In the seventh YouTube edition of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg, just returned from Peru where he was on assignment for The Progressive, speaks at the Libertarian Book Club's Anarchist Forum on the Quechua indigenous struggle against US-backed mining projects and in defense of land, water and autonomy in the Andes.

Demonstrators marked Jordan's 1949 independence from British rule on May 25 by demanding reform and rejecting government plans to hike commodity prices and taxes to offset a $3 billion budget deficit. Chanting "No independence without reform" and "Do not set the country on fire by raising prices," more than 1,000 people, including opposition Islamists, trade unionists and youth groups, chanted as they marched in central Amman. The demonstration came a day after MPs gave a vote of confidence to Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh's government, which plans to increase commodity prices and taxes as part of an austerity package to avoid the huge deficit in the 2012 $9.6 billion budget. (Middle East Online, May 26)

We noted in September, after the fall of Moammar Qaddafi, that hundreds of Tuareg were being forced to flee into Algeria by Arab militias in the western Libyan town of Ghadames. This exodus apparently continues. More than 55 Tuareg crossed over into Algerian territory in the last two days for fear of reprisals by armed groups, according to Algeria's El-Khabar newspaper May 24. The Ghadames tribe, which is backed by forces affiliated with the National Transitional Council, is said to carrying out attacks on local Tuareg families and businesses, putting stores and stables to the torch. According to the refugees, many Tuareg were subjected to "illegal" detention at secret locations under inhumane conditions. They added that members of the Ghadames tribes are searching for Tuareg members everywhere, even in hospitals, to abduct, abuse or kill them. A large number have been illegally arrested, including women. (Al-Monitor, May 24)

While the devastating suicide bomb in the Yemeni capital Sana'a grabbed international headlines, the country's ordinary people are increasingly fighting just to make ends meet. In a joint statement, a group of seven charities warned this week that 10 million Yemenis—44% of the population—are undernourished, with 5 million requiring emergency aid. The so-called Friends of Yemen gathering in the Saudi capital Riyadh this week is widely expected to concentrate on shoring up security and the fragile political transition the in the country. In their warning, the aid agencies—CARE, International Medical Corps, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Mercy Corps, Oxfam and Save the Children—say this focus is preventing action to alleviate poverty and hunger. They say malnutrition rates have doubled in Yemen since 2009, partly as a result of a surge in food and fuel prices. More than half a million Yemenis have fled their homes because of increased violence and the country is also coping nearly 300,000 refugees from Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

A suicide bomber killed more than 90 Yemeni troops as they practiced for a parade in the capital Sana'a May 21. The bomber was dressed as a soldier and detonated his explosives-packed vest in the middle of a formation of troops from the Central Security Organization, a paramilitary branch of the Ministry of the Interior. The troops were drilling for the upcoming "National Unity Day" parade at a location near the Presidential Palace. Yemen's defense minister and the military chief of staff were planning on greeting the troops at the rehearsal. Ninety-six troops, many from the Central Security Organization, were killed and at least 300 wounded in the blast, with the death toll expected to rise. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed the attack, according to a statement released by the Madad News Agency, an AQAP propaganda arm. "The primary target of this blessed operation was the Defense Minister of the Sana'a regime and his corrupt entourage, and that it came in response to the unjust war launched by the Sana'a regime's forces in cooperation with the American and Saudi forces," the statement said, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. (Long War Journal, May 21)

Armed clashes erupted in Beirut between rival Sunni factions May 21, wounding at least six people. The fighting broke out after Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid, a Sunni cleric, and Muhammed Hussein Miraib, both members of the March 14 Alliance, were shot in their car near Tripoli as they reportedly tried to run a government checkpoint. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said that gunmen were using "bombs and machine guns." The March 14 Alliance, which emerged from the Cedar Revolution, sympathizes with the rebellion against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Residents of the northern region of Akkar also blocked off roads and burned tires to protest against the killings. The Beirut fighting follows a week of sporadic clashes in Tripoli, also between pro- and anti-Assad Sunni groups. Gunfire first broke out in Tripoli May 14 as sympathizers of the Syrian rebellion, apparently including many Islamists, tried to approach the offices of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party—which is basically the Lebanese wing of Syria's ruling Ba'ath Party. The march on the party headquarters was a response to the May 12 arrest of Sunni Islamist activist Shadi al-Mawlawi and five others by Lebanon's General Security Directorate. (AlJazeera, Radio Australia, AP, May 21; Foreign Policy, May 15; Now Lebanon, May 14)

The body of Mexican journalist Marco Antonio Avila, kidnapped three days earlier in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora state, was found May 19 along a beachside highway near Guaymas, in a plastic bag, with signs of torture and a threatening "narco-message." He had written for the Ciudad Obregón newspapers Diario Sonora de la Tarde and El Regional de Sonora. It was but the most recent in a wave of attacks on the press in Mexico. One week earlier, the office of El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, was sprayed with bullets. Days before that, three freelance crime-beat photographers were assassinated in Veracruz. In late April, Regina Martínez, a reporter for the national weekly Proceso, was found dead with signs of torture in her home in Xalapa, also in Veracruz state. (El Dia, Argentina, May 19; BBC News, April 29)

On May 19, the Mexican army announced the arrest of eight suspects in the massacre of 49 people who were decapitated, mutilated and left in plastic bags on the side of a highway in Cadereyta, Nuevo León, just outside Monterrey last week. Among those arrested was suspected ringleader Daniel Elizondo, AKA "El Loco"—said to be a member of the Gulf Cartel. Drugs, guns and hand grenades were seized during the arrests. However, authorities earlier said that the graffito "100% Zeta" found near the bodies indicated that Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's bitter rivals, were responsible. At the time of the massacre, local authorities resorted to the now common tactic of playing down its significance. "This continues to be violence between criminal groups," said Jorge Domene, Nuevo Leon's state security spokesman. "This is not an attack against the civilian population." Yet authorities admitted the victims had not been identified, and may have been migrants attempting to cross into the United States. (AlJazeera, May 20; AP, May 19; AP, May 15; CNN, May 14)