The Costa Rica-based Inter-American Human Rights Court (CIDH) of the Organization of American States (OAS) ruled on May 6 that the Honduran government shared responsibility for the murder of environmental activist Blanca Jeannette Kawas Fernández at her home in Tela on Feb. 6, 1995. Kawas Fernández, the president of the Foundation for the Protection of the Natural Resources of Lancetilla, Punta Sal and Texiguat (Prolansate), had accused timber companies of illegal exploitation of the Punta Sal peninsula and of plans for its illegal appropriation, along with damage to the National Park and other protected sites. She had also opposed several economic development plans in the region.

Dozens of Haitian activists held a sit-in in front of the Dominican embassy in Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, on the morning of May 8 to protest the lynching of Haitian national Carlos Nérilus in Santo Domingo on May 2. The activists denounced both the failure of Dominican authorities to protect Haitian nationals and what they called the "laissez-faire" policy of the Haitian government; they demanded the immediate recall of Fritz Cinéas, Haiti's ambassador in Santo Domingo.

The Abu Dhabi authorities have detained a brother of the president and opened a criminal investigation of a videotape in which he appears to torture an Afghan grain merchant, the Emirates judicial department said in a statement May 11. Sheik Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, whose brother is both the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the seven-member United Arab Emirates, is the first member of the ruling family known to have been criminally investigated. The grisly videotape surfaced last month, provoking outrage in the US Congress, which is set to consider a civilian nuclear agreement with the UAE. (NYT, May 12)

Thousands fled their homes in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on May 11 after at least 35 people were killed over the weekend, while masked Islamist fighters were seen heading toward the city. People fled in taxis and pickup trucks stacked with suitcases, mattresses, furniture and other belongings. The local Elman Human Rights Organization said 17,200 people had fled the capital since Saturday May 9. (AP, May 11)

Sri Lankan government forces are accused of shelling a hospital, killing at least 47 people and wounding more than 50 others. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and medical sources said the makeshift hospital in Mullivaikal was hit by artillery fire early on May 12. Civilians who had been injured in attacks over the weekend were among the dead. The claims are impossible to verify as reporters and aid groups are banned from the area of fighting.

Among the tens of thousands who have fled their homes in Swat Valley and the adjacent Buner district of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are about 2,000 Sikhs who have taken refuge in a Sikh shrine in Hasanabdal, a town about 50 kilometers from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. According to Gulbeer Singh, head priest at the Sri Punja Sahib shrine, about 207 families from Buner District and 96 from Swat had taken refuge there. The number of Sikh internally displaced persons (IDPs), he said, is roughly 2,000.

US Nuremberg trials prosecutor Henry King Jr. died May 9 from cancer at the age of 89. King, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, was one of the last three surviving Nuremberg prosecutors, and at 29 was the youngest US prosecutor at Nuremberg at the time of the trials. King was later instrumental in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the new international tribunal that now prosecutes suspected war criminals.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said May 12 that President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso will discuss a possible peace treaty between the two nations at a G8 summit in Italy in July. Putin spoke at a news conference following talks with Japanese officials during his visit to Japan.