Pakistani interior minister chief Rehman Malik boasted at an Islamabad press conference that authorities have arrested more than 120 in a crackdown on groups allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks. However, he dodged a question on whether Pakistan was conceding that the plot that killed over 180 people in the Indian metropolis was hatched on his country's soil.

Brazil agreed Jan. 15 to provide assistance to Bolivia to combat drug trafficking, taking up slack following the ouster of the US DEA from the Andean country last year. Meeting in the vast wetlands along the Bolivia-Brazil border, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva said he would grant Bolivian leader Evo Morales' request for helicopters and other support to patrol the porous frontier that is a major cocaine-trafficking route from the Andes. "I want us to fight drugs together," said Morales.

Mexican Exterior Secretary Patricia Espinosa reacted Jan. 15 to the recent US Joint Forces Command report describing Mexico and Pakistan as "weak and failing states," telling reporters that most of the murders in the escalating narco wars have been between drug traffickers, and half have been concentrated in the cities of Juárez, Tijuana, Culiacán and Chihuahua. "Mexico is not a failed state," she said. (NYT, Jan. 16) Similar points were made by Enrique Hubbard Urrea, Mexico's consul general in Dallas, in a meeting with the Dallas Morning News editorial board, where he actually boasted improvement, asserting that the Mexican government "has won" the war against the drug cartels in certain areas, including Nuevo Laredo. (DMN, Jan. 16)

Israeli strikes set UN and media buildings and a hospital ablaze Jan. 15 as tanks rolled deep into Gaza City and diplomats struggled to find a way to halt the offensive that has now killed nearly 1,075. Hundreds of terrified civilians, many gripping wailing children, fled the advancing Israeli forces inside Gaza's main city as warplanes continued to pound the impoverished enclave.

Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Jan. 14 he is breaking diplomatic ties with Israel in protest against its offensive in Gaza, which has left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead. Morales also said he would seek to have top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, charged with "genocide" in the International Criminal Court.

Somali pirates reportedly received a $3 million ransom for the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star and its crew, including two Brits—but in the words of one former captive "got their comeuppance." Pirate captain Mohamed Said, speaking yesterday from Xarardheere, north of Mogadishu, said six of his crew were killed when their boat capsized while returning from the transfer site. Capt. Said said his men feared capture by the Combined Maritime Forces which are now patrolling Somalia's coast. (The Independent, Jan. 11)

Outgoing CIA director Michael Hayden told reporters in Washington Jan. 15: "The great danger was that—I'm going to use a little euphemism here—the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan was a safe haven for al-Qaeda. It is my belief that the senior leadership of al-Qaeda today believes that it is neither safe, nor a haven. That is a big deal in defending the United States." (Reuters) Four days earlier, hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked an outpost of Pakistan's Frontier Corps in the Mohmand district, sparking a gun-battle that left at least 40 militants and six soldiers dead. (NYT, Jan. 12)

Attacks by presumed Baluch militants are reported from both the Pakistani and Iranian sides of the divided Baluchistan region. In Quetta, capital of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, gunmen riding a motorbike sprayed a police vehicle with bullets Jan. 14, killing four officers. (AFP, Jan. 14) On Dec. 29, the Sunni militant group Jundallah carried out a suicide attack on a police station in Saravan, in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, killing four and injuring 20. Iran says the group, led by Abdolmalek Rigi, has links to al-Qaeda. (Tehran Times, NYT, Dec. 30)