On April 29, a group of indigenous Kichwa men from the community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadoran Amazon were attacked with dynamite and firearms by invaders illegally encroaching on indigenous lands. The assailants fired at point-blank range as the Kichwa men were drinking chicha on a jungle trail, and three Kichwa were injured. One, Silvio Malaver, who received the impact of the dynamite, shows signs of brain damage. The three had to be carried through the jungle for 14 hours to the airstrip in Sarayaku, and were then taken to hospital in the town of Puyo by medevac plane.

Ecuadoran police on May 6 fired tear gas at indigenous protesters gathered outside the National Assembly building in Quito to oppose a water resources bill that they say would favor mining companies and agribusiness over peasant communities. Protesters blocked highways at three points around the country as well as blocking the entrances to the National Assembly building. Police said two protesters and 11 police officers were injured in the clash. At least 1,000 protesters are now camped out in a park near the congress building, where they expect to be joined by delegations from several provinces that are still marching on the capital. Near Guayllabamba, Pichincha province, police detained a convoy of 15 buses carrying some 1,000 indigenous comuneros from the village of Cayambi towards Quito. (IPS, Reuters, El Comercio, Quito, May 6)

Members of the Mauritanian diaspora in the United States are organizing a demonstration to protest against the recent incendiary statement of Prime Minster Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf that his government will generalize the use of Arabic at all levels of the administration and educational system. "If such a policy is implemented, it will amount to a cultural genocide against Black Mauritanians who have been discriminated against for too long," reads a statement by protest organizers. The statement also notes a recent comment by Minister of Culture and Youth Cisse Mint Boide that "The national languages are obstacles to the emergence of the Arabic language."

The Greek Parliament passed a package of austerity measures on May 6, one day before leaders of the 16-member euro-zone meet in Brussels to discuss final details of a rescue package for the Hellenic Republic. But with protesters gathering outside Parliament's doors, the measure's passage sparked fears of a long summer of social unrest. The deaths of three bank workers in a fire set by protesters May 5 has polarized Greece. (Tehran Times, May 8)

Western Sahara's Polisario Front rebels on May 2 condemned the UN Security Council for not including human rights in resolution 1920, extending by one year the mandate of the UN mission for the Morocco-occupied territory, MINURSO. But in a victory for Morocco, the text makes no mention of any explicit mechanism to monitor allegations of human rights violations. "Unfortunately, we believe this is a scandal for the credibility of the United Nations and the Security Council," Polisario Front's Mohamed Abdelaziz told AFP at a refugee camp for Western Sahara refugees in Algeria.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a survey of global press-freedom "Predators" released May 3, ranks Eritrea's President Issaias Afeworki as the world's worst abuser of media freedom. RSF charges that Eritrea permits no independent media and the state-run newspapers and television network do not allow stories that challenge the nation's leadership or its policies. The government has described a free press as "incompatible" with Eritrean culture and last year President Isaias said no Eritrean should want or need to attack their own country.

Several thousand marched in the Bolivian capital La Paz on May Day, in a militant display that incessantly shattered the air with hurled firecrackers—and some much louder explosives that might have been dynamite. While the main Workers Central of Bolivia (COB) led at the front of the march, contingents ranged from indigenists to Trotskyists to anarchists, with varying degrees of support for (or dissent from) the left-nationalist Evo Morales government. (World War 4 Report on the scene in La Paz)

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan have posted two videos since the attempted Times Square car-bomb attack of May 1. In one, a Taliban spokesman claims the botched New York attack. In the second, alleged to have been filmed April 4, TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud promises attacks inside the US within a month. Mehsud had been believed killed in a drone attack back in January. New York police dismiss the Taliban claim, and are looking for a middle-aged white man caught on videotape near where the SUV loaded with propane, fireworks, fertilizer and timing devices was left. (CSM, ABC, May 3)