On Dec. 31, immigration detainees jailed in the South Special Housing Unit at Eloy Detention Center in Eloy, Ariz., began throwing furniture at prison staff and causing property damage in the unit, according to a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) press release cited in a local news report. At the time of the incident, there were approximately 34 detainees assigned to the Special Housing Unit. According to the news report, staff used chemical agents against the detainees to force them back into their cells. Jail officials placed the entire facility on lockdown status, meaning that detainees were restricted to their cells until further notice.

Israeli troops and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire in northern Gaza early Jan. 18—hours after Israel declared a "unilateral cease-fire." The fighting began when Hamas militants opened fire at an Israeli patrol near Jabalya refugee camp. None of the soldiers was wounded. Additionally, at least seven rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel shortly after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that his security cabinet had voted in favor of the cease-fire. (Ha'aretz, Jan. 18)

Oaxaca activist Rubén Valencia Núñez was harassed and violently attacked on the night of Jan. 10, and it is believed that his life remains under threat. He is a member of Oaxacan Voices Building Autonomy and Liberty (VOCAL), which is part of umbrella organization Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO). APPO led widespread protests in Oaxaca state in 2006 and 2007, calling for the resignation of the state's governor.

A small indigenous community in Mexico's northern Chihuahua state finds little glitter in the "magic town" planned for their ancestral lands. Instead of good fortune, leaders of the Raramuri (Tarahumara) community of Bacajipare allege they've been the target of death threats and bullets because of an escalating land conflict related to the planned Divisadero-Barrancas Adventure Park.

Israeli troops again pounded Gaza Jan. 16 after Hamas offered a conditional truce amid a diplomatic push to end the offensive. For a third week, the Israeli army locked down the occupied West Bank for 48 hours after Hamas called for a day of "wrath" against the offensive. Since Israel unleashed Operation Cast Lead on Dec. 27, Gaza medics say 1,169 have been killed, including at least 370 children, and 85 women. There have been more than 5,015 injured, including at least 1,745 children. (Middle East Online, Ma'an News Agency, Jan. 16)

Some 100 Islamist protesters in Indonesia rallied outside the country's only synagogue Jan. 7, demanding its closure and expulsion of the Jewish community in response to Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. Protesters marched to the synagogue's gates chanting, "Go to hell, Israel!" The only Jewish religious site in the world's most populous Muslim state—which has no rabbi and only a few followers—closed its doors as the march approached and protesters burned an Israeli flag.

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.