Iran said Feb. 11 that Egyptians have achieved a "great victory," after it was announced that President Hosni Mubarak had stepped down. "A new Middle East is taking shape, not the Mideast the West had planned for but one which has been created based on Islamic awakening," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, speaking on the 32nd anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. "The movement and uprising that has been created in the region will definitely disturb the equations in the world today." (AFP, Press TV, Feb. 11)

In a brief and somber surprise televised address Feb. 11, Vice President Omar Suleiman said: "My fellow citizens. In this difficult time that the country is going through, President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has decided to relieve himself of his position as president and the supreme military council has taken control of the state's affairs. May God protect us." Crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square erupted into loud cheers, chanting "Egypt is free, Egypt is free!" (ABC, AFP, Feb. 11)

Thousands of Egyptian protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square erupted into chants of "Down with Mubarak!" and waved their shoes above their heads in disgust after President Hosni Mubarak's speech Feb. 10, which defied nearly universal expectations that he would accede to demands the he step down. Instead, he said he would stay on until September elections, while delegating most powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman. Protesters immediately spread out from Tahrir Square, surrounding the parliament building, council of ministers headquarters and other top government offices—all guarded by thick ranks of army troops and tanks. Facing off with the troops, they chant: "Egyptian army, the choice is now, the regime or the people!"

The City Council of Berkeley, Calif., is to vote Feb. 15 on a resolution to invite Guantánamo Bay detainees who have been cleared of wrongdoing to resettle in the town. Of the 38 detainees that have now been cleared, Berkeley would invite two: a Russian ballet dancer and an Algerian who was once a top-rated Italian chef in Austria. "Our hearts are with all those people who were never tried, held for years and in some cases tortured," said Wendy Kenin, chair of the city's Peace and Justice Commission. "As a municipality, this is one thing we can do to right some wrongs of our federal government."

Don Samuel Ruíz García, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in the Chiapas highlands, died in Mexico City on Jan. 24 at the age of 86. Known to his flock as Don Samuel or Tatic—"father" in the Maya tongue—Bishop Ruíz was long an advocate for the poor in marginalized Chiapas state, and came to national prominence when he brokered peace talks with the Zapatista rebels in 1994. The day after his passing, thousands of indigenous campesinos from throughout Chiapas filed past the coffin at a memorial mass in the San Cristóbal cathedral that also commemorated the 51st anniversary of his ordination there. Bishop Raúl Vera López of Saltillo, who served as Bishop Ruíz's coadjutor in Chiapas from 1995 to 1999, presided over a memorial mass in Mexico City. The Vatican issued a message hailing him as the "bishop of the poor." Even President Felipe Calderón—on the opposite side of political battles with Bishop Ruíz in life—said his death "constitutes a great loss for Mexico." (Upside Down World, Feb. 9; NYT, El Universal, Jan. 26; Catholic News Service, Jan. 25)

Speaking at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics on Feb. 7, US Army Undersecretary Joseph Westphal—the army's second highest ranking civilian official—invoked an "insurgency" mounting in Mexico. His talk focused on the Middle East and South Asia, but in response to a student's question about strategic blind spots in US foreign policy, Westphal said: "One of them in particular for me is Latin America and in particular Mexico. As all of you know, there is a form of insurgency in Mexico with the drug cartels that’s right on our border."

In recent days, Facebook groups numbering several hundred members have been calling for "day of rage" protests in Libya on Feb. 17. An initiator of the call, Jamal al-Hajji, who has joint Libyan and Danish citizenship and has spent time in prison in the past for his criticism of the Moamar Qadaffi regime, was detained on Feb. 1 for an alleged hit-and-run accident, which he denies. International human rights observers say he has been targeted for his activism.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flooded Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square and towns across Egypt Feb. 8, in the biggest show of defiance to President Hosni Mubarak since the protests began. The immense crowd hailed as a hero Google executive Wael Ghonim whose Facebook site helped launch the protest movement on Jan. 25, and who was released the previous day after having been detained and held blindfolded for 12 days. Many protesters carried the symbols of the Internet social networks Facebook and Twitter, which have been vital mobilizing tools for the opposition. While larger crowds gather daily to protest, several thousand occupy Tahrir Square around the clock, sleeping under plastic sheets or under army tanks. (AFP, BBC News, Feb. 8)