A group of 15 gunmen took over the oldest synagogue in Caracas the night of Jan. 30, ransacking the sanctuary, desecrating Torahs and spray-painting walls with anti-Semitic slogans in what Venezuelan Jewish leaders called the worst attack ever on their community. A security guard was overpowered and tied up at around 10 PM; the gunmen remained in the temple until 3 AM. Slogans left on the walls read "Damn the Jews," "Jews get out" and "Israel assassins." A crude representation of the devil was also scrawled on a wall.

Tokyo is preparing to dispatch Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers to protect Japanese commercial vessels from pirates off Somalia. The issue of use of force against the pirates is likely to hotly contested in legislation the government is readying to allow the mission. "Basically, MSDF anti-piracy measures should be dealt with under a new law," Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said, raising further fears of an erosion of Japan's pacifist constitution.

Swiss police clashed with protesters against the World Economic Forum Jan. 31, firing tear gas and arresting 60 in central Geneva after officers were reportedly pelted with bottles and fireworks. Protesters gathered in defiance of a ban imposed by local authorities. Police equipped with a water cannon blocked the planned route of the march, briefly detaining and searching participants.

Chinese state media report that 81 people in Tibet have been detained for suspected criminal activity amid a security sweep. That number includes two who are being held for having "reactionary music" on their mobile phones. A report by the state-run Tibetan Daily said the public security bureau of Lhasa launched a "strike hard" campaign against crime on Jan. 18, with raids on numerous residential areas, hotels, guesthouses, Internet cafes and bars. Authorities have reportedly arrested 51 people for unspecified activities and charged another 30 with robbery, prostitution, theft and reactionary music found in their mobile phones.

Thousands of campesinos from across Mexico blocked central avenues of the capital Jan. 30, many having traveled for days for the protest directed at President Felipe Calderón. Protesters decried that Calderón has instated a freeze on petrol prices, but not diesel—on which tractors and other farm equipment run. They also rejected Calderón's free trade policies, which they say hurts the farm sector.

Illegal gold-miners shot dead a Yekuana indigenous leader and injured his son Jan. 21 in the Brazilian state of Roraima. Yekuana man Vicente Carton and his son Ronildo had refused to take the miners up the dangerous rapids of the Uraricoera River into the Yanomami indigenous reserve. The miners shot them, and Vicente died immediately while Ronildo escaped by jumping into the river. He hid in the forest and eventually made his way back to his village.

Indigenous people from across Latin America led more than 1,000 protesters, gathered in Belem, Brazil, for the World Social Forum, in formation of a human banner Jan. 27. Around the giant outline of a warrior taking aim with a bow and arrow, indigenous leaders and activists spelled out the message "SALVE A AMAZONIA," or "save the Amazon" in Portuguese. Some indigenous participants were themselves armed with bows and arrows.

More than 250 farmers with tractors and work trucks gathered in Ciudad Chihuahua's Plaza Hidalgo Jan. 27 to protest the high cost of diesel fuel and the lack of opportunity in Mexico's agricultural sector, blockading the entrances to Chihuahua state office buildings before beginning a sit-in outside the federal Agriculture Secretariat. They intend to caravan north and arrive at the border city of Ciudad Juárez later this week to blockade the international bridge to El Paso, TX.