We have noted internal divisions in Iran over the nuclear issue. This story from the Jan. 23 New York Times provides another piece of the puzzle, and greater nuance than the corporate media generally display on the Tehran regime:

TEHRAN — Iran is barring 38 nuclear agency inspectors from entering the country in retaliation for a United Nations resolution aiming to curb Iran’s nuclear program, a senior Iranian lawmaker said Monday.

The assassination of Hrant Dink has, fortunately, sparked renewed challenges to the censorious Article 301. But the Turkish state seems to be trying to squelch the debate. Would Dink have wanted his funeral to be used in this manner? From the Turkish Daily News, Jan. 24:

Responding to calls from prominent Turks and foreign leaders to annul a controversial law immediately, Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek said on Tuesday that the last thing Turkey needed was to begin another debate on Article 301 of the penal code, arguing that the matter should be discussed after slain journalist Hrant Dink, convicted under the article last year, was laid to rest.

Freedom's on the march. From the San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 24:

One of the Bush administration's most far-reaching assertions of government power was revealed quietly last week when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified that habeas corpus -- the right to go to federal court and challenge one's imprisonment -- is not protected by the Constitution.

From AP, Jan. 24:

Former Social Distortion Bassist Killed

Placentia, Calif. -- Brent Liles, a former bassist for the 1980s punk rock group Social Distortion, was struck and killed by a truck while riding a bicycle, authorities said Wednesday. He was 43.

Our January issue featured the story "Niger Delta: Behind the Mask" by Ike Okonta, which explored the concept of petro-violence, pioneered by Michael J. Watts of UC Berkely, in the context of contemporary Nigeria— where oil exploitation has only brought armed struggle and bloody repression to the most resource-rich part of the country. We also featured the story "Colombia: the Paras and the Oil Cartel" by WW4 REPORT editor Bill Weinberg, which documented how the Andean nation's brutal right-wing paramilitaries are terrorizing trade unionists who oppose the privatization of the state oil company, as well as peasants and indigenous peoples protesting the despoilation of their traditional lands and waters by breakneck oil exploitation. Our January Exit Poll was: "Would you give up your SUV to halt mass murder in Nigeria and Colombia? C'mon, tell the truth." We received the following responses:

Freedom's on the march. From AlJazeera, Jan. 18:

The US defence department has released new rules allowing terror suspects to be convicted and possibly executed on the basis of hearsay evidence and some coerced testimony.

The current violent unrest in Bangladesh is generally portrayed (when the global media bother to take note of it at all) as a contest between the secular, left-leaning Awami League which governed until July 2001 and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which has been ascendant since then in alliance with political Islam. But Taslima Nasrin, the dissident writer whose novels have been repeatedly banned by the government, says both parties have betrayed the country's founding secular values. From the Malaysia Sun, Jan. 11:

The Western Hemisphere's worst human rights abuser by a mile (and, not coincidentally, closest US ally) is a "good model" for what Washington hopes to build in Afghanistan. The Afghans must be very comforted. From Reuters, Jan. 19 (emphasis added):

BOGOTA - Colombia's U.S.-backed fight against drug traffickers and armed groups could be a good model for Afghanistan to follow in its effort to battle illegal narcotics, a top U.S. general said on Friday.