The organization International Christian Concern (ICC) is publicizing revelations in a US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks concerning grave human rights violations in Eritrea. According to ICC, there are currently more than 3,000 Christians imprisoned in Eritrea for practicing their faith. ICC says the leaked document confirms years of the organization's reports about the harsh conditions faced by prisoners in Eritrea.

Three were shot dead by police in protests in the Albanian capital Tirana Jan. 21, with 40 demonstrators and 17 police officers reported injured. Violence broke out as hundreds of protesters pushed against the police barricade set up to protect the prime minister's office, some hurling firecrackers and stones. Police responded with tear gas, a water cannon, and then live fire. Running clashes ensued, with protesters setting fire to police cars. "The bastard children of Albania's own Ben Alis conceived Tunisian scenarios...for you citizens of Albania," said Prime Minister Sali Berisha, comparing his political opponents with the ousted Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

World War 4 Report has been keeping a dispassionate record of Barack Obama's moves in dismantling, continuing and escalating (he has done all three) the oppressive apparatus of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) established by the Bush White House. On the second anniversary of his inauguration, we offer the following annotated assessment of which moves have been on balance positive, neutral and negative, and arrive at an overall score:

US troops will stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, with Kabul's permission, Vice President Joe Biden said last week. While insisting the US does not intend "to govern or nation-build" as that "is the responsibility of the Afghan people and they are fully capable of it," Biden added: "We stand ready to help you in that effort ... after 2014." Biden's comments come a month after he told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the US would be "totally out" of Afghanistan by 2014 "come hell or high water."

Neo-Nazis have taken over the entire village of Jamel in Germany's northeastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. "The police, the authorities, no one dares to intervene," Uwe Wandel, mayor of the district that includes the village, told Der Spiegel. Jamel is home to Sven Kruger, a leader of the ultra-right National Democratic Party, an openly Hitler-nostalgist outfit that has had seats in the state parliament since 2006. Kruger and his allies have bought up nearly the whole village and driven others out, the magazine reports. Horst Lohmeyer, one of the few residents to oppose the extremists, said, "They see Jamel as a 'nationally liberated zone'"—meaning a place foreigners and anti-fascists must fear to tread. (UPI, Jan. 3)

Ex-president Alejandro Toledo, a front-runner in Peru's presidential race, said Jan. 13 that the mining sector must "give back" a portion of rising profits to poor rural areas. In a speech outlining his policy proposals, Toledo called for "co-responsibility" between private companies and the state for social development: "Just as we respect the rules of the game and assure them contracts will be honored, they, the extractive sector, should respect the environment and give back part of their profits in the form of infrastructure and improve the quality of life of townspeople." (Reuters, Jan. 13)

On Jan. 9, members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota Dam (CECOP), representing some 20 communities, reinstalled the blockade they had maintained for nearly five years in the community of Parotillas, to prevent access of the Federal Electrical Commission (CFE) to the land where the dam project is to be built. CECOP demanded that Manuel Añorve Baños, gubernatorial candidate of the coalition Better Times for Guerrero (led by the Institutional Revolutionary Party-PRI), remove his TV spot promoting the dam, charging that it is inciting confrontation and will be responsible for "what may happen." CECOP leader Nemesio Valeriano Moreno said the intent is not to block the passage of all vehicles, but only those of the CFE. He added that the blockade will remain indefinitely. (SIPAZ blog, Jan. 13)

2010 saw the most drug-related deaths in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón launched his offensive against the country's narco-gangs in 2006, by his administration's own figures. Alejandro Poire, technical secretary of Calderón's Security Council, said 15,273 were killed in narco-violence last year—up from 9,616 in 2009 (and 5,376 in 2008). All told, 34,616 have been killed in Mexico's Drug War since 2006, according to the report. The four-year figure includes 30,913 execution-style killings, 3,153 deaths in shootouts, and 546 deaths involving attacks on authorities. Most of the killings took place in the three northern states of Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa. (The Guardian, Cambio de Michoacán, Jan. 13)