The federal trial of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman with alleged ties to al-Qaeda, began Jan. 19 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Siddiqui is charged with assault and the attempted murder of a US officer after allegedly opening fire on agents at the Afghan detention facility where she was being held in July 2008. As soon as her trial began, Siddiqui became agitated and started screaming that she was innocent, causing her to be removed from the courtroom. Originally detained in Afghanistan because she was allegedly in possession of explosive chemicals and lists of New York City targets, Siddiqui has denied that she is part of any terrorist plot.

David L. Wilson of Weekly News Update on the Americas was in Port-au-Prince with a delegation when the Jan. 12 earthquake struck the city. Because of limited electricity and internet access, he was unable to send this report out until after he got back to New York the morning of Jan. 18.:

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Wednesday night, January 13, the second night after a giant earthquake shattered this city, was filled with strange sounds.

From Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Jan. 19:

Port-au-Prince – A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cargo plane carrying 12 tons of medical equipment, including drugs, surgical supplies and two dialysis machines, was turned away three times from Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday night despite repeated assurances of its ability to land there. This 12-ton cargo was part of the contents of an earlier plane carrying a total of 40 tons of supplies that was blocked from landing on Sunday morning. Since January 14, MSF has had five planes diverted from the original destination of Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic. These planes carried a total of 85 tons of medical and relief supplies.

Thousands of fresh foreign troops arrive in Afghanistan this year, but some prominent aid agencies are voicing concerns that this could lead to the intensification of the conflict, with dire humanitarian consequences. The civilian death toll has been mounting, and insecurity, attacks on, and intimidation of, aid agencies have also squeezed humanitarian space across the country, thus reducing or denying essential services to many vulnerable communities.

Thousands of internally displaced in Somalia's central town of Beletweyne are on the move again following 10 days of fighting between rival Islamist militias, amid reports of continuing heavy shelling in parts of the town. According to a humanitarian bulletin covering 8-15 January by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 30 people have been killed and 50 injured, mostly civilians, with many artillery shells landing on residential areas. OCHA could not confirm the number of displaced.

Rebellion in Chiapas— The Zapatista Movement in Modern Mexico
Sixteen years ago this month, the Zapatista uprising in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas shocked the world, as a previously unknown army of indigenous Maya took up arms to repudiate the new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Journalist and World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg, author of Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico, will speak on the dynamics that led to the rebellion, and look back both on the gains and defeats of the Zapatista struggle since the 1994 uprising.

David L. Wilson of Weekly News Update on the Americas reports from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 15:

PORT-AU-PRINCE — I finally saw uniformed Haitian police on the street here at about 9 AM two days ago, on Wednesday, more than 16 hours after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed much of the Haitian capital.

Reports rose Jan. 18 of looting and vigilantism among increasingly desperate earthquake survivors as Port-au-Prince awaits the deployment of more US troops. A 12,000-strong US contingent is expected to arrive by the end of the week, to assist the 3,000 police and some 9,000 troops from the UN force MINUSTAH in the city. The reported lynching of one suspected looter along with shootings have led to an increase in UN patrols. The country's legal system and government are largely non-operational. Some 1,000 US troops have already landed in Haiti, with 3,000 more working from ships. Lt. Gen. Ken Keen of the US Southern Command was cited acknowledging that violence is hindering the aid effort. "We are going to have to address the situation of security," Keen said. (AP, Jurist, Jan. 18; MINUSTAH website)