The details surrounding the deaths of several individuals inside US immigration detention centers were intentionally concealed, the New York Times reported Jan. 9. The Times, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), gathered information through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) pertaining to more than 100 deaths that have occurred in the detention facilities since 2003. The Times discovered that government officials made deliberate attempts to conceal information from the media and the public, despite the Obama administration's promises to increase the transparency of such organizations. As a result, investigations have been conducted by the US Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to the Times, the internal investigations provide further support that the culture of secrecy has continued in the current administration.

Afghan officials Jan. 9 signed a memorandum of understanding to delineate the process through which the Kabul government will take over the US military's Parwan Detention Center that was formerly housed at Bagram Air Base. The transfer of responsibilities may take place within six months, and the Afghan Ministry of Defense will initially run the facility. Afghan President Hamid Karzai will determine the timing of the eventual transfer of complete responsibility for the Parwan Detention Center to the Central Prisons Directorate in the Ministry of Justice. Afghan and US officials say that the move will strengthen security and the rule of law in Afghanistan.

Police found two severed heads and the bullet-ridden bodies of two women and a disabled man in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez Jan. 9. The body of the man, whose legs had earlier been surgically removed, was mutilated and left with a "narco-message." (AP, Jan. 9) On Jan. 8 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, the body of Hugo Hernández, 36, was left on the street in seven pieces with a note addressed to the Juárez Cartel reading: "Happy New Year, because this will be your last." Hernandez's face was skinned and stitched onto a soccer ball. (AP, Jan. 8) On Jan. 7, a shoot-out at a military check-point in La Piedad, Michoacán, left one soldier and three presumed narco-gunmen dead. (Cambio de Michoacán, Jan. 7)

Israel has been conducting tests of a short-range missile-defense system to fend off rockets from the Gaza Strip, dubbed the "Iron Dome," and says the system is nearly ready to be deployed. (UPI, Jan. 8) The announcement comes as the Israeli Defense Forces launched four air-strikes on the Gaza Strip, targeting a supposed weapons shop and two smuggling tunnels, killing at least three. (CNN, Jan. 8)

Four were killed Jan. 9 in a presumed US drone strike on the village of Ismail Khan in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan. (CNN, Jan. 9) The attack came hours after Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani again voiced official objection to the ongoing US drone strikes on Pakistan's territory. (Reuters, Jan. 9)

At least five protesters arrested in Iran during last week's protests will be tried on charges of "enmity against God," which carries an automatic death sentence if they are convicted. In another sign of an intensified crackdown on dissidents, a Kurdish activist, Fasih Yasamani, 28, was executed Jan. 6 by hanging at Khoy prison in Azarbaijan province, on charges of "enmity against God" and membership in the Kurdish separatist group PJAK, according to the opposition Human Rights Activists News Agency. If true, he was the second Kurdish activist executed in Iran in recent months, following the November execution of Ehsan Fattahian. At least 17 other activists are on death row.

A 20-hour gun battle at a hotel seized by militants who had earlier killed an officer at a police checkpoint in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, ended Jan. 7 after police killed two militants, including a Pakistani citizen. A police officer and a civilian were killed, and 10 others wounded. Jammu and Kashmir authorities said both militants belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist group that has been blamed for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Other sources said Jamait-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the initial attack. (NYT, AlJazeera, Jan. 8)

Police in Russia's south killed two suspected militants Jan. 7 in a "counter-terrorism operation" launched in response to a checkpoint suicide attack that took the lives of six officers. The area on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, has been under curfew since the attack. Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya, all predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus, saw a sharp rise in violence last year, with near-daily attacks mostly targeting police and other officials. The violence sweeping the impoverished southern region is increasingly described as a civil war between Kremlin-supported administrations and Islamic militants. (AP, Jan. 7) A Dec. 18 suicide car attack on a group of police and soldiers in Nazran, Ingushetia, wounded at least 23 people, including civilians. (AP, Dec. 18)