• In SIERRA LEONE, journalist Abdul Karim Karoma was threatened after reporting that a former government official had been seen begging for food at restaurants. • In 2001, the UNITED STATES jailed free-lance writer Vanessa Leggett on contempt-of-court charges, joining CUBA as the only other country in the Western Hemisphere to imprison journalists for their work. Leggett is believed to have been jailed longer than any other journalist in U.S. history. • A NIGERIAN judge jailed two journalists for covering proceedings in her courtroom, promising that they would "have plenty to write about" after being locked up with accused criminals. In VENEZUELA, agents detained lawyer and columnist Pablo Aure Sánchez for writing in the daily El Nacional that "we imagine [the military] parading...in multi-colored panties," referring to a campaign in which women's underwear, in a variety of festive hues, was delivered anonymously to military officers to insult their manhood. LIBERIA'S Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism issued a May 27 statement declaring that "no more surprise visits to Liberia by foreign journalists will be allowed." CHINESE journalist Jiang Weiping was sentenced to eight years in prison for reporting on corruption, while one of the officials implicated in his article was promoted to provincial governor. In communist CHINA, publications can even be penalized for being too Marxist. One prominent leftist monthly was closed after sharply criticizing the president's call for capitalists to join the Communist Party. In a government crackdown against political dissent, ERITREAN authorities suspended all the country's privately owned newspapers until further notice. After September 11, officials in BENIN, CHINA, LIBERIA, the PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES, and the UNITED STATES used the crisis to censor media outlets. In December 2001, the Internal Affairs Ministry of UKRAINE authorized journalists covering sensitive topics, such as corruption, to carry guns with rubber bullets. In IRAN, the government closed or suspended 20 newspapers and publications in 2001. In IRAQ it is a criminal offense to be found in possession of a satellite dish. The YEMENI Supreme Court upheld a sentence of 80 lashes against a former newspaper editor, a punishment that was only avoided when the plaintiff dropped the suit. A journalist with the state television network in RWANDA was suspended for two weeks for airing images of President Paul Kagame perspiring heavily.