Although it has recieved little coverage elsewhere, the Cuban daily Ahora reports today that on May 20, Bush received a Cuban-American delegation at the White House led by Luis Zúñiga Rey of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), presumably to discuss the Posada Carriles affair. The article calls Zúñiga a "terrorist," and quotes Percy Alvarado, AKA Agent Frayle, a Guatemalan who infiltrated anti-Castro terror groups for Cuban state security: "Zúñiga told me, face to face, that it was necessary to be violent and cold-blooded, calculating and merciless, to overthrow Fidel and the Revolution. I can still see him that November night in 1993, when he proposed sinister plans by the CANF to set off powerful bombs in Havana’s Hotel Nacional and in a famous restaurant in that city."

Posada Carriles - the 77-year-old former CIA asset and accused terrorist - was charged last week with illegal entry into the US and is being detained by the Homeland Security Department at Florida's Homestead Air Force Base. US authorities have remained silent on whether he will be extradited to Venezuela to face terrorism charges. (Prensa Latina, May 18) (See our last blog post on the affair)

Yesterday, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez publicly broached breaking diplomatic ties with the US if Washington refuses to extradite. "If they don't extradite him (Mr Posada Carriles) in the time allowed in our agreement, we will review our relations with the United States," Chavez said in his regular Sunday TV programme. Washington has up to 60 days to consider Venezuela's extradition request under a 1922 treaty between the two countries.

Robots seem to be gaining reproductive rights even as women are losing theirs.

Robots at Cornell University are making copies of themselves without human intervention. In principle, the machines will thus be able to repair and reproduce themselves autonomously in remote environments. "Our self-replicating robots perform very simple tasks compared with intricacies in biological reproduction," said engineer Hod Lipson, a Cornell assistant professor. "But we think they demonstrate that mechanical self-reproduction is possible and not unique to biology."

A team from the United States is expected to arrive in Bulgaria within days for talks on possible US military bases, Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov told a news conference on May 17. Svinarov’s announcement on May 17 confirmed a statement by Bulgarian armed forces chief Nikola Kolev made a few days earlier. "Bulgaria also hopes to get support for the modernisation of its army - rather than financial remuneration - in exchange for the use of its military facilities," Svinarov said. “A decision when the foreign bases will start operating in Bulgaria will be taken by Parliament under national law." He said he expected such a decision by the end of this year. (Sofia Echo, May 23) Graf Ignatievo, Bezmer, Novo Selo and Sarafovo airport, near Burgas on the Black Sea coast, are named as locations for the new US bases. (Sofia News Agency, May 18)

WW4 REPORT readers are aware that the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride in New York City has been facing a severe police crackdown for the past several months, with hundreds arrested, bicycles confiscated, and now a threatened injunction against the ride's perceived organizers. Ironically, this crackdoown comes as several have been killed this year in a wave of reckless accidents by city motorists.

WW4 REPORT readers are aware that the Nasa Indian community of Toribio in southern Colombia's Cauca department have been under siege for the past several weeks as guerillas and army troops fight for control of their village. Army and guerillas alike are operating in violation of the constituionally-recognized autonomy rights of the Nasa, who have declared their territories closed to all armed actors. (See our recent report.) Two representatives from Toribio are currently in New York City to raise awareness about the situation their people face, and will be speaking in Manhattan this Friday.

An article on Electronic Intifada alleges Israel is burying nuclear waste from its Dimona research reactor at a location on the occupied West Bank. The Dimona facility is at a remote location in the Negev desert, but evidence is emerging that the waste is being dumped at a Palestinian village south of Hebron, where the population suffers from a variety of mysterious health problems. Issa Samandar writes May 19:

There have been reports that Dimona's nuclear waste is dumped in El Dahriya, a Palestinian village, South of El-Khalil or commonly known as Hebron. First, big holes are dug in the ground, then the waste is dumped followed by a cement cover up, on which fake rocks are placed that are sealed with screws. The surrounding villages were not informed about these hazardous practices. Instead they learned about it through an increase of their communities' alarming health problems, which are solely caused by being exposed to nuclear radioactivity.

In February, eight civilians, including community leader Luis Eduardo Guerra and three children, were massacred in the Colombian Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. Witnesses identified the killers as members of the Colombian military, and peace community members saw the army’s 17th and 11th Brigades in the area around the time of the murders. SOA Watch, the group that monitors the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (now officially the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), reports that the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian army received training at the SOA. Gen. Héctor Jaime Fandiño Rincón attended the "Small-Unit Infantry Tactics" course in 1976. In December of 2004 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.