Workers have entered the unit 1 reactor building of Japan's damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant for the first time since a hydrogen explosion hit the facility a day after the devastating March earthquake and tsunami. Twelve staff members stepped in to install duct pipes to six ventillation machines that will filter out the radioactive material in the air, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said May 5. High radiation levels inside the plant have kept workers from entering the facility to repair the plant's cooling systems. The workers—equipped with protective suits, masks and air tanks—entered through a special tent set up to prevent radiation leaks. They are to work in 10-minute shifts. The operation is expected to take four or five days. (AlJazeera, May 5)

Hundreds of Syrian soldiers stormed the Damascus suburb of Saqba and rounded up residents, witnesses said May 5. Sweeps were also reported from the Homs suburb of Rastan, where security forces shot dead at least 17 demonstrators six days earlier. The protests were sparked after 50 local members of the governing Baath Party resigned. Activists say at least 1,000 people have been arrested across the country since then. Among the detained is AlJazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz.

At a meeting in Rome on May 4, the international Contact Group on Libya agreed to establish a fund that the rebels can access, ostensibly to provide services in their areas of control. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said it will be "an international fund in which nations can make their contributions in a transparent way." US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration is trying to free up some of the more than $31 billion it has frozen in Libyan assets. The administration has already authorized up to $26 million in non-lethal military assistance to the rebels, and has pledged $55 million in humanitarian aid. Britain has so far provided $21 million in similar aid the rebels. Italy, which hosted the meeting, recently joined the NATO air campaign against Moammar Qaddafi's regime. (VOA, May 5)

The lack of reaction to the apparent killing of Osama bin Laden is in some ways more telling than the reaction. For starters, thank goodness, the feds have not issued a terror alert. Politico notes on May 4:

When President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed, there was no color-coded chart in the corner of the TV screen to alert Americans that the government had raised the threat level from yellow to orange.

An explosion ripped through a military vehicle in the southern Yemeni town of Zinjibar May 4, killing five soldiers, while four civilians died in the ensuing firefight. The blast hit the vehicle close to a busy market selling khat, the mildly stimulating leaf (considered haram by al-Qaeda). The blast came hours after an unnamed leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) vowed revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden. "We will take revenge for the death of our Sheikh Osama bin Laden and we will prove this to the enemies of God," the spokesman told AFP, contacted by telephone from Yemen's southern province of Abyand. "The martyrdom of Sheikh Osama does not mean that jihad will end." (AP, AFP, May 4)

As momentum builds for the May 8 protest against violence and impunity in Mexico, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) announced its support for the movement started by poet Javier Sicilia. In a communiqué dated April 28, the EZLN leadership declared it would wholeheartedly support the struggle by conducting a silent march of Zapatista base communities in the Chiapas highland city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas on May 7.

Far-right Cuban activist Orlando Bosch died in Miami on April 27 at the age of 84. He had "a long and painful illness," according to a statement by fellow right-winger Pedro Corzo. Although accused of involvement in a number of terrorist actions targeting Cuba's leftist government, Bosch was only convicted of one: a Sept. 16, 1968 rifle attack on a Polish freighter docked at the Port of Miami. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but fled the US after getting parole. In 1976 Venezuelan prosecutors charged Bosch and longtime US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset Luis Posada Carriles in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviación jetliner; 73 people died in that attack. A Venezuelan military court acquitted Bosch and Posada in 1980, but they remained in prison pending a prosecution appeal to a civilian court. Posada escaped in 1985 and went on to work in US operations to supply the right-wing contra rebels in Nicaragua. The Venezuelan civilian court acquitted Bosch in 1987.

As of April 30 the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the US were all pressuring Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to change 18 questionable decisions in the March 20 runoff races for Parliament. On April 20 the CEP announced final results for the long-delayed second round of the 2010 presidential and legislative elections. As expected, the CEP confirmed the victory of conservative presidential candidate Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky"). However, the final results for legislative seats changed from the preliminary count in 19 cases, and critics questioned the decisions for 18 of them: 17 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and one in the Senate. All but two of the changes awarded the seats to candidates from the centrist Unity party of outgoing president René Préval. The CEP didn't offer any explanation for its decisions, which would give Unity a majority in the 99-member Chamber and a strong position relative to president-elect Martelly, since the party already had a majority in the Senate.