Some 600 Mexican federal police agents used tear gas and nightsticks to remove about 100 members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) on May 27 from outside the Teopanzolco substation of the Central Light and Power Company (LFC) in Cuernavaca, capital of Morelos state, south of Mexico City. The unionists, who lost their jobs along with 44,000 other LFC employees when President Felipe Calderón suddenly liquidated the state-owned power company the night of Oct. 10, were blocking access to the facility to keep the police from removing five LFC vans. The workers said they were defending their source of work.

On May 21 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), a Washington, DC-based agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), ordered the Guatemalan government to suspend operations at the Marlin gold mine in the western department of San Marcos within 20 days and to take measures to protect the local environment. The indigenous inhabitants of the communities of Sipacapa and San Miguel Ixtahuacán have protested the mine—owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, SA, subsidiary of the Canadian company Goldcorp—since it began operations in 2008.

Up to 25 bodies, thought to be the victims of Mexico's ongoing narco-violence, have been found in the abandoned San Francisco Cuadra silver mine at Cacalotenango, Taxco de Alarcón municipality, in the southern state of Guerrero. The bodies appeared to have been thrown down a 180-meter ventilation shaft over a period of months, authorities said. A search of the shaft is ongoing, and authorities say more bodies may be found. Federal police have arrested 15 as suspects in connection with the clandestine mass grave—although most are being held on firearms and "organized delinquency" charges. The 15 were arrested in a barrio on the southern outskirts of Iguala city, following a tip about armed men wearing the uniforms of the disbanded Federal Agency of Investigation (AFI). (BBC News, Notimex, La Jornada, May 31; Milenio, May 30)

Colombian presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos of the ruling Social Party of National Unity ("Partido de la U") has won the first round in the May 30 election, but will now face a second-round run-off with Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus. Santos has 46.57% of the 14,760,255 votes counted, followed by Mockus with 21.49%. They are followed by Cambio Radical candidate German Vargas Lleras and the Polo Democratico's Gustavo Petro with about 10% each. The turnout was high, with 49% of eligible voters going to the polls, 4% more than in 2006. (Colombia Reports, May 30)

Up to 16 people have been killed as Israeli naval commandos boarded aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip on May 30. The six-ship aid convoy led by a Turkish vessel with 600 people on board set sail for Gaza from waters off Cyprus the previous day in defiance of Israel's blockade of the territory. Footage from the flotilla's lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, shows armed Israeli troops boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead. The BBC reports that the incident took place in international waters.

A report says Israel is to deploy three submarines armed with nuclear-equipped cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf. Three German-made submarines from Israel's Flotilla 7 will be sent near Iran's coastline, reports the London Times citing claims in Israeli newspapers. The vessels Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan have previously been sent to the region, but the report claims the Israeli Navy has fresh plans to keep at least one of the submarines in the region on a permanent basis.

Two Turkish soldiers and three members of a Kurdish militia helping the army were killed on May 29 in separate clashes with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerillas. The violence reportedly surged after imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan decided to abandon peace efforts and leave local commanders in charge of the conflict. Two soldiers and a "village guard" member died in clashes in Sirnak province, while two militia members were killed in Siirt province, after PKK members attacked a military patrol. (Southeast European Times, May 29)

An anonymous reader writes on Slashdot, May 13:

Here's a listing of several scientific and economic guides for estimating the volume of flow of the leak in the Gulf of Mexico erupting at a rate of somewhere around 1 million barrels per day. A new video released shows the largest hole spewing oil and natural gas from an aperture 5 feet in diameter at a rate of approximately 4 barrels per second. The oil coming up through 5,000 feet of pressurized salt water acts like a fractionating column. What you see on the surface is just around 20% of what is actually underneath the approximate 9,000 square miles of slick on the surface. The natural gas doesn't bubble to the top but gets suspended in the water, depleting the oxygen from the water. BP would not have been celebrating with execs on the rig just prior to the explosion if it had not been capable producing at least 500,000 barrels per day—under control. If the rock gave way due to the out-of-control gushing (or due to a nuke being detonated to contain the leak), it could become a Yellowstone Caldera type event, except from below a mile of sea, with a 1/4-mile opening, with up to 150,000 psi [pounds per square inch] of oil and natural gas behind it, from a reserve nearly as large as the Gulf of Mexico containing trillions of barrels of oil. That would be an Earth extinction event.