A proposed strategy document dubbed "NATO 2020," released at the alliance's summit in Brussels May 17, calls for an expanded readiness and capacity to operate beyond the borders of member states, and names the campaign in Afghanistan as a top priority. "NATO must be versatile and efficient enough to operate far from home," said former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who led a team of experts in writing the report. Already this year, 200 NATO soldiers have died in Afghanistan, compared with 119 in the same period last year. (NYT, May 17)

A former presidential candidate in Mexico and prominent member of President Felipe Calderón’s National Action Party (PAN) was declared missing May 15, in an attack being blamed on narco gangs. The car of Diego Fernández de Cevallos was found near his ranch in the state of Queretaro, the Prosecutor General's Office confirmed. Authorities say they found his belongings in the car and "signs of violence."

Indigenous leaders in Ecuador announced the temporary lifting of their protest campaign against the pending national water law on May 13. The announcement came as Ecuadoran lawmakers failed to reach a deal on putting off debate on the contested water bill, leaving the legislation with an uncertain future. Unrest over the past week had left 20 injured and 30 detained. Delfín Tenesaca, president of the indigenous organization ECUARUNARI, said, "The mobilizations are suspended for now, to give a turn to the popular assemblies" to decide the next move.

At least six people were killed—three of Serbian nationality and three Bolivians—and one was kidnapped in an assault perpetrated by suspected drug traffickers in Bolivia's eastern department of Santa Cruz on May 15. The victims were stopped at a false police checkpoint and were tied up, tortured and executed, authorities said. The gunmen kidnapped Bolivian national William Rosales Suárez, who police identified as "the ringleader of a drug-trafficking gang in Santa Cruz," with a price of $1 million on his head. (LAHT, May 15)

From the Gothamist, April 28:

Community Activist Harry Wieder Killed by Taxi
Harry Wieder, an LGBT rights, transportation, and disabilities advocate, was run down and killed by a taxi last night in the LES [Lower East Side]. Weider, 57, described himself on his Facebook page as a "disabled, gay, Jewish, leftist, middle aged dwarf who ambulates with crutches." He was crossing Essex Street after leaving a Community Board 3 monthly meeting at P.S. 20 when he was struck by the cab. Many colleagues witnessed the accident and accompanied him to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Some 200 Arab protestors marked Nakba Day on May 15, the state of Israel's 62nd anniversary, by marching on East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The march came a day after protesters clashed with police in the weekly Friday demonstration against the Jewish takeover of Palestinian homes in the neighborhood through the use of ownership documents dating from the period of the British mandate, with 14 Arabs and leftist Israeli supporters arrested. The Nakba Day protestors, led by Knesset members from the Arab-nationalist Balad party, held Palestinian flags and signs reading "Judaization of Jerusalem: the new Nakba."

Colombia's presidential election on May 30 is developing into an unexpectedly tight race between Juan Manuel Santos—incumbent hardliner Alvaro Uribe's former defense minister who pledges to continue the current aggressive military campaign against leftist guerillas—and Antanas Mockus, reformist, anti-corruption candidate of the Green Party (Partido Verde). In February, President Uribe was constitutionally barred from running for a third term, leaving Santos as his heir-apparent and presumed shoe-in. But polls are showing Mockus' potential as an upset victor.

Indigenous communities in Colombia's southwestern department of Cauca issued a statement May 11 calling upon all armed fighters to leave their territory, following the intensification of clashes between FARC guerillas and the army that left many civilians injured, displaced, or dead. "We have been left alone in the midst of the bullets of legal and illegal armed groups," said Miller Correa, indigenous governor of the resguardo of Tacueyó, Toribío municipality.