From the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), May 15:

The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki, will meet in Baghdad with a delegation of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), led by its President, Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, tomorrow, Wednesday, 16 May 2007.

Colombian National Police officer Jhon Frank Pinchao, held hostage by the FARC guerillas for nearly nine years, escaped his captors and spent 17 days lost in the jungle of Vaupes department before he was found by an army patrol on May 16. He said he was held in a camp with three US intelligence agents and Colombia's former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Pinchao was one of about 60 hostages held by the FARC in demand of a prisoner exchange with the government.

The Maldives coastguard opened fire on a vessel suspected of carrying members of the Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka [May 17], after a 12-hour stand-off. The boat was sunk and five people on board detained. [Maldivian authorites say the vessel was sunk, and five people on board have been detained. The Tamil Tigers have denied involvement.] [BBC, May 17]

Conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats have taken to criticising the US-financed Middle East television channel, al-Hurra, for having broadcast "friendly coverage of camera-ready extremists" (The Wall Street Journal) such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Al-Hurra was set up in 2003 in the vein of Radio Free Europe and TV Martí, in order to counter the al-Jazeera phenomenon. [It seems none of al al-Hurra's executives can speak Arabic, and had little iidea what they were broadcasting.] NYT, May 16]

Thirteen of the 19 suspects on trial for the 2004 Madrid rail bombings that killed 191 have gone on hunger strike in protest of what they call unfounded accusations against them. Javier Gómez Bermúdez, the presiding justice, warned the men that if they continued the strike they could be expelled from court proceedings and force-fed. "The trial will continue in their absence," he said. (The Guardian, May 17)

At least 14 people have been killed, and dozens more injured, amid clashes between police and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro over the past two weeks. Vila Cruzeiro favela, one of the impoverished districts hardest hit by the violence, remains a war zone. "It's absurd! Police have been here for two weeks, bullets flying all over the place, children cannot go to school, and the traffickers don't even hide," said a 56-year-old grandmother in Vila Cruzeiro, who identified herself only as Rose. Authorities intend to launch more police occupations of the favelas and are considering bringing in military Black Hawk helicopters to bolster the city’s security prior to hosting the Pan-American Games in July. (Reuters, May 16)

Two radio reporters covering a provincial governor in south-central Somalia were gunned down May 16 when the official's motorcade was ambushed by clan militia. News editor Abshir Ali Gabre and reporter Ahmed Hassan Mahad of Radio Jowhar were killed when the motorcade of Mohammed Omar Deele, governor of the Middle Shabelle province, came under attack from gunmen of a rival sub-clan. Deele was unharmed, but at least six people were killed and several injured in the ensuing gun battle.

The heads of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan—Vladimir Putin, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov—met in Turkmenistan May 12 and formalized a decision to build a new gas pipeline along the coast of the Caspian Sea. The new pipeline will carry gas from Central Asia to global markets through Russian territory, shoring up Moscow's position as a main supplier of Europe's energy needs. The project may mean the end of Western plans to build a trans-Caspian pipeline bypassing Russian territory. (New Europe, May 18)