Enrique Torres, leader of ejidatarios (communal farmers) who led protests against mining operations last year in Huizopa, Chihuahua, was arrested by state police May 24. He is charged with illegally blockading operations of the Minera Dolores company. The arrest comes days after the company gave six houses to relocated families, as well as 45,000 pesos (approx. $3,400) for a church and 50,000 for a community baseball team. Torres, minutes before his arrest, told El Diaro newspaper that more than half the Huizopa ejidatarios (120 of 220) rejected the deal with the company. (El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, May 25)

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against Dole Food Co. on behalf of 73 people, survivors of murdered trade unionists and farmers in the banana-growing region of north Colombia, accusing the company of funding paramilitaries to carry out assassinations and terror tactics in order to protect its banana operations.

A Lebanese man held in Brazil for three weeks for posting anti-US comments on the Internet is not a member of al-Qaeda, as one Brazilian newspaper reported, federal prosecutors said May 27. The man, identified only as "K," is a self-employed computer technician with permanent residency in Brazil, where he lives with his Brazilian wife and daughter, officials and his lawyer said. He was released on May 18 this week after being arrested three weeks ago in Sao Paulo.

Niger's President Mamadou Tandja dissolved parliament May 25, a day after the constitutional court turned down his bid to extend his term. Tandja, 70, was elected in 1999 and had promised to quit at the end of his term later this year, but flipped, even trying to hold a referendum to confirm him for a third term, claiming wide support from Niger's people. In January, Niger set a December deadline for general elections. The opposition warns of a step towards dictatorship. (Afrol News, May 26)

Two people were killed, including a schoolgirl, and at least 12 injured in an explosion May 23 at a Roman Catholic church in Lalitpur, Nepal. No group claimed responsibility, but police said they suspect the Nepal Defense Army, a Hindu extremist group that seeks to restore Nepal's monarchy. The attack came just as parliament prepared to elect a new prime minister following the resignation of the Maoist leader Prachanda, who stepped down after his attempt to dismiss the army chief was blocked by the president May 3. Maoist lawmakers—many of them former guerillas— stormed Nepal's parliament May 18 to block a vote for a new prime minister. (BBC, May 23; CSM, May 18)

Pakistan's government has blamed Taliban militants for a bomb attack in Lahore that killed 23 people and left hundreds more injured. A group of gunmen shot at police officers before detonating a powerful car bomb, damaging buildings in the ISI spy agency complex. At least one ISI agent, 12 police officers and one child were reported killed in the attack. Rescuers are searching the rubble and warn that the death toll could still rise.

Aid officials, human rights workers and community leaders in Sri Lanka say Tamils are being driven out of areas in the northeast of the country by killings and kidnappings carried out by pro-government militias. They charge the government has simultaneously encouraged members of the Sinhalese majority in the south to relocate to the vacated villages.

On May 21 Assistant US Trade Representative Everett Eissenstat told a Senate Finance Committee hearing that the administration of US president Barack Obama won't seek the approval of Congress for a free trade agreement (FTA) with Panama until the president has established a new "framework" for trade. "It's clear that trade agreements in the last few years have been much too divisive," Eissenstat said. "We want to make sure that Panama doesn't contribute to that divisiveness." This was a reversal from the administration's plan in March to push for early approval of the pact; the change followed a statement by John Sweeney, president of the main US labor federation, the AFL-CIO, opposing the Panama FTA.