US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Jan. 6 announced new rules for obtaining leases for oil and gas drilling on public lands. The new rules were designed to provide a greater public voice in deciding how the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) awards these leases. In a statement, Salazar said, "[w]e need a fresh look—from inside the federal government and from outside—at how we can better manage Americans' energy resources."

The US Department of Justice has decided on a military prosecution for Afghan Guantánamo Bay detainee Obaidullah, according to court filings Jan. 6. Obaidullah was initially charged by the military in 2008 with hiding and storing anti-tank mines to be deployed against US forces in Afghanistan. He has been held at Guantánamo since 2002. The US government must now decide whether to formally try Obaidullah in a military commission.

An official from the US Department of Defense said Jan. 6 that about one in five detainees freed from the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay have returned to terrorist activities, according to a new Pentagon report. The report, which remains classified, shows an increase from the 14% recidivism rate reported last spring. That number was up from 11% in December 2008. The report was completed in late December, and officials have not released the raw numbers on which the 20% figure is based. Many human rights groups dispute the numbers, calling them inflated, and some reports have suggested that many Guantánamo detainees are innocent, never having engaged in terrorist activities in the first place. (Jurist, Jan. 7)

US security firm Blackwater on Jan. 6 reached a settlement agreement in seven federal lawsuits filed by Iraqi citizens. The suits claimed that Blackwater, now known as Xe, created a reckless culture that resulted in numerous deaths, including the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in September 2007 and the 2006 killing of an Iraqi guard. The suits accused Blackwater founder Erik Prince of personal responsibility. The terms of the settlement have not been made public, but Xe said in a statement that it is "pleased" with the resolution.

Thousands of Coptic Christians clashed with police in southern Egypt Jan. 7 during a funeral procession for seven people shot dead as they left a Christmas service hours earlier. Protesters hurled stones at vehicles and set fire to ambulances in the town of Nag Hamadi, 40 miles from the ancient ruins of Luxor. The unrest was sparked by a drive-by shooting in which three men sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd leaving a midnight Mass to mark the Coptic Christmas.

Armed conflict killed hundreds of children and adversely affected many others in 2009—the deadliest year for Afghan children since 2001—an Afghan human rights group reports. About 1,050 children died in suicide attacks, roadside blasts, air strikes and in the cross-fire between Taliban insurgents and pro-government Afghan and foreign forces from January to December 2009, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said in a statement Jan. 6.

Dozens of Guam residents led by the Guam Boonie Stompers staged a protest hike of the Pagat area over the weekend to oppose US plans to take the land for a new military base to house troops relocated from Okinawa. (Kuam News, Jan. 4) There have been numerous protests against the relocation in Guam in recent months, and in October a delegation of mostly young ethnic Chamorros traveled from the island to New York to denounce the plan before a special summit of the UN Committee on Decolonization.

The alleged instigator of the theft of the "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work will set you free") sign from the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, a man living in Sweden, is said to have intended to use the proceeds from the sale of the sign to finance an assassination plot at the Swedish Parliament and at the prime minister's headquarters in Stockholm. The claim was reported in the Swedish media Jan. 2, citing sources in that country's intelligence services.