Some 1,000 anti-fascist activists gathered on Jan. 19 in Pilsen, Czech Republic, to commemorate the victims of Nazi terror. The date marked the 66th anniversary of the deportation of Pilsen's Jews. The night before, local "anti-fa" in Pribram, Jan Kucera, 18, was knifed to death by neo-Nazi Jiri Fous, 20. The incident occurred after skinheads marched in Pribram, giving the Nazi salute and provoking a group of young punks and anti-fascist skinheads, to which Kucera belonged. (Antifa.cz, Jan. 20)

A new "manifesto" from five senior Western military commanders finds: "The risk of further [nuclear] proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might become possible. The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction." The document is likely to be discussed at the April NATO summit in Bucharest. The authors are Gen. John Shalikashvili, ex-NATO commander and ex-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff; Germany's Gen. Klaus Naumann; the Netherlands' Gen. Henk van den Breemen; Admiral Jacques Lanxade of France; and Lord Inge of the UK. The document is said to include Lord Inge's recommendation: "To tie our hands on first use or no first use removes a huge plank of deterrence." (The Telegraph, Jan. 24; The Guardian, Jan. 22)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told a Caracas press conference Jan. 26: "I accuse the government of Colombia of devising a conspiracy, acting as a pawn of the US empire, of devising a military provocation against Venezuela. A military aggression is being prepared." He warned that Venezuela would cut off all oil exports in the event of a military strike. "In that scenario, write it down: The price of oil would reach US$300, because there wouldn't be oil for anyone. The invaders would have to step over our dead bodies."

A three-year prison sentence was imposed Jan. 18 by a court in Minsk on Alyaksandr Zdvizhkou, former deputy editor of the weekly Zhoda, for reprinting the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that first appeared in a Danish newspaper. He was found guilty of "inciting racial hatred" under article 130 of Belarus' criminal code at the end of a trial behind closed doors. (Reporters Without Borders, Jan. 18)

"Laplandian" posts to Infoshop News, Jan. 26:

The government of Leningrad Oblast (Saint-Petersburg Region) is planning to expand the Ust-Luga Seaport, which is to become the largest seaport in Russia. According to the plan, all villages nearby the construction site are going to be demolished, and their population will be offered apartments in other areas. The villages Krakol'e and Luzhitsy, both located in the seaport area, are the only surviving compact settlement of the [Finnic] Votia nation. According to archaeological data, the Votians are the most ancient indigenous nation of Ingria [region], who became practically extinct after Stalinist dispersion to Soviet provinces far away.

The proposed 2,100-acre expansion of Canada-based Cameco's Crow Butte Resources uranium mine near Crawford in western Nebraska is meeting opposition from members of the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Tribe, including proponents of commercial hemp cultivation as an economic alternative for the impoverished Pine Ridge Reservation, which lies just across the South Dakota line.

The International Energy Agency is urging OPEC to boost production, with IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka at the World Economic Forum in Davos calling global supplies "very tight." Oil ministers from Iraq and Qatar at Davos were noncommittal, saying the decision would be made at the OPEC summit in Vienna next month. (Bloomberg, Jan. 25) Speaking in Caracas, price-hawk Venezuela's oil minister Rafael Ramirez rejected calls for boosting output, but said the "possible impact on the energy market" of a US economic downturn would be considered at Vienna. (Reuters, Jan. 25) President Hugo Chávez, sounding unusually conciliatory, said the price "is there, close to 100 dollars, hopefully it won't keep going up, hopefully it will stabilize." Prices reached $100 a barrel earlier this month, and now hover at around $90. (Reuters, Jan. 25) On Jan. 7, when prices hit $100, Bloomberg wrote: "The fastest-growing bet in the oil market these days is that the price of crude will double to $200 a barrel by the end of the year."

Lest we forget... From the New York Times, Jan. 26:

Woman Who Survived 9/11 Is Killed by a Car in the City
It was a beautiful morning on Sept. 11, 2001, so Florence Cioffi made a decision that helped save her life: She left her office in the World Trade Center for a coffee break and was able to flee the devastation of the terrorist attack.