Venezuela's government "temporarily" seized a pasta factory owned by US food giant Cargill May 15 in the coastal state of Vargas. Flanked by soldiers at the plant, Vice-Minister of Food Rafael Coronado said the government will run the factory for at least 90 days, having found it guilty of violating price controls. The move further increases President Hugo Chávez's hold on the economy, after a series of recent take-overs of private and foreign-owned businesses—including a Cargill rice plant. (La Reforma, Mexico, Radio Netherlands, May 16; BBC News, May 15)

Apparent US missile strikes killed four militants in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border May 16. AFP said the compound was located in Khaisur village, 30 kilometers east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region. AP put the attack in Mir Ali village. Security officials said they are digging through the rubble of destroyed houses for more victims. (AFP, AP, May 16)

US President Barack Obama announced May 15 that he is reinstating the controversial military commission system to try some Guantánamo Bay detainees. Obama said that there will be changes to the system to increase defendants' rights, including barring statements obtained under harsh interrogation methods and making it more difficult to introduce hearsay evidence. The administration will also seek a 90-day continuance of pending proceedings to implement the new rules, ask Congress to make changes to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 to give defendants expanded rights.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on May 13 called on the US government to make "fundamental changes to reduce civilian casualties" in Afghanistan after attacks last week reportedly left more than 140 civilians dead. HRW said that a review announced by chief of the US Central Command General David Petraeus must result in "measures that genuinely minimize civilian loss of life." HRW called on the US to heed international laws of war, under which attacks cannot be indiscriminate or cause disproportionate civilian loss.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, VA, ruled May 13 that the insurance company for defense contractor CACI International has no duty to defend or indemnify CACI against claims of torture at Iraq prisons such as Abu Ghraib. CACI conceded that its insurance policy from St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. generally covered the intelligence contractor only in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico but argued that its policy covered some claims involving CACI employees who were abroad for a "short time" on business.

US officials said May 15 that Algerian Guantánamo Bay detainee Lakhdar Boumediene has been released and sent to France. Boumediene was the named plaintiff in the US Supreme Court case Boumediene v. Bush , in which the Court held that Guantanamo detainees could challenge their imprisonment in federal court through the use of habeas corpus motions.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in a May 14 New York Times op-ed, urged the US to hold accountable those accused of committing torture under the Bush administration. Pillay welcomed the US as a new member of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and lauded decisions by President Barack Obama to ban torture and close CIA prisons and to review detentions at Guantánamo Bay, but said that the US should hold accountable anyone who committed human rights abuses:

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said May 14 that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) misled Congress about the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques during the Bush administration. Pelosi, the former top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that CIA officials had explicitly said that they were not using the controversial waterboarding technique. Pelosi did concede that she had learned in 2003 that harsh techniques were being employed but defended her decision not to speak up over security concerns. Pelosi renewed calls for an independent "truth commission" to investigate alleged abuses committed during the Bush administration.