A long-standing maritime border dispute between Chile and Peru that is currently before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague took a new turn last week when a third country, Ecuador, moved to formally demarcate its sea boundaries with the government in Lima. The deal reaffirms the Peru-Ecuador sea border as a straight line that runs west parallel to the equator from the land boundary. But it also contains a clause in which Ecuador confirms that Peru's 1950s accords with Chile were fishing agreements—not a three-way border agreement. Peru's government is now hoping to use the agreement with Ecuador as a legal argument to finally settle its dispute with Chile. Lima's Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Antonio García Belaunde said the signing of the agreement with Quito "is important because it ratifies the premise that Peru has always held up that the agreements of 1954 and 1952 are fishing [accords], and that will strengthen our position at The Hague."

Following a regional summit in Bamako, the leaders of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger agreed May 20 to form a 75,000-man security force to police the Sahel and Sahara regions against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and trans-border organised crime networks linked to terrorism. A new body based in Algiers, the Joint Military Staff Committee of the Sahel Region (CEMOC), will co-ordinate the military force. The participating nations also agreed to hold regular ministerial meetings every six months, with the next gathering set for Nouakchott, and a summit external partner states is to be held in Algiers. "Our partners from outside the region, such as the European Union and the United States, will be invited to this meeting that will be probably held during the last quarter of this year," said Abdelkader Messahel, Algerian Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs. "Our countries have started to take action. Today, it is about enhancing the path that was kicked off to confront the terrorist threat and its branches."

Bahrain's Appeal National Safety Court on May 22 unanimously upheld death sentences for two men convicted of killing police officers during anti-government protests in March. The court reduced the death sentences of two others to life in prison. The four men were tried in the special appeals security court set up by Royal Decree in March, under emergency law, during the Shiite-led protests in Bahrain. The special court and other measure implemented under emergency law have been heavily criticized by various human rights groups. Nabeel Rajab, leader of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights criticized the ruling, expressing his concern that the cases are politically motivated and an attempt for the government to stop protests. The date for the two executions has not yet been disclosed but would first require the approval of Bahrain's king. The death penalty is rarely used in Bahrain and typically not used against the country's citizens.

Belarus's Minsk City Court last week sentenced former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau to a five-year maximum security prison term for organizing protests following the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in December 2010. Lukashenko reportedly won 80% of the vote, while Sannikau was second with a distant 2.5%. Currently, four other presidential candidates are awaiting trial, while one was released in January, and another has fled Belarus to seek asylum in the Czech Republic.

We just noted how Barack Obama's celebrated speech on the Middle East two days ago was actually driven by the imperative to control the political trajectory of the Arab Spring. Now, not surprisingly, al-Qaeda attempts to do the same thing—which indicates again that imperialism and the jihad alike have been relegated to playing catch-up as the Arab masses themselves have seized the initiative. CNN informs us that an unnamed "jihadist website" posted an audio message purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahiri, presumed successor to Osama bin Laden, in which he hails the "winds of changes" in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen—but also warns of that "crusader enemies" led by the United States are attempting to colonize Libya: "NATO is not a goodwill organization—it is an aide to the hegemonic powers in this world. They aim to end the corrupt Qaddafi regime, but then install their own ideals. They want to steal Libya's resources and relics because of their greed and politics."

Tens of thousands of protesters have filled the main squares of Spain's cities for the past week to protest government austerity measures—in defiance of a government ban imposed ahead of municipal and regional elections. Madrid's central square has been occupied for days by some 30,000 protesters, who have been dubbed "los indignados" (the indignant). Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero admitted he may not enforce the ban. "I have a great respect for the people protesting, which they are doing in a peaceful manner, and I understand it is driven by economic crisis and young people's hopes for employment," Zapatero said during a radio interview. (BBC News, May 21; Reuters, May 20)

The voluminous media commentary dedicated to President Barack Obama's May 19 speech on the Middle East has overwhelmingly focused on his extremely modest and reasonable demand that a peace settlement must be based on Israel's 1967 (that is to say, legal) borders—and the scandalized Israeli reaction. Nearly lost in all this noise is the first three-quarters of the speech, which speak to why the White House has for the first time in history embraced this minimal demand. The imperative to control the political trajectory of the Arab Spring—which is, as we have argued, what is really driving the Libya intervention—can be detected in every syllable of the transcript...

Thousands took to the streets in towns and cities across Syria for Friday protests May 20, and security forces again responded with tear gas and live ammunition, leaving at least 32 people dead. The killings were reported in the southern region of Deraa, the Damascus suburb of Daraya, the seaport of Latakia, the central city of Homs, and a village near the north-central town of Idlib (see map). Among the dead in Homs were two boys, aged 16 and 11. Protesters in many places shouted "azadi," which means freedom in Kurdish. Organizers had dubbed the 20th as Azadi Day, in solidarity with Kurdish protesters and to reflect the failure of policies aimed at getting Kurdish Syrians on the government's side with promises of recognizing their civil rights. (DPA, AlJazeera, May 20)