Mahmoud & Co. (Con't)

As Ahmadinejad was speaking at Columbia (click on Al-Jazeera clip, above) and the United Nations (IRNA's transcript, Part 1, here) this week, Iranian authorities were releasing Ali Shakeri from Evin Prison. He's the last of four Iranian-Americans to be freed from detention. He had to post the equivalent of $107,000 bail and may not be able to leave Iran for the U.S.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger's insulting attack on Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, has Iranians rallying around the Iranian president back home: MPs, academics. Even Ahmadinejad's political arch-enemy, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani rushed to his defense.

Check out Rick Stengel's account of Ahmadinejad's Iranian-style hospitality.

--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo