Foreign troops and not Haitian demonstrators killed Spanish journalist Ricardo Ortega in Port-au-Prince during a protest on March 7, 2004, according to the reporter's family. Haitian judge Bernard Saint-Vil has dismissed charges against the Haitian suspects in the killing, Ortega's parents, Jose Luis and Charo Ortega, told the media in Madrid on May 9; Saint-Vil reportedly blamed the foreign soldiers deployed in the country during the three months after then-president Jean Bertrand Aristide was removed from office on Feb. 29, 2004.

In a piece ominously entitled "The Oil Nonbubble," Paul Krugman in the New York Times May 12 astutely calls out both right-wing optimism that the "oil bubble" would burst—and right-wing scapegoating now that it hasn't:

"The Oil Bubble: Set to Burst?" That was the headline of an October 2004 article in National Review, which argued that oil prices, then $50 a barrel, would soon collapse.

Turkish warplanes bombed several border areas near the towns of Neroye and Rekan in Dahuk province of northern Iraq May 11, the website of the website of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) reported. Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for Iraq's Kurdish Peshmerga security forces, also confirmed the air strikes to Reuters, as did a PKK spokesman to AP. The PKK spokesman, Ahmed Danas, said the warplanes struck former bases "of our forces where none of our fighters were present."

On May 11, the Asuda women's shelter in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, came under attack by unidentified gunmen. One woman housed at the shelter, a mother of three, was seriously wounded, hit by three bullets. According to the hospital reports, the woman's condition is currently stable after four hours of emergency surgery. The woman was referred to the shelter by municipal authorities in Sulaymaniyah, fearing abuse and "honor killing" after she was accused by her husband of adultery.

Israeli troops attacked a peaceful march commemorating the 60th year of the Nakba in the West Bank city of Tulkarm May 10, injuring ten, including a journalist who was hit with a bullet in his hand. Participants, including international activists, raised Palestinian flags and wrote graffiti on the face of the separation wall protesting the enclosure of village lands at Shofa. Soldiers opened fire and threw tear gas. (WAFA, May 10) Four were injured two days later in a similar scene at Na'lein village, west of Ramallah. (WAFA, May 12)

From Democratic Voice of Burma, May 10:

The Burmese military regime held its national referendum in most of the country today, despite criticism from those who said it should be prioritising assistance for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Back in February, rebels in Chad penetrated N'Djamena, the capital, after driving across hundreds of miles of desert from the east in a fleet of armed pick-up trucks. Chad's government quickly accused Sudan of supporting the operation. On May 10, Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) penetrated Khartoum, Sudan's capital, after driving across hundreds of miles of desert from the west in a fleet of armed pick-up trucks. Sudan's government quickly accused Chad of supporting the operation—and broke off diplomatic relations.

Award-winning journalist and World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg will present a video and discussion on the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), a new alliance of trade unions, women's organizations, neighborhood assemblies and student groups opposed to both the US occupation and the sectarian militias. The IFC is leading a campaign against the pending law that would privatize Iraq's oil, and has established self-governing zones, which both occupation forces and sectarian militias are barred from accessing, in neighborhoods in Baghdad and Kirkuk. Recently, their leaders have been targeted for attack by US forces. Solidarity efforts and coordinated actions are growing between Iraq's civil resistance and organized labor in the US—but more is needed.