A roadside bomb has killed seven Special Forces soldiers in an ambush in Narathiwat's Rangae district, in southern Thailand [May 10]. [The Nation, Thailand, May 10] Two policemen have also been killed in a raid on a security checkpoint in the Narathiwat province, while a local government official has been gunned down. [AFP, May 11] The separatists are purported to be changing their tactics, increasingly concentrating attacks on security forces rather than on civilians. [Reuters, May 11]

Yemen has recalled its ambassador to Libya over its suspected support to Shi'ite guerilla followers of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who have been fighting government forces in the northern province of Saada since the beginning of the year. "The decision to recall the ambassador...came a day after popular demands for cutting Yemeni ties with Libya and to close its embassy in Sanaa over accusations of Libyan involvement in supporting the terrorist elements," the web site of the ruling People's Congress Party said, quoting "well-informed" sources. The statement said that residents of Saada had urged the government to sever ties with Tripoli.

Tuareg guerillas in Mali, accompanied by Tuareg fighters from neighboring Niger, attacked a northeast police post May 11, the first attack since a peace deal with the government last year. The assault against the gendarmerie post at Tin-Za, north of the town of Kidal and just two miles from the Algerian border, was led by Ibrahim Bahanga, a well-known Tuareg guerilla leader, anonymous sources told Reuters. There were no immediate details of casualties, but Mali's army sent reinforcements from the Saharan trading town of Kidal, located in the heartland of the Tuareg insrgency of the 1990s.

The Chinese foreign ministry has announced the appointment of a new special representative to Africa and confirmed plans to send 275 military engineers for UN peacekeeping operations. The move comes just as China is coming under international criticism for its economic and military support of the Sudanese regime. In an open letter to President Hu Jintao earlier this week, 108 US congressmen warned that the 2008 Beijing Olympics could be marred by protests if there was no change in the host nation's position on Sudan. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu refuted the charges, saying China's non-confrontational approach to Sudan is yielding results: "We hope to solve the issue by political means, so we are ready to make joint efforts with the international community, including the US." She said the new special representative on African affairs, Liu Guijin, would focus on solving the Darfur crisis. (The Guardian, May 11)

British civil servant David Keogh has been sentenced to six months after being found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act for leaking a classified memo about a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush in which the US president reportedly called for the bombing of AlJazeera TV's headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The Daily Mirror newspaper reported that the memo showed Blair arguing against Bush's suggestion, adding that its sources disagreed on whether it was serious. Blair said he had no information about any proposed US action against AlJazeera, and the White House called the claims "outlandish and inconceivable." The document, marked "Secret-Personal," was intended to be restricted to senior officials. The memo's contents are considered so sensitive that much of the trial was heard behind closed doors. (AP, Daily Mail, May 11)

A terrorism warning issued by US military authorities in Germany last month could involve plans by an the Kurdish Islamist militant organization Ansar al-Islam, anonymous officials said in a report on the ABC News website. Howeve, other anonymous officials denied to Reuters that Ansar is suspected in the supposed plot. In the April 20 warning, the US embassy in Germany encouraged Americans in the country to increase their vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their personal security. ABC News quoted German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble as saying, "The danger level is high. We are part of the global threat by Islamist terrorism." But an official with US European Command told Reuters there was no new intelligence strong enough to warrant heightened security at military facilities in Germany. "We're unaware of anything new. We have not changed our force posture," the source said. (Reuters, May 11)

Members of the indigenous Achuar communities in the Amazon basin in the Peru-Ecuador border region have notified US Oil Company Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) that they will bring a lawsuit against the company in the US if it will not clean up toxic waste from drilling. [IPS, May 4]

From US Labor Against the War (USLAW), May 9:

Leading Iraqi Labor Leaders to Tour U.S.
First woman union leader, head of oil workers union to visit 12 cities
June 4-29, 2007
Atlanta, Berkeley, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two leaders of Iraq's labor movement, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President of the Electrical Utility Workers Union, and Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary of the Federation of Oil Unions, will tour a dozen U.S. cities between June 4 and June 29, 2007. During their visit, they will address members of Congress, labor audiences and the general public about the impact the U.S. occupation has had on the labor movement and daily lives of working people in Iraq. They will speak about reconstruction and will explain why the labor movement is opposed to the proposed hydrocarbon law favored by the Bush administration and oil corporations which would put foreign oil corporations in effective control of 2/3 of Iraq's undeveloped oil reserves. They will also describe the likely consequences if the occupation continues, what might occur if it abruptly ends and prospects for a stable, democratic, non-sectarian future for Iraq.