According to government figures, nearly 2,000 current and former employees of two sugar mills in the Chichigalpa region of northwestern Nicaragua suffer from chronic renal insufficiency (CRI), a fatal kidney disease. While the cause remains a mystery, a workers group puts the death toll at more than 560 employees of one of the mills alone over the past 30 years. Residents point to the chemicals used in sugar-cane fields at the San Antonio and Monte Rosa mills, which produce most of Nicaragua's sugar exported to the US. The mills deny responsibity, and say workers who sued the companies presented no scientific evidence.

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City writes for The Guardian, May 12:

Man in the mask returns to change world with new coalition and his own sexy novel
A bead of sweat is visible through the eyehole of his famous black balaclava. Latin America's most celebrated living rebel must be feeling the heat, but a glass of water would mean taking off the mask and that is out of the question. He makes do with a puff on his pipe, and a subject that is close to his heart.

"My new book's coming out in June," Subcomandante Marcos announces with relish during the first interview he has given to a British paper in years. "There's no politics in the text this time. Just sex. Pure pornography."

Two families who adhere to the indigenous organization Las Abejas have fled their homes in the hamlet of Tzanembolom, Chenalhó municipality, following threats from local followers of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in southern Mexico's conflicted Chiapas state. The families, totalling 16 individuals, have taken refuge in the hamlet of Acteal—ironically, the scene of the Decmeber 1997 massacre in which 45 Las Abejas followers were killed by a PRI paramilitary group. The Tzanembolom Abejas were accused of breaking accords signed with the PRI-dominated community (presumably over land use), which they, in turn, say they had signed under coercion. (La Jornada, May 13)

Mexico's federal government has expropriated more than 14,000 hectares of the Lacandon Selva, the lowland rainforest region of southern Chiapas state. The expropriation, approved by the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT), came in response to a request by the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas for a new protected area adjacent to the existing Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. The Agrarian Reform Secretary has been authorized to pay some 58 million pesos (about US$5 million) to compensate land-owners. (La Jornada, May 10)

The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón May 11 authorized the dispatch of federal army and police to the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. "This morning, I spoke with [Veracruz] Gov. Fidel Herrera," Interior Secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña told a news conference in Mexico City. "We agreed to take steps so federal forces can lend support to state authorities."

Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite party, Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), has announced key changes to its platform, moving closer to Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani—and away from Iran, where the party was formed in the 1980s to oppose Saddam Hussein. Under the new platform, the party will continue to receive guidance from the Shi'ite religious establishment—but more from Sistani, as opposed to Iran's Welayat al-Faqih, led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The People's Mujahedeen of Iran (Mujahedeen Khalq Organization) has appealed to be taken off the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, accusing the EU of stifling Iran's legitimate opposition. The organization has also launched suit against EU governments for 1 million euros ($1.35 million) in damages at the European Court of First Instance. The EU imposed an asset freeze on the group in 2002 and reaffirmed the ban in January. "The only Iranian terrorism that exists is that of the state," Jean-Pierre Spitzer, a lawyer for the group, told a Brussels press conference today.

Iraqi MPs are gathering votes to force their government to set a deadline for US forces to withdraw from the country and think they have a majority, a leading Shiite politician announced May 11. Baha al-Aaraji, a supporter of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told AFP that 144 members of the 275-seat national assembly have signed a draft law that would set a departure timetable for US troops. However, other legislators said the bill would probably become a non-binding petition, and that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would martial enough support to renew the US mandate next month. (iAfrica, May 12)