The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has brought in trainers from Colombia to prepare a new Afghan anti-narcotics force. Opium cultivation has steadily grown in Afghanistan since the US invasion of 2001, leaping from 183,000 acres in 2002 to 408,000 last year. So far this year, about 20,000 acres have been destroyed, according to the United Nations. The crop is expected to yield more than 6,500 tons of opium, exceeding global demand. The export value—about $3.1 billion—is equivalent to about half of the legal Afghan economy. The Taliban, which banned opium cultivation when they were in power, are now said to be overseeing its cultivation to fund their insurgency. (NYT via Pakistan Tribune, May 16)

An interesting report from IraqSlogger, May 15:

An unknown left-wing group calling itself the Iraqi Armed Revolutionary Resistance distributed leaflets in the Mid-Euphrates area around Najaf, Hilla and Karbala calling for "resistance against American, British and Zionist occupiers in order to liberate Iraq and form a free socialist, democratic alternative," according to the Al-Badeel Al-Iraqi website. The group, which described itself as a "movement of Iraqi Communists and Marxists experienced in armed struggle, leftist Iraqi nationalists, and their supporters," claimed responsibility for an attack against U.S. troops at the Khan Al-Nus area between Najaf and Karbla on Sunday. The leaflets, which carried a photo of Cuban Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, announced the launch of the resistance in the Mid-Euphrates and condemned the "puppet government, the so-called Council of Representatives, terrorist Salafis, militias, the Interior Ministry, Iraqi traitors who came on American tanks, the American and British mercenaries, contractors, and their servants from the South Lebanese Army." Printed in both Arabic and English, the statement said car bombs and roadside bombs killing Iraqis are planted by the above groups to damage the reputation of Iraqi resistance groups.

With all the paranoia about al-Qaeda and ETA, it seems the latest bomb scare in Spain may be the work of radical urban preservationists. Police say they deactivated an explosive device May 15 found outside an industrial warehouse in Lugo, in the remote and usually peaceful northern region of Galicia. A police spokesman said the device—a pressure cooker loaded with shrapnel and armed with a detonator—could have caused a "massacre" if it had gone off. Two local newspapers received warnings by e-mail, which accused the construction company of being responsible for "urban destruction" in Lugo. (TypicallySpanish, May 15)

From the Times of India, May 16:

NEW DELHI — The government on Tuesday informed Parliament that naxalites were working in close coordination with some terrorist outfits operating in J&K and were also in touch with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka.

Turkey's Supreme Court May 16 overturned a 40-year prison term imposed on two paramilitary officers for overseeing the bombing of a bookstore in the eastern town of Semdinli two years ago. The blast, which killed one person, sparked angry protests across Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. The Supreme Court overturned the sentences of 39 years and five months meted out to each of the two non-commissioned officers, Ali Kaya and Ozcan Ildeniz, saying there had been shortcomings in the investigation and recommending their case be re-examined by a local military court. The case shined a spotlight on Turkey's so-called "deep state," code for elements in the security forces and bureaucracy who act above the law to protect national interests.

Thousands of Afghans protested outside the Pakistani embassy in Kabul May 16, chanting "Death to Pakistan, Death to Musharraf!" The rally comes days after the bloodiest clash in decades on the disputed border between the two countries. Pakistani forces crossed into Afghan territory and killed 13 people, including children and police, in two days of clashes over the weekend, according to the Afghan Foreign Ministry. Many of the protesters come from Paktia, the southeastern province where the clashes took place.

When Adm. William Fallon was named to replace Gen. John Abizaid as chief of Central Command in January, we recognized it as part of a tilt to the "pragmatists" and away from the hubristic neocons in Washington. Now comes word (via InterPress Service, May 15) that Fallon essentially "vetoed" an administration plan to increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three in February, and vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CentCom. The story by Gareth Porter relies on anonymous sources, but seems plausible enough. An excerpt:

A new blue-and-green-throated hummingbird species, dubbed the gorgeted puffleg, has been discovered in a threatened cloud forest of southwest Colombia. The name comes from the iridescent emerald green and electric blue patch on the throat—or gorge—of the males, and from tufts of white feathers at the top of the legs, a characteristic of puffleg hummers. The new species is easily twice as big as the thumb-sized hummingbirds found in the eastern United States.