A car-bombing attack on the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party [in Makhmur] killed over fifty people [May 13]. The blast comes as the autonomous and relatively stable Kurdish region in Iraq is in the grips of a fit of terrorist violence. [Makhmur's mayor was among the dead.] [AlJazeera, May 13] The militant group "Islamic State in Iraq"—with alleged al-Qaeda leadership—has claimed responsibility for the attack. [Reuters, May 14]

During a visit to the US-allied United Arab Emirates [May 13], Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the withdrawal of all US troops from the Persian Gulf region. [Reuters, May 13] He also promised "severe retaliation" to any attack on Iran by the United States. [AlJazeera, May 14] Ahmadinejad's bluster comes as US and Iranian representatives look likely to meet in the coming weeks to discuss how to stabilize the precarious security situation in Iraq. [AlJazeera, May 13]

Two people were killed [May 14] in bomb blast in a marketplace [at Guwahati] in the restive northeastern state of Assam, where separatists continue to mount a violent insurgency. [AFP, May 14] Elsewhere in Assam, protests staged over the killing of a civilian by state security forces [in a counter-guerilla operation] prompted clashes between Assamese and "tribespeople," who attacked the protesters' barricades with sticks and bows and arrows. [The clashes in the town of Digboi left five dead, including two burned to death, and halted work at the local oil refinery.] [Reuetrs, May 14]

Street fighting in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, left at least 39 dead over the weekend, as competing rallies timed for a visit by suspended chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry exploded into violence. Fighting spread to neighborhoods dominated by rival ethnic groups, keeping Chaudhry trapped at the airport until he finally returned to Islamabad. Firefighters were called after a funeral procession for a man killed in the clashes left a row of shops in flames. The fighting pitted ethnic Pashtuns against Urdu-speaking supporters of the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). (The Guardian, May 14)

Afghan and Pakistani forces clashed and bombarded each other's border posts over the weekend, leaving 12 people dead. The fighting has been described as the worst in decades between the two prickly neighbors. Pakistani officials claim that the fighting was prompted by a misunderstanding between an Afghan and a Pakistani border post. Both governments and US and NATO representatives have met to resolve the dispute. [AFP, May 14] Despite the political intervention, three American and two Pakistani soldiers were wounded in subsequent firing that allegedly came from the Afghan side. [Reuters, May 14]

After initially denying reports of his death, Taliban spokesmen have now confirmed that Mullah Dadullah, their most public and prominent leader, has been killed in clashes with Afghan and Nato forces in the southern province of Helmand. [Al Jazeera, May 13] Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's military commander, had a bloody reputation earned through numerous alleged atrocities, including most famously the massacre of Hazaras – a Shia minority group – in the province of Bamiyan eight years ago. [The Telegraph, May 15]

Gamaliel López Candanosa and Gerardo Paredes Pérez, two journalists with Mexico's national network TV Azteca in Nuevo León, have been "disapeared" for the last four days, the network says in a May 14 statement. "The atmosphere of violence generated in recent months in the metropolitan area of Monterrey has provoked various speculations about their whereabouts, but nothing is confirmed," said TV Azteca's regional director Luis Padua at a press conference. "The only thing which is certain is that the reporters have not arrived at their houses or shown up at work." Gamaliel López generally covered urban development issues, but in July 2006 he was assigned to cover the finding in Monterrey of a severed human head with a threatening note from a narco gang. (Milenio, May 14)

Downtown San Salvador was rocked by clashes between police and protesters May 12 after authorities tried to clear the stalls of street merchants who were peddling pirate CDs and other contraband. The elite riot squad, the Unit for the Maintenance of Order (UMO), was called to the scene as street merchants burned tires and hurled stones at police, in what President Elías Antonio Saca called "acts of terrorism." Seventeen people were arrested and a general evacuation of the downtown area was ordered. (Diario CoLatino, May 14)