The Chinese government is refusing to issue visas to thousands of Hindus seeking to make the traditional summer pilgrimage to a Tibetan mountain said to be the home of Lord Shiva. The Indian foreign ministry, which is working with Chinese authorities to make arrangements for almost 1,000 pilgrims selected by lottery, said Beijing had informed New Delhi it was not ready for the visitors—presumably due to the ongoing unrest.

The New York Times's Nazila Fathi writes in a May 20 story entitled "Iranian Clerics Tell the President to Leave the Theology to Them":

TEHRAN — In his almost three years as president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been harshly criticized in the West. But he is increasingly drawing fire from Shiite clerics here, who accuse him of using religion to distract attention from his government’s failure to deliver on promises of prosperity and political freedoms.

Egyptian authorities escalated their crackdown on Darfur rebel groups maintaining offices in Cairo, expelling Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) representative Hafiz Youcif Hamoda from the country. The move comes with increasing pressure on Sudanese migrants and refugees in Egypt. No explanation was given for the expulsion of Hamoda, an adviser to SLM leader Abdel Wahid al-Nur and member of the SLM negotiating team. Speaking with Sudan Tribune from Nairobi, Hamoda said the Egyptian decision is motivated by the "tremendous rapprochement between Khartoum and Cairo."

For the past three days, the disputed Sudanese territory of Abeyi has been undergoing what one local SPLA official calls a "bloodbath," with Misseriya ethnic militiamen attacking local Ngok (Dinka) residents, and Battalion 31 of the Sudan Armed Forces shelling the area "indiscriminately." The SPLA and Ngok residents accuse the Sudan Armed Forces of arming the Misseriya militia in violation of the peace agreement. (New Sudan Vision, May 20)

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change accused President Robert Mugabe's government of setting up a sham investigation into electoral violence to deflect international criticism. The MDC says 43 of its members have been killed and scores forced from their homes by militias loyal to Mugabe since disputed March elections. It says the violence is intended to throw a June 27 run-off vote pitting Mugabe against the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai.

From the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, May 19:

The Chinese authorities had arrested a revered religious figure in Kardze, Tibet according to reliable information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

The Authentic Labor Front (FAT), an independent Mexican labor group, announced on May 13 that one of its affiliates is set to declare a strike at the Central de Abasto, Mexico City's huge wholesale food market, on May 30. For the past four years the affiliate—the Union of Workers of Commercial Buildings, Offices and Stores, and the Like and Related (STRACC)—has represented 41 workers who clean bathrooms in the flowers and vegetables area of the giant facility, which is operated by the Federal District (DF) government. The workers are mostly women, and several are older or have disabilities.

On May 15 the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders—a program sponsored jointly by the World Organization Against Torture and the International Federation of Human Rights—issued an urgent call for the Colombian government to ensure the safety of Colombian human rights activist Ivan Cepeda Castro, his family and other members of the National Movement of Victims of Crimes of the State (MOVICE).