Protesters blocked New York's Queensboro, Triborough, Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges and the Holland and Queens-Midtown tunnels May 7 to express outrage at the acquittal of three police detectives in the fatal 50-bullet shooting of unarmed Sean Bell at his his bachelor party at a Queens nightclub in November 2006. Hundreds were arrested. Protest leader Rev. Al Sharpton, speaking of the expected arrests, declared, "If you are not going to lock up the guilty in this town, then I guess you'll have to lock up the innocent." He was arrested later that day as he knelt to pray on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge. Arrested with Sharpton were two survivors of the shooting, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, and Bell's fiancée, Nicole Paultre. Small solidarity marches were held in Chicago and Atlanta.

A fence designed to separate the Roma from the majority community in Havlíčkův Brod, Czech Republic, has received approval from the local planning office. The remaining obstacle seems to be who will pay for the construction. People from the housing condominium who complained about the Roma are refusing to pay half of the costs, as municipal authorities demand. Ivan Veselý from the Romani association Dženo warns that if construction goes ahead, the country's international image will suffer. "The Czech Republic will discredit itself again," he said. Džamila Stehlíková, minister without portfolio for human rights, has failed to talk local officials out of the plan. (Prague Daily Monitor, May 7)

Some 300 Tibetan protesters, including many Buddhist monks and nuns, tried to storm the Chinese Embassy in Nepal May 8, kicking the metal gates and throwing banners inside the fortified compound before police pushed them back. More than 200 were detained. "We want our freedom. Stop China," they chanted as they skirmished with police. (AP, May 8) The protest came as the Olympic torch made the final, televised ascent along Mount Everest's icy ridge, crossing from Nepal into Tibet. (AP, May 8)

Nepal's Maoist leader, known as Prachanda—whose party won the most seats in last month's Constituent Assembly elections on an anti-monarchist platform—says he has received indications from the royal palace that King Gyanendra is willing to meet him to discuss the the country's future. He says he is willing to arrange a "graceful exit" for the king, but insists abolition of the monarchy is the only option. (BBC, May 7)

Baitullah Mahsud, an al-Qaida ally who leads the Taliban in Pakistan, pulled out of a peace deal with the government after it refused to withdraw the army from tribal lands on the Afghan border. Tribal elders in Pakistan's South Waziristan region have been trying to broker the deal. Mehsud has been accused of masterminding a wave of suicide attacks that have rocked Pakistan since mid-2007, including one that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (though Mehsud has denied involvement) in December. The peace talks were aimed at making permanent a five-week lull in a wave of suicide attacks that has killed more than 1,000 people in Pakistan since the start of 2007.

Clashes continues for a second day in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley May 8, pitting Hezbollah against the Sunni and pro-government Future Movement. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah charged the government with crossing a "red line" by challenging the independence of the resistance movement.

On May 6, 480 Palestinian Authority police entered the city of Jenin to crack down on criminal gangs and Islamic Jihad cells, under the rubric of the Israeli-approved and fashionably euphemistic "Operation Smile and Hope." Clashes with presumed Islamic militants broke out in the outlying town of Qabatiyah. (LAT, May 7) The following day, Israeli forces occupied the city and refugee camp of Jenin. Major General Diab Al-Ali (AKA Abul Fatah), commander of the PA's National Security service in the northern governates of the West Bank, said the Israeli incursion is meant to obstruct the Palestinian security services' plan to impose law and order, and is a provocation against the Palestinian government and people. (Ma'an News Agency, May 7)

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day and a week before Israel marks its 60th Independence Day, a group of over 100 prominent British Jews issued a letter proclaiming, "We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary," citing the dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians. Among the signatories are Prof. Haim Bresheeth of the University of East London, who organized the call for an academic boycott of Israel; playwright Harold Pinter; attorney Daniel Machover, who filed a lawsuit against Maj. Gen. Doron Almog, and actor Stephen Fry.