From Article 19 Global Campaign for Free Expression via IFEX, May 2:

Turkey: Article 301 Reforms Pallid—It Should Be Abolished
ARTICLE 19 condemns as wholly insufficient recent moves by the Turkish government to amend the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The article, which still criminalises denigration of the Turkish Nation, has been grossly abused in the past, including to convict leading Turkish writers such as Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, and leading journalist and editor Hrant Dink, who was murdered in January 2007.

As last year, May Day saw clashes between workers and police in Istanbul and other Turkish cities. In Istanbul, police fired tear gas and water cannons to prevent workers from marching to Taksim Square where they planned to hold a mass gathering. A total of 530 were detained by police, with 38 reported injured in the city. The Turkish government rejected petitions to lift the decades-long ban and open Taksim for celebrations. The Labor Unions Confederation (DISK), Confederation of Public Sector Unions (KESK) and Turkish Confederation of Labor (Turk-Is) decided jointly to march on the square in defiance of the ban. Street clashes were also reported between police and followers of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP) in Ankara. (Hurriyet, May 2)

Turkish warplanes launched bombing raids on PKK Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq's Qandil Mountains late May 1. "There has been heavy bombing and many Turkish planes were involved. So far, we have no word of any casualties," PKK spokesman Ahmed Danees told Reuters by telephone. Military sources told Reuters that at least 30 planes were involved in the raids, which they said targeted senior PKK members. (Hurriyet, Reuters, May 2)

An AP report portrays President Felipe Calderón's decision to open talks with Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) as part of his push to open the oil industry to private partnerships—given the guerillas' attacks on pipelines last year. "The government wanting to negotiate is a prudent move and a solid move," said George Baker, a Houston, Texas-based analyst who follows Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex. "But it's not a move out of strength, but out of weakness. The prospect of a military defense of these pipelines is not something any government or any company wants to contemplate."

Power returned slowly to Venezuela April 29, hours after outages blacked out nearly half the country, halting the Caracas subways and forcing hospitals and oil facilities onto emergency generators. An explosion is being investigated at the Guri hydroelectric power station, Caracas Mayor Juan Barreto said. (CNN, April 29) CA Electricidad de Caracas was administered by US-based AES Corp. until last year. AES agreed to sell its majority stake in the national utility to the government in February 2007 after President Hugo Chavez announced plans for the government to take over the power sector. (Bloomberg, April 29)

A court in Tibet sentenced 30 people to prison terms ranging from three years to life April 29 in charges related to the March uprising. (NYT, April 30) China has detained scores of Buddhist monks over the past month, according to the International Campaign for Tibet. The group said more than 160 people were detained from several monasteries in the Lhasa area in April. Authorities detained at least six monks from the Nechung monastery, eight from the Nalanda monastery and some 60 from the Pangsa monastery. The group also said up to 100 monks were detained at the Rongwu monastery in Qinghai province. (AP, April 30)

Residents of western Baghdad's al-Salam district say militant groups in the area are hunting down women and killing them, and have petitioned the Iraqi parliament for urgent action. "Over the past six months 15 women were killed in al-Salam neighborhood for religious reasons or because they had criticized the militants, or because of their previous affiliation to the Baath Party," MP Safia al-Suhail told the UN news agency IRIN.

From the General Union of Port Workers in Iraq, via US Labor Against the War, April 29:

May Day Message from the Port Workers in Iraq to West Coast dock workers in the US
In solidarity with the ILWU, the General Union of Port Workers in Iraq will stop work for one hour on May Day in the ports of Umm Qasr and Khor Al Zubair.