Exiled Somali leaders in Eritrea issued a call to boycott a Mogadishu peace conference scheduled for next month, warning of further violence if it goes ahead. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), and Sheikh Sharif Hassan Aden, a former Somali parliament speaker, released the joint statement in Asmara.

Police in southern China's Guangxi region arrested 28 as thousands staged angry protests against draconian local enforcement of the government's family-planning policy. In Bobai county, more than 3,000 people smashed through the gates of a town government compound, setting fire to vehicles and damaging files and office equipment. Disturbances were reported in sveen Bobai towns following a drive by local officials to enforce fines for families who failed to comply with China's national one-child policy.

Interesting. A Pew survey finds that 87% of Muslim Americans polled (just some 1,000 out of the total 2 million-plus) condemn the practice of suicide bombings. But for those under 30, the 13% finding them sometimes justified doubles to 26%. So the lefty InterPress Service headline states: "Major Poll Finds U.S. Muslims Mostly Mainstream." The reactionary New York Post editorializes May 23 (all caps in original, of course): "TIME BOMBS IN OUR MIDST"

The United States has sped up its commitment of military aid to the Lebanese army. Three out of a proposed eight military supply planes have arrived in Beirut thus far. The steps are designed to bolster efforts to dislodge Fatah al-Islam combatants from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. [AlJazeera, May 25]

Israeli fighter jets carried out an air strike in close proximity to the Gaza residence of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on [May 24], yet Israeli officials have insisted that Haniya was not the intended target. Another strike leveled the premises of the Hamas-linked Executive Force paramilitary group, injuring five bystanders. [AlJazeera, May 24]

In the wake of the May 22 bombing in Ankara, Turkey has ordered a convoy of tanks and armored vehicles from the southeastern city of Mardin to the Iraqi frontier. At the same time, the idea of a cross-border operation to rout PKK bases in Iraqi territory is gaining greater currency in the capital. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has long been seeking approval for such incursions, with Chief of Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt publicly putting the proposal to the government last month. Now Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to be leaning in that direction. On the night of May 23, hours after authorities said the PKK was behind the bombing, he told national television: "We would do whatever is necessary for the peace and happiness of our country. It is out of the question for us to fall into a disagreement with our security forces and soldiers on this issue... When necessary, this step would be taken, there would be no delay."

"Agriculture likes immigration bill," reads the May 21 headline in the Columbus Dispatch and other McClatchy newspapers. The new bill would expand and streamline the guest worker program which has been in place since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. Some 30,000 workers annually come in through the current H-2A program. The streamlined program, dubbed AgJOBS (for Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2007) could be passed as a stand-alone bill or part of the larger immigration legislation. Some of the same politicians who shaped the 1986 act are instrumental in the guest worker provisions of the currrent bill, such as Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA). California's Tri-Valley Herald notes that the state's agbiz interests are lobbying heavily for it. But a timely May 24 story in the New York Times notes how an attempt by farm labor organizers to eliminate the system of graft which greases the H-2A program recently resulted in a grisly assassination in northern Mexico. Further details on the case are provided by the advocacy website LabourStart:

Veteran journalist Jim Lobe reports on his LobeLog blog that the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a neo-conservative group created two days after 9-11, is holding what it calls "a policy workshop" during Congress' Memorial Day recess, at a luxury resort on Grand Bahama Island. Entitled "Confronting the Iranian Threat: the Way Forward," the confab is to include "30 or so leading experts who will analyze the implications of Iran’s activities, the diplomatic challenges, military and intelligence capabilities, the spread of its ideology within and beyond its borders, and other issues, including the prospects for democratization in the Islamic world, energy security and other related issues that face policymakers in the United States, Europe and the Middle East," according to the invitation letter from FDD's president, Clifford May. The purpose will be "exploring policy options...and [to] consider solutions to one of the most significant policy issues of our day." Writes Lobe: