Mexico's semi-governmental National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has issued a recommendation to Zeferino Torreblanca, center-left governor of the southern state of Guerrero, in the unsolved case of two indigenous leaders kidnapped by three armed men on Feb. 13, 2009 in Ayutla de los Libres municipality, Guerrero, and found dead on Feb. 20 in Tecoanapa municipality. The CNDH noted irregularities in the state's investigation, and asked Torreblanca to correct them and to offer protection to witnesses and to the families of the victims, who were leaders in the Organization for the Development of the Mixteco Méphaa Peoples. (La Jornada, Jan. 3)

Mexican district judge Rosa Ileana Ortega Pérez in Oaxaca city issued an order on Dec. 30 giving the federal government 10 days to release activist Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, who has been held since Oct. 16, 2008 for the murder of New York-based independent journalist Brad Will. Martínez Moreno, a member of the leftist Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), had already been cleared of the murder charges on Nov. 9 by magistrate judge Javier Leonel Santiago Martínez, who asked Judge Ortega Pérez to release the prisoner within 48 hours. However, the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) appealed, as it is expected to do again with Judge Ortega Pérez’s decision.

Just before Christmas, President Barack Obama, signed one of the biggest US aid pledges of the year—$2.77 billion for Israel in 2010, and a total of $30 billion over the next decade. Israel is bound by the agreement to use 75% of the aid to buy military material made in the US. Israel has long been the top US aid recipient, followed by Egypt ($1.75 billion this year), which also receives most of its assistance in tied military aid. This is the first time the proviso is being applied to Israel.

Eleven Iranian police agents were killed when a highway patrol intercepted what officials called an "illicit drug convoy" in Southern Khorasan Province near the Afghan border Jan. 1. Four traffickers were also reported wounded in the clash, and one wounded. Reports said police "attempted to confiscate" around two tons of drugs—but did not indicate what type of drugs, or if the confiscation was successful. Reports also indicate the convoy was headed north, which is not the most logical route if it was leaving Afghanistan, as accounts implied.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama have agreed to fund a special counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen to tackle the rising threat from the country. The announcement comes as the US and UK shut their embassies in Yemen's capital Sana Dec. 3, the US State Department citing unspecified but "ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," the regional franchise of the terror network. The closures came a day after a quiet visit to Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the US regional commander, who delivered a message from Obama of support for Yemen's unity and counter-terrorism efforts. (Press TV, NYT, Jan. 3)

Some 400 prisoners revolted on New Years Eve at Huancas prison in the northeastern Peruvian city of Chachapoyas, taking several guards hostage and seizing part of the facility. Two inmates were killed by guard gunfire, and at least six guards are still being held hostage. The prisoners are demanding better food and conditions, speedier trials, and that administration of the facility be transfered to the National Police from the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), which they accuse of corruption. A commission led by Deputy Justice Minister Gerardo Castro has been sent to the prison to negotiate. (Periodismo Peru, LAHT, Jan. 2)

If anyone was celebrating the new year last evening, it must have been the five Blackwater guards charged in the massacre of 17 innocent Iraqi civilians in Nisur Square, Baghdad, two years ago. On New Years Eve afternoon, Judge Ricardo Urbina of the DC District Court dismissed all criminal charges against them, on the basis that their indictment was procured—twice in fact—using statements they made to State Department investigators under threat of losing their jobs. In the United States, coerced confessions are inadmissible as evidence, and cannot be presented to a grand jury in order to obtain an indictment.

The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reports Jan. 1 that construction in West Bank settlements is "booming" despite the freeze that was officially declared Nov. 26. "Haaretz toured the area on Wednesday and witnessed work being carried out in the Barkan and Ariel industrial zones, as well as the construction of housing at Ariel, Elkana North, Peduel and Kfar Tapuah. A sign at Kfar Tapuah announced plans for the construction of 65 new housing units. Israel patrols were evident, but not inspectors of the Civil Administration enforcing the construction ban."