Four people were killed when Cambodian military police opened fire on garment factory workers marching to demand higher pay in a Phnom Penh  industrial zone Jan. 3. Hours later, police dispersed a protest camp that supporters of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) had maintained since mid-December in the city's Freedom Park. The move came as the government announced emergence measures barring public protests by the CNRP, which accuses the Hun Sen government of rigging elections held in July. The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) accused the CNRP of using the deadly street clash as a "pretext" to suspend talks over the impasse. The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Huamn Rights LICADHO decired the police violence as "horrific." (AFP, AP, Jan. 4; Reuters, Xinhua, Jan. 3)

Syrian rebels on Jan. 3 launched an offensive against the Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), attacking the Qaedist strongholds at several locations in the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib. The offensive included forces from the both the nominally secular Free Syrian Army and the new Islamic Front alliance. The Islamic Front apparently launched the offensive after one of its commanders, Hussein al-Suleiman of the Ahrar al-Sham militia, was tortured to death by ISIS militants.  He was reportedly detained after he went to meet with an ISIS delegation in an effort to settle a dispute that arose in the village of Maskaneh in rural Aleppo. A gruesome photograph of Suleiman's disfigured body has circulated widely on social media, spakring outrage against ISIS. (Daily Star, Lebanon, Jan. 4; Daily Star, Jan. 3)

On Dec. 31, US Judge John G. Koeltl granted the Bureau of Prisons' request for the compassionate release of Lynne Stewart. Now 74 years old and struggling with terminal cancer, Stewart is said to have a life expectancy of less than 18 months. She has been serving a 10-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Tex., in connection with her defense of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. As her condition has deteriorated, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has repeatedly called on Attorney General Eric Holder to direct the BoP to grant compassionate release. Said NLG executive director Heidi Boghosian: "From arrest to sentencing, Lynne Stewart's case was used by the Department of Justice to send a chilling message to attorneys: think twice about who you represent! For speaking to a Reuters reporter about her client’s viewpoints—in violation of an administrative order—an ailing Ms. Stewart was sentenced to a decade in prison. Today's small measure of justice does little to repair the damage wrought by the government’s unjust prosecution of an advocate whose service to society has been widely documented." (NLG, Dec. 31)

This year marks the twelfth since World War 4 Report was launched in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 to monitor global conflicts; support anti-militarist movements and autonomy struggles; and give voice to dissident-left perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America and around the world. We continue to have a dedicated following, but an admittedly select one. We continue to wonder how many readers "get" what we do, and how valuable it is to you. We would appreciate any response, either by e-mail or commentary on the website, to this brief reader survey...

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its newly released annual Southeast Asia Opium Survey (PDF) finds that opium production in Burma continued to increase in 2013—up 26% to an estimated 870 metric tons. This is the highest amount since the UN began keeping track in 2002. In 1999, the Burmese regime promised to eradicate opium production by 2014, but production has increased every year since 2006. The UNODC report acknowledges that eradication efforts have failed to address the political and economic factors that drive farmers to grow opium in the first place. With poppy fetching 19 times more than rice, struggling peasants have few other options to make a living.

Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista rebels in Mexico's southern Chiapas state released a new communique Dec. 28 reflecting on the history of the movement since the New Year's Day 1994 uprising that announced it. Marcos took aim at "the criminals of the Mexican political class," but also "the for-pay press" for distorted portrayals of the movement. The communique emphasized that members of the press will not be permitted to attend commemorations of the uprising that the rebels will be holding in their communities Jan. 1. The statement acknowledged that the revolution the Zapatistas announced in 1994 has not acheived its aims, but expressed determination to continue resistance: "In December 2013, it is just as cold as 20 years ago, and today, like back then, the same flag protects us: that of rebellion," Marcos wrote. (AFP, Jan. 1; Latin Times, Dec. 30)

Eight municipalities in southern Mexico's Chiapas state on Dec. 10 were declared territories free of mineral or hydro-electric development, asserting principles of local autonomy and prior consultation. The joint statement was issued by 56 communities, ejidos (communal agricultural settlements) and popular organizations in the municipalities of Tapachula, Motozintla, Huehuetán, Cacahoatán, Mazapa, Comalapa, Chicomuselo and Tuzantán. The officially notarized statement directed to President Enrique Peña Nieto, Chiapas Gov. Manuel Velasco Coello and other authorities protested illegal entry onto communal lands by personnel from development interests, attempts at corruption of local officials, the pending neoliberal reform of the energy sector, and high electric rates. The statement was read aloud in a public gathering in the central plaza of Tapachula—after which, hundreds of attendees occupied the town's municipal palace to demand that the mayor endorse the statement.

The Peruvian blogosphere is abuzz with rumors of an imminent coup d'etat against President Ollanta Humala, fomented by elements of the opposition APRA party. Humala has reportedly put off all travel abroad and is limiting his trips into the interior of the country, staying close to Lima for fear of a move against his government if he leaves the capital. The National Intelligence Directorate (DINI) has reportedly warned that elements of the National Police are discussing a strike over various greivances, actually aimed at causing an explosion of chaos and debilitating the government—following the model of the right-wing coup of Feb. 5, 1975, that brought Francisco Morales Bermúdez to power. Humala is said to have lost the confidence of the Armed Forces Joint Command, which is unhappy with his execution of the counter-insurgency program in Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE), where a remnant faction of the Sendero Luminoso guerillas remains active. (Raúl Weiner in La Mula, Dec. 23)