The administration of Barack Obama, sworn in as US president Jan. 20, will eliminate some current US sanctions against Cuba but "it is not time to lift" the 47-year-old US economic embargo, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, DC on Jan. 13. Her appearance before the committee was part of a process that is expected to win her a quick confirmation as the new administration's secretary of state. Clinton answered a number of questions orally and in writing about US relations with Latin America. The Obama administration "will return to a policy of vigorous involvement" in the region, she said.

One of Barack Obama's first moves as the 44th president of the United States is expected to be the nomination of Sen. George Mitchell (D-ME) as his Middle East envoy. Mitchell headed the committee appointed by President Bill Clinton to probe the roots of the 2000 al-Aqsa Intifada. A former House majority leader, he also served as President Clinton's special envoy to Northern Ireland.

The fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip entered its third day Jan. 20, with residents struggling to absorb the devastation caused by Israel's deadly 22-day assault on the territory. UN chief Ban Ki-moon is to make his first visit to witness first hand the extent of the destruction, which has left some 4,100 homes totally destroyed and 17,000 others damaged. Medics in Gaza are now saying more than 1,300 Palestinians, nearly a third of them children, were killed in the Israeli offensive.

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.