The US is sending another 4,000 sailors and marines to Haiti for the earthquake relief mission, diverting them from deployments in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and three-ship USS Nassau Amphibious Ready Group would "significantly" increase the ability to quickly provide aid, the Navy said. The move will increase the number of US troops involved to about 16,000. (BBC News, Jan. 20)

Death squads returned to the streets of Baghdad with the first targeted killing of civilians in the city for more than two years, Iraqi media reported Jan. 19. Masked gunmen walked into the office of the Mawteni charitable foundation in a Sunni part of central Baghdad and executed five employees. They also left behind a car bomb at the entrance of the building, which exploded when police arrived on the scene, injuring two officers. (London Times, Jan. 19)

Nigerian authorities imposed a curfew in the north-central city of Jos on Jan. 20 after four days of fighting between Muslims and Christians killed at least 200 people. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan deployed troops to Jos in one of his first acts of executive power since President Umaru Yar'Adua was hospitalised in Saudi Arabia with a heart condition in November. The troops have orders to shoot rioters on sight.

UK-based human rights group Reprieve issued a statement Jan. 19 suggesting that the Obama administration has suppressed information relating to the investigation of three 2006 Guantánamo Bay suicides and urging further inquiries. The statement comes in response to an article for the upcoming issue of Harper's Magazine, in which former guards at the prison indicate that the three prisoners experienced intense interrogations in a remote area of the base just hours before the deaths. According to the article, military personnel were instructed by a commanding officer that the media would be told that the deaths were suicides.

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.