The Tehran Revolutionary Court announced Jan. 17 that it has convicted four Iranians of involvement in a US-supported plan to overthrow the Iranian government. The court said that the four men had confessed to planning to overthrow the Iranian government in cooperation with the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Days earlier, Iranian judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi announced the men's arrest, and said that they had received funding for the alleged coup from the administration of US President George Bush. Neither the identities of the men nor the prison sentences they were given have been released. Responding to a question on whether the US was involved in such a plan, a State Department spokesperson said such allegations were "baseless," and said that Iran was using the charges to quite political activists.

Russia and Ukraine signed a 10-year deal Jan. 19 to renew supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine and Europe, ending a dispute that has jeopardized Europe's gas supply since New Year's Day. "The transit of gas through Ukraine will be fully resumed in the near future," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at the signing ceremony, also attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Gazprom head Alexei Miller and Naftogaz head Oleh Dubyna. (Reuters, Dow Jones, Jan. 19)

Days after violent protests in Latvia, riots broke out in neighboring Lithuania Jan. 16, with some 7,000 gathering in the capital Vilnius to protest planned economic austerity measures. Some began throwing eggs and stones through the windows of government buildings, and police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. (NYT, Jan. 17)

Israeli forces began slowly withdrawing from the Gaza Strip Jan. 19, following a tentative truce with Hamas. Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip agreed to honor Israel's declared ceasefire on the condition that Israeli troops are out of the Gaza Strip within one week. Hamas and other Gaza factions denied that Israel had "imposed its conditions" on the resistance.

The US Department of Defense Jan. 18 announced it had transferred six detainees out of Guantánamo Bay. The detainees, four of whom were sent to Iraq, one to Algeria, and one to Afghanistan, were found to be eligible for transfer after what the DoD called "a comprehensive series of review processes." About 245 detainees remain at the facility, with roughly 60 eligible for transfer or release. The Afghan who was transferred, named Bismullah, was cleared of enemy combatant status "based on new information." The other five retained the enemy combatant designation.

In an opinion released late on Jan. 7, Attorney General Michael Mukasey wrote that "neither the Constitution nor any statutory or regulatory provision entitles an alien to a do-over if his initial removal proceeding is prejudiced by the mistakes of a privately retained lawyer." The ruling came in the case of three people ordered deported who said their cases had been hurt by attorney errors. Mukasey's ruling is binding over the immigration courts, which are part of the Department of Justice rather than the judiciary. Immigrant advocates said they expected the ruling to be challenged in federal appeals courts. Until recently the Board of Immigration Appeals, the highest review panel within the immigration system, had generally found that immigrants whose lawyers had made critical errors could seek to reopen their cases on constitutional grounds. (New York Times, Jan. 8)

From Dec. 14 to Dec. 18, ICE agents from three local fugitive operations teams arrested 84 immigrants from Costa Rica, Mexico, Nepal and Nicaragua in the Dallas metropolitan area. The arrests were made in Argyle, Arlington, Balch Springs, The Colony, Carrollton, Dallas, Denton, Duncanville, Farmers Branch, Fort Worth, Garland, Haltom City, Irving, Kennedale, Mesquite, Plano, Richardson and Rowlett. Of the total 84 people arrested, 64 reportedly had final removal orders; the other 20 were out-of-status immigrants encountered during the course of the raids. Forty of the 84 reportedly had criminal histories. ICE was assisted in the operation by the US Marshals Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the police departments of Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco and Grand Prairie. (ICE news release, Dec. 19)

On Dec. 31, immigration detainees jailed in the South Special Housing Unit at Eloy Detention Center in Eloy, Ariz., began throwing furniture at prison staff and causing property damage in the unit, according to a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) press release cited in a local news report. At the time of the incident, there were approximately 34 detainees assigned to the Special Housing Unit. According to the news report, staff used chemical agents against the detainees to force them back into their cells. Jail officials placed the entire facility on lockdown status, meaning that detainees were restricted to their cells until further notice.