A bomb exploded in a historic mosque in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. At least nine people have been killed and fifteen injured in the Mecca Mosque, where over one thousand people had gathered for Friday prayers [May 18]. [At least three more were killed in subsequent violence in the city.] [IBN, India, May 18]

Big Oil went on the defensive May 16, getting grilled before a House Judiciary Committee antitrust panel and denying accusations that mismanagement and a lack of competition are the reasons behind this spring's record gasoline prices. Gas prices hit $3.10 a gallon that day—the fourth record day in a row. The surge has been attributed to low gasoline supplies caused by a lack of refining capacity.

From the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), May 15:

The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki, will meet in Baghdad with a delegation of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), led by its President, Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, tomorrow, Wednesday, 16 May 2007.

The Maldives coastguard opened fire on a vessel suspected of carrying members of the Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka [May 17], after a 12-hour stand-off. The boat was sunk and five people on board detained. [Maldivian authorites say the vessel was sunk, and five people on board have been detained. The Tamil Tigers have denied involvement.] [BBC, May 17]

Conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats have taken to criticising the US-financed Middle East television channel, al-Hurra, for having broadcast "friendly coverage of camera-ready extremists" (The Wall Street Journal) such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Al-Hurra was set up in 2003 in the vein of Radio Free Europe and TV Martí, in order to counter the al-Jazeera phenomenon. [It seems none of al al-Hurra's executives can speak Arabic, and had little iidea what they were broadcasting.] NYT, May 16]

At least 14 people have been killed, and dozens more injured, amid clashes between police and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro over the past two weeks. Vila Cruzeiro favela, one of the impoverished districts hardest hit by the violence, remains a war zone. "It's absurd! Police have been here for two weeks, bullets flying all over the place, children cannot go to school, and the traffickers don't even hide," said a 56-year-old grandmother in Vila Cruzeiro, who identified herself only as Rose. Authorities intend to launch more police occupations of the favelas and are considering bringing in military Black Hawk helicopters to bolster the city’s security prior to hosting the Pan-American Games in July. (Reuters, May 16)

The heads of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan—Vladimir Putin, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov—met in Turkmenistan May 12 and formalized a decision to build a new gas pipeline along the coast of the Caspian Sea. The new pipeline will carry gas from Central Asia to global markets through Russian territory, shoring up Moscow's position as a main supplier of Europe's energy needs. The project may mean the end of Western plans to build a trans-Caspian pipeline bypassing Russian territory. (New Europe, May 18)

In one of his boldest moves since his swearing-in three months ago, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has sacked a top security official who helped build the oppressive regime of the late Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov. Official media announced that Akmurad Rejepov, head of the presidential security service, is being transferred to "another job," which was not specified. Nor was a replacement announced. Analysts cautiously view this as evidence of a post-Niyazov political opening.