A ship carrying tons of UN aid has refused to leave Kenya for Somalia following the May 19 pirate attack on an aid ship. The pirates failed to seize the ship, but one crew member was killed. It was the eighth priate attack of the year off Somalia's coast. The US Navy warned vessels to stay clear of Somalia's coast. The UN World Food Program has appealed for international action to secure the waters off the coast.

On May 16, during a visit to Washington, DC, Costa Rican president Oscar Arias announced that Costa Rica will stop sending police agents to be trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), a US military training institution formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA). Critics of the school, located at Fort Benning, Georgia, charge that it has trained many of the hemisphere's worst human right abusers.

Lawyers for New York state and the US Department of Homeland Security argued during a May 15 hearing in state court in Brooklyn that Haitian paramilitary leader Emmanuel "Toto" Constant should be released early and deported quickly to Haiti. Constant has entered a guilty plea to charges involving a $1.7 million mortgage fraud scheme. Government lawyers urged state justice Abraham Gerges to sentence Constant to time served while awaiting trial, about 10 months; he would then be deported under a standing deportation order. "I have no fear to be deported to Haiti," Constant told the justice at the hearing.

ICE officials confirmed on May 11 that they raided five homes on the East End of Long Island in New York over the week of May 7, arresting 18 people who they said lacked immigration status. Some of those arrested were named on administrative warrants for having failed to comply with prior removal orders; others were found in the raided homes and were determined to lack immigration status. Southampton Village police provided two marked cars as ICE agents raided two houses in the village at 5:30 AM (it was not clear what day the operation took place).

On May 17, key Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the administration of President George W. Bush reached a compromise agreement on a Senate immigration reform bill after months of closed-door negotiations. (Arizona Republic, May 18) Under the plan, which the Senate is set to begin debating on May 21, out-of-status immigrants present in the US as of Jan. 1, 2007 could initially seek "probationary" status while border security improvements and a high-tech worker identification program are put in place. Applicants could then seek a renewable "Z visa" that would allow them remain here. After paying fees and fines totaling $5,000 and waiting eight to 13 years, they could ultimately get on track for permanent residency—although heads of households would first have to return to their home countries.

Patriarch Alexy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, gave Russian President Vladimir Putin an icon May 17, as a token of appreciation for his contribution to the unification of the Moscow-based Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). The agreement signed earlier in the day reunited the two branches of the Russian Orthodox Church, ending the generations-long breach that followed the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.

A package of constitutional amendments approved May 18 by Kazakhstan's parliament allow President Nursultan Nazarbayev to remain in office for the rest of his life. Under Kazakhstan's current constitution, Nazarbayev—who has been in power since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union—would be required to step down in 2012. Yermek Zhumabayev, chair of a commission that drafted the package, said the elimination of term limits for Nazarbayev was approved in recognition of "the historic role the first president has played in the establishment of our state, as one of the founders of our new independent Kazakhstan." Critics charged that the vote essentially makes Nazarbayev, 66, president for life. "It is a huge step back for the nation," said Aidos Sarimov, a political analyst at the Altynbek Sarsenbayev Foundation, an opposition-linked think-tank in Almaty.

Gunmen climbed down from rooftop positions in Gaza late May 19, as Hamas and Fatah leaders agreed to end a week of factional bloodshed in in response to new Israeli airstrikes on the Strip. May 19 marked a fifth day of strikes in response to Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli border towns. Several Hamas-Fatah cease-fires have been broken, but Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said he expected this one to stick because of Israel's military action. "No one would accept to fight one another while the Israelis are shelling Gaza," he said. The Palestinian news agency WAFA said the new airstrikes killed 14 and injured 75, including children.