Mexico's federal government has expropriated more than 14,000 hectares of the Lacandon Selva, the lowland rainforest region of southern Chiapas state. The expropriation, approved by the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT), came in response to a request by the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas for a new protected area adjacent to the existing Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. The Agrarian Reform Secretary has been authorized to pay some 58 million pesos (about US$5 million) to compensate land-owners. (La Jornada, May 10)

Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite party, Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), has announced key changes to its platform, moving closer to Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani—and away from Iran, where the party was formed in the 1980s to oppose Saddam Hussein. Under the new platform, the party will continue to receive guidance from the Shi'ite religious establishment—but more from Sistani, as opposed to Iran's Welayat al-Faqih, led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A draft report by the US Government Accountability Office reveals between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels of oil from Iraq are unaccounted for and may have been siphoned off through corruption of smuggling. Based on an average of $50 per barrel, the report puts the discrepancy at between $5 million and $15 million daily. The report doesn't provide a final conclusion of what happened to the missing oil, but only offers suggestions including corruption, smuggling, pipeline sabotage, theft and inaccurate reports of production. The GAO tapped experts at the Energy Information Administration within the US Department of Energy for its oil analysis. (NYT, May 12)

From Newsday, May 12:

Driveway hit-and-run shatters family
Arjun Nalinvilawan couldn't wait for Mother's Day.

"I was calling all my friends to find out what to get my mom," he said. Instead of celebrating with mom on Sunday, the 16-year-old and his family are in mourning.

Israel's Foreign Ministry has prepared an aid plan for the refugees of Darfur which it will submit to the cabinet for approval in the coming days. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Haaretz that the ministry's aid plan is intended to help relieve the "intolerable situation" in Darfur. "As I said when I spoke before the United Nations last year, there are certain places in which the world must act."

Sudan has asked a UN team to travel to Darfur to evaluate the status and needs of 45,000 men, women and children who have crossed over from Chad in the last three months. Gathered in camps near the Sudanese border post of Foro Baranga, West Darfur, they appear to be Arab nomads, but it is not clear if they are refugees fleeing conflict in Chad. "The Sudanese government has asked us to provide assistance," UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux told Reuters in Geneva. "At this point we don't know who they are and we need more information—are they refugees or nomads, have some been fighters in Chad? We have to determine their status."

The coordinated May 9 raids of anti-globalization protest leaders across Germany brought more than 5,000 to the streets of Hamburg, Berlin, Kiel and other cities. Violent clashes with the police were reported in Hamburg, where police used water canons and protesters responded with firecrackers, bottles and stones. Four people were injured and eight arrested. Four were also arrested at the 3,000-strong march in Berlin. Police now say there were no arrests in the raids in six of Germany's federal states, but that 21 suspects in the the supposed plot to disrupt the upcoming G8 summit remain at large. Federal prosecutors claim they had indications that a "terrorist association" was forming to carry out arson and other attacks during the summit to be held at the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, June 6-8. The anti-globalization network Attac—which was not targeted in the raids—called the charges an effort "to criminalize the entire spectrum of G8 opponents." (DPA, May 10)

Nine National Police officers on a coca eradication mission were killed near Landazuri in Colombia's northeast Santander department May 9, when a roadside bomb exploded, destroying their truck. Six other officers were injured. All were members of a mobile unit operating out of Bucaramanga. Authorities immediately blamed the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). Police Sgt. Alberto Cantillo told reporters: "Where there's coca, you'll find guerillas." Among the dead was the brother of top Colombian football star Luis Yanes, who plays for Santa Fe in Bogota. The attack is another blow for President Alvaro Uribe, who has vowed to crush the FARC by the end of his term in 2010. Last year, 26 military and police officers were killed while on coca eradication missions. (BBC, AlJazeera, May 10)