From Newsday, May 22:

18 Hours, Three Fatals
It was a treacherous 18-hour span in which three people died in separate crashes on Long Island's highways — and one family survived an ordeal on the LIE.

Declaring fires set at a police station, an SUV dealer and a tree farm were acts of "terrorism," US District Judge Ann Aiken May 23 sentenced former Earth Liberation Front militant Stanislas Meyerhoff to 13 years in prison. Judge Aiken commended for informing on his fellow arsonists after his arrest, saying he had the courage to "do the right thing." But he said: "It was your intent to scare and frighten other people through a very dangerous and psychological act – arson. Your actions included elements of terrorism to achieve your goal."

A rampage by the Mungiki gang, which climaxed May 20 with the beheadings of three men, has prompted scores of residents to flee Kianjogu village in Kenya's Muranga North District. One of the Mungiki leaders, Stephen Kiunjuri, was gunned down by police that night, to the cheers of villagers. The gang has imposed illegal fees, forced youths to sniff tobacco, and repeatedly invaded homes and slaughtered livestock as owners watch. "They would just come into your place and slaughter goats," one resident said. The group established checkpoints, including at the entrance to a shopping center, charging fees for men who were circumcised to pass. In nearby Githemba village, police found Mungiki suspects with parts of male reproductive organs. Local police commander Stanley Lamai said the scene was littered with blood and religious paraphernalia. More organs were found in a house nearby during the May 22 night raid in village. "This is weird. We suspect they were conducting a ritual," said Lamai. (The Standard, Kenya, May 23; The Standard, May 24)

From the Center for Justice and Accountability via Haiti Action, May 22:

Brooklyn, NY — Today, the judge in the mortgage fraud case of former Haitian death-squad leader Emmanuel "Toto" Constant dropped Constant's plea bargain and ordered him to stand trial. If convicted, Constant could now face five to fifteen years in New York state prison.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced May 22 that a war crimes investigation will be opened into hundreds of rapes and other violations in the Central African Republic. The investigation concerns the conflict between the former regime of President Ange-Felix Patasse and rebel forces after a failed coup by current president Francois Bozize in October 2002, but the Court is also monitoring the ongoing war in the country's north.

Talk about non-news. The Democratic majority, after all their hot air, agrees to drop a timetable for troop withdrawal from the war funding bill. The only real news here is how thoroughly the Republicans have set the terms for the debate. Writes the New York Times, May 24: "Democrats said they did not relish the prospect of leaving Washington for a Memorial Day break — the second recess since the financing fight began — and leaving themselves vulnerable to White House attacks that they were again on vacation while the troops were wanting."

Farmers in southern Iraq are turning to opium cultivation for the first time, the Belfast Telegraph reports. Traditional rice farmers along the Euphrates, outside the southern city of Diwaniya, have now abandoned rice—for which the area is famous—in favor of poppies. The well-irrigated lands around the towns of Ash Shamiyah, al Ghammas and Ash Shinafiyah are controlled by Shi'ite militias and the government has little control there.

The separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) denied responsibility for the May 22 bomb attack that killed six and wounded up to 100 in the busy Ankara shopping district of Ulus. "We have no connection with the attack," the PKK said in a statement posted on the Firat news agency website, which has ties to the guerrillas. Turkish authorities initially said a suicide bomber carried out the attack, but that the use of A-4 plastic explosives points to the PKK. The PKK has used the explosive in the past, but typically does not carry out suicide bombings. (Hurriyet, Reuters, May 24)