected sometime early this year.

The US Supreme Court Jan. 25 declined to hear an appeal by former Panamanian military ruler Manuel Noriega challenging a lower court ruling denying his habeas corpus petition and authorizing his extradition to France on money laundering charges. Noriega, who has been declared a prisoner of war, invoked a provision of the Geneva Convention that requires repatriation at the end of confinement. In an April decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found that his claim was precluded by the Military Commission Act of 2006, which the government argued "codifie[d] the principle that the Geneva Conventions [a]re not judicially enforceable by private parties."

Guatemalan authorities have issued an arrest warrant for former president Alfonso Portillo, after the US government requested his extradition Jan. 24 to face charges of money laundering. Portillo, who was president of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004, has been charged in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on information provided by former members of Portillo's government. Portillo is accused of taking $15.8 million from funds designated for the Guatemalan Ministry of Defense and siphoning it into bank accounts in Europe and Bermuda.

Claims by Indonesia authorities that the killing of West Papuan rebel leader Kelly Kwalik last month would improve security in the province's restive Timika region were dashed Jan. 24 when nine people traveling in a convoy of US mining company Freeport-McMoran were injured in an ambush. Papua police said gunmen fired at two buses and four other vehicles carrying Freeport employees and family members on the highway between the mine and Kuala Kencana town. The injured included one US and one South African national working at the Grasberg gold and copper mine, the teenage daughter of a mine employee, and four Mobile Brigade police officers. (Jakarta Globe, Jan. 25)

Votani Majola, lawyer for King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo of South Africa's AbaThembu Tribe, announced Jan. 24 that the tribal homeland—covering a vast area of the republic's territory—has seceded from the nation. "AbaThembu Tribe have seceded from South Africa," he told the press. "The sooner the nation aligns with this reality and start preparing to form the State of Thembuland the better."