Juan Antonio Román García, second highest ranking police commander in Ciudad Juárez, was killed May 10 when his car was sprayed with bullets outside his home. The attack came months after his name appeared at the top of a hit list left at a monument for fallen police officers. Two days earlier, Edgar Guzmán, 22-year-old she son of presumed Sinaloa Cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was killed by a 40-man hit squad in Culiacán. Later that day, presumed Sinaloa Cartel gunmen murdered Edgar Eusebio Millán, a top commander of the Federal Preventive Police, at his home in Mexico City. Hours before Millán's funeral May 9, Esteban Robles, a senior Mexico City police detective, was gunned down in front of his apartment. Authorities say the Millán assassination was vengeance for the recent capture of Sinaloa Cartel kingin Alfredo "El Mochomo" Beltrán Leyva.

From Reporters Without Borders, via AllAfrica, May 7:

Egypt: TV Agency Boss Facing Charges Over Food Riots
Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about legal action against Nader Gohar, owner of the Egyptian TV news agency Cairo News Company (CNC), who was charged on 5 May 2008 with unlicensed broadcasting of food riots in the north of the country on 6 April.

Get this. The Senate fails to pass the new FAA reauthorization bill—because of "non-aviation provisions" that would have doubled the tax on oil spills, using the revenues to replenish the strapped Highway Trust Fund! And this is deemed so un-newsworthy (even with the headlines full of the Clinton-McCain gas tax holiday hoopla) that the only media outlets that even make passing note of it are aviation trade journals like Helicopter Association International (May 2). Now, surely this tax must be onerous, a true burden on the oil industry, right? Well, a Petroleum Marketers Association of America report of March 24, 2006 (when the tax was re-instated after a ten-year lapse) informs us that the current tax is...five cents per gallon (as opposed to 18.4 cents per gallon that consumers pay Uncle Sam at the pump). And with a significant reduction for "petroleum products" and "alternative fuels" such as ethanol and bio-diesel. Additionally, the oil companies are allowed to "pass on" the tax to consumers at the pump.

Never mind the silly Canadian angle. The really sinister thing here is the embryonic hybridization of man and machine—a phenomenon we have already predicted. From the Canadian Press, May 5:

Canadian military looking for Iron Man-type suits for overburdened soldiers
OTTAWA — Iron Man Canuck may be appearing soon at a theatre near you. The Defence Department posted a contract tender Monday asking companies for proposals for high-tech body suits that could help Canadian soldiers carry bigger loads into battle.

Contrary to widespread media reports, BBC says May 9 that the man detained in Mosul is not in fact Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. An earlier statement from the Iraqi defense ministry said that al-Masri had been captured. But an US military spokeswoman, Peggy Kageleiry, said confusion had arisen because a man with a similar name had been detained.

The US administration has finally seen fit to release another group of prisoners from Guantánamo, including the Sudanese AlJazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj. Despite claims from within the administration that it was hoping to scale down operations at Guantánamo, no prisoners have been released since December 2007, when two other Sudanese, 13 Afghans, ten Saudis and three British residents were released. Instead, one prisoner died—of cancer—and another prisoner was actually transferred into Guantánamo from a secret prison run by the CIA. (AlterNet, May 2)

Burmese soldiers and riot police opened fire at Insein Prison in Rangoon, killing 36 and injuring 70, after 1,500 inmates there rioted the aftermath of the devastating cyclone Nargis, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPPB). The facility, which houses many political prisoners, is described by former inmates as "the darkest hell-hole in Burma." AAPPB reported: "Even though prisoners requested prison guards to open the doors and move them to safety, the authorities ignored their request. Some prisoners set fire to the prison hall and a riot ensued." KAAPPB's Bo Kyi said: "The authorities are to blame for this situation. As soon as the storm hit, they should have moved the prisoners to safety." (The Telegraph, May 7)

The US Navy plans to re-establish its Fourth Fleet, disbanded in 1950, to oversee ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, current commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, will lead the fleet effective July 1, Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, said in a statement. The fleet will be based in Mayport, FLA, coordinating with the US Naval Forces Southern Command, which also is based there. "This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests," Roughead said. (Bloomberg, April 24)