For six years, since before the Iraq war began, peace activists in the upstate New York town of Potsdam have held a weekly vigil in front of the village post office. On Jan. 24, they gathered one last time. The group is going on "hiatus" to give President Barack Obama a chance to fulfill his campaign promise to bring the troops home from Iraq. (North Country Public Radio, Jan. 26)

Iran's largest university student union has been under attack recently for taking an opposition stance against the government. On Dec. 30, the government shut down Kargozaran, a major daily newspaper in Iran, after it published a statement from the student group criticizing those who use the Palestinian issue as a tool to promote their own agenda. The statement condemned Israel's invasion of Gaza but, in a surprising move, it also "equally condemn[ed] the way in which terrorist groups take refuge in kindergartens and hospitals to attack the other side." Following the banning of Kargozaran and attacks on several Iranian human rights activists, the student organization published a second statement to clarify its position. Below are translated excerpts from their latest statement. They are asking for support from students worldwide.

On their sixth day of protests Jan. 24, Greek farmers continued their blockades on the borders with Bulgaria, Macedonia and Turkey, cutting off key roads including the Athens-Thessaloniki express highway with barricades of tractors and farm equipment. The farmers are demanding the government provide relief for inflated fuel prices and depressed crop prices. Bulgarian authorities protested that a group of some 100 farmers attempted to cross the border. (Radio Bulgaria, BBC World Service, Jan. 24; Sofia Echo, Jan. 23)

About a dozen members of the new leadership of the Basque political opposition were arrested in several towns across Spain's País Vasco Jan. 23. The arrests follow a court order by the Spanish High Court magistrate Baltasar Garzón, who claims that 3DM and Askatasuna, two new parties fielding candidates in the forthcoming local elections, are fronts for the outlawed Batasuna party.

On Jan. 23, the day after a massive La Paz rally in support of Bolivia's new constitution that goes to a popular vote on the 25th, President Evo Morales signed a decree nationalizing Chaco Petrolera Ltd. Oil Company. The president said employees at the company would keep their jobs, but the board of directors would be replaced. The company is managed by Anglo-Argentine Panamerican Energy, and is a subsidiary of the UK's BP. Morales flew to a natural gas field in central Bolivia to announce the nationalization, accompanied by soldiers who seized Chaco's installations.

Peru is seeking to double investments in energy and infrastructure this year, including a $1 billion natural-gas pipeline. The government is targeting $2.3 billion from foreign and domestic firms, up from $1.1 billion in 2008, said Luís Carlos Rodríguez, director of Proinversion, the state agency that seeks private investment. The investments would be earmarked for power lines, ports, railways, roads and irrigation projects.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Jan. 23 praised US President Barack Obama only days after accusing him of "throwing stones" at Venezuela. "He is a man with good intentions; he has immediately eliminated Guantanamo prison, and that should be applauded," Chávez said in a televised speech. "I am very happy and the world is happy that this young president has arrived... [We] welcome the new government and we are filled with hope."

The largest surge ever in legal and unauthorized Mexican migration to the US began after the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, according to sociologist James W. Russell, who studied migration patterns between 1910 and 2008 for his new book, Class and Race Formation in North America (University of Toronto Press, 2009).