Ecuador expelled US diplomat Mark Sullivan Feb. 19, accusing him of trying to handpick officials of the National Police. On Feb. 7 President Rafael Correa told another US diplomat, Armando Astorga, to leave on similar charges that he sought to manipulate appointments in police programs receiving United States aid. Correa, is in a re-election campaign and has stressed his credentials as a leader determined to stand up to foreign influence. Correa charges Astorga with conditioning $360 million in US aid on his ability to intervene in appointment of police commanders. "We regret this decision by the government of Ecuador," said a State Department spokesman, Gordon Duguid. "We also reject any suggestion of wrongdoing by embassy staff." Ecuador's media cited anonymous diplomatic sources saying Sullivan is an agent of the CIA. (NYT, El Comericio, Feb. 20; InfoBae, Argentina, Feb. 18)

The police chief in Mexico's violence-torn Ciudad Juárez quit Feb. 20 after several officers were slain this week and hand-painted posters left in prominent places in the city pledged an officer would be killed every 48 hours until he resigned. Roberto Orduña Cruz, the city's public safety secretary, said he didn't want to risk more lives. "Respect for the life that these brave officers risk every day on the streets for Juarez residents obliges me to offer my permanent resignation," Orduña said.

Judge Abdul-Amir al-Rubaie of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) Feb. 19 postponed the trial of Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist accused of throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush. The new trial date is set for March 12. Al-Zaidi's lawyers argued that Bush's visit was not official and therefore the charge of assaulting a foreign leader should not apply. The trial was postponed so the court could determine if Bush's visit was "official" and respond to the defense.

A US Army Special Forces soldier facing court-martial proceedings over the killing of an Afghan civilian in March 2008 has admitted to killing the man but argued during opening statements Feb. 19 that the act was committed in self defense. Master Sgt. Robert Newell of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) was arraigned and charged with killing the unidentified Afghan and mutilating the corpse by cutting off an ear. Military prosecutors allege that the killing was premeditated, and that the civilian posed no threat to Newell.

A suicide bomber killed at least 28 and injured dozens Feb. 20 in Dera Ismail Khan, a town in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province—the latest in an escalating series of attacks aimed at the country's Shi'ite minority. The attack targeted the funeral procession for Sher Zeman, a Shi'ite leader who was gunned down in the city the day before. The blast sparked hours of rioting in which furious crowds torched shops, homes and cars. The army was called in and the town placed under curfew. (Daily Times, Pakistan, Feb. 21)

Gen. David D. McKiernan, top US commander in Afghanistan, said Feb. 18 that the heightened troop levels that President Barack Obama ordered for the country could remain in place for up to five years. Speaking at a Pentagon press conference a day after Obama ordered 17,000 additional troops to the country, said that the build-up "is not a temporary force uplift." He said the build-up would "need to be sustained for some period of time," and that he was looking at "the next three to four or five years." (NYT, Feb. 19)

Four prisoners who were released from Guantánamo Bay and sent back to their home country of Iraq last month have been detained by authorities there and are being interrogated, Iraqi officials confirmed Feb. 17. "The government is reviewing their files to see if there are any charges against them," said Wijdan Mikhail Salim, the minister of human rights. She said that they will be released if not found guilty of any crimes. Following contradictory statements by Iraqi officials, rights groups have expressed concern about the condition and whereabouts of the men, who were initially detained by the US in Afghanistan.

An Egyptian political dissident whose imprisonment strained relations between Cairo and Washington for more than three years was unexpectedly freed Feb. 18 in an apparent goodwill gesture toward the new US administration. Ayman Nour, who ran against President Hosni Mubarak in 2005 and was later imprisoned on widely questioned forgery charges, was released for medical reasons, the Egyptian prosecutor's office said. Nour, who has heart and eye ailments, was due to be freed in 2010 after a five-year sentence. His case came to symbolize a campaign by Mubarak's National Democratic Party to silence political opponents. (Newsday, Feb. 19)