Iranian security forces clashed with protesters and arrested dozens Feb. 11, as official commemorations were held to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, dissident websites reported. The Rahesabz website said clashes took place at Sadeghieh Square, about a kilometer from where hundreds of thousands of government supporters were gathered at Azadi (Freedom) Square. Witnesses said security forces fired tear gas and paint balls at crowds of protesters at several sites. Many protesters were waving green flags and chanting "Death to the dictator."

The England and Wales Court of Appeal on Feb. 10 ruled that the government of the United Kingdom must disclose the seven previously withheld paragraphs outlining the apparent torture of former Guantánamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed. Ruling in an appeal of a December High Court decision, the court found that "publication of the redacted paragraphs would not reveal information which would be of interest to a terrorist or criminal or provide any potential material of value to a terrorist or a criminal." The court rejected Foreign Secretary David Miliband's claims—backed by the US government—that disclosure of a seven-paragraph summary of classified CIA information would threaten intelligence cooperation between London and Washington, and therefore endanger Britain's national security.

Meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Jan. 24-29 for the 10th annual World Social Forum, 24 Latin American social organizations issued a statement denouncing what they called a "new, aggressive escalation of imperialism." The groups charged that there is an "expansion of the US military presence in the region" that "seeks, in addition to intimidating the political transformation processes in the region, to position [US] military force in strategic areas of great natural wealth."

On Feb. 3 several hundred Haitians marched in Pétionville, a generally well-to-do suburb southeast of Port-au-Prince, to protest what they said was corruption in the distribution of food to survivors of a Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated the capital and surrounding cities. The demonstrators said Pétionville mayor Claire Lydie Parent was illegally charging 150 gourdes (about $3.77) each for the coupons now being used to organize distribution of food. The protest began in front of the military academy on the Route de Frères and then moved to an encampment outside the mayor's office.

On Feb. 5 Puerto Rican independence activist Avelino González Claudio, a suspected leader of the rebel Popular Boricua Army (EPB)-Macheteros, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Hartford, Conn., to charges in the 1983 armed robbery of $7.1 million from a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, one of the largest robberies in US history. González Claudio, arrested in Puerto Rico in 2008 after 22 years in hiding, was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and transportation of stolen money out of the country, allegedly to finance Machetero activities. According to US intelligence, most of the money ended up in Cuba.

There continues to be a "systematic policy of violation of human rights, of violation of union rights" in Colombia, Alberto Vanegas, head of the Human Rights and Solidarity Department of the country's main labor federation, the Unitary Workers Central (CUT), charged on Feb. 4 at the start of a two-day conference in the northwestern city of Medellín in Antioquia department. According to the union movement, 40 union leaders and activists were killed in Colombia during 2009, a slight improvement over the 49 killed the year before. Vanegas told the Spanish wire service EFE that "60% of the trade unionists killed worldwide are Colombians."

A Colombian prosecutor called on the country's Vice President Francisco Santos to testify about allegations by an ex-paramilitary boss that he had collaborated with the now-demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Santos was invited to voluntarily respond to accusations by demobilized warlord Salvatore Mancuso that Santos had known of the planning of a paramilitary group in the Colombian capital of Bogotá. The Prosecutor General's Office is currently investigating the accusations.

Colombian authorities say that three of 21 drug trafficking suspects arrested Feb. 8 are closely linked to Joaquin Guzmán AKA "El Chapo" (Sinaloa Cartel), Mexico's most wanted drug lord. The alleged drug traffickers—all wanted for extradition by the US—were arrested following "Operation Frontiers," a joint US-Colombian operation. The suspects allegedly oversaw air trafficking of Colombian cocaine, and some are professional pilots. They are believed to belong to trafficking organizations "Loco Barrera," "Los Mellizos" and "Los Rastrojos."