Diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks reveal that the security company Global CST—led by Maj. Gen. Israel Ziv, the former head of operations for the Israeli military—made such inroads into Latin America that US diplomats saw it as a security threat and moved to thwart the company's expansion. The diplomats' efforts were given an inadvertent boost when an interpreter for the Israeli firm was evidently caught passing on classified Colombian Defense Ministry documents to leftist guerrillas, according to one cable cited by McClatchy Newspapers.

An open letter from Israel's progressive +972 Magazine, where it first appeared in Hebrew and Arabic on April 24:

Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011
We, as the descendants of the Jewish communities of the Arab and Muslim world, the Middle East and the Maghreb, and as the second and third generation of Mizrahi Jews in Israel, are watching with great excitement and curiosity the major role that the men and women of our generation are playing so courageously in the demonstrations for freedom and change across the Arab world. We identify with you and are extremely hopeful for the future of the revolutions that have already succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt. We are equally pained and worried at the great loss of life in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and many other places in the region.

The annual Jewish pilgrimage to the Tunisian island of Djerba for the Lag B'Omer holy day has been officially canceled for the first time ever due to security concerns this year. For centuries, Mizrahi Jews from throughout the Mediterranean have converged on the island each year for a festival centered on the ancient El Ghriba synagogue on the holiday that follows Passover. But Roger Bismuth, president of Tunisia's Jewish community, said the event was called off thus year after consultations with the government. "We have this fight at the Tunisian border with Libya so the situation is not as we like," Bismuth told the Jerusalem Post by phone from Tunis. "Besides that we have had a revolution. The situation is not completely quiet yet so we took precautionary measures."

Violence erupted on Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on May 15, leaving at least 12 dead and scores wounded, as Palestinians commemorated the Nakba ("catastrophe") of the Jewish state's founding in 1948. Israeli troops also opened fire as dozens of Palestinian refugees tore through a border fence and crossed into the Israel-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, leaving at least four dead. Four were killed as Palestinian refugees attempted to cross into Israel from Lebanon. Some 60 were injured as troops fired on Palestinians approaching the Gaza Strip border fence.

At least two were killed and some 70 injured as presumed Salafists attacked Coptic protesters with sticks, firearms and Molotov cocktails in the Cairo neighborhood of Maspero early on May 15. The Copts fought back with hurled rocks, and police finally intervened with tear gas. The protesters were holding a sit-in in front of the Egyptian state television headquarters to demand justice in the face of growing attacks on their community.

Nine indigenous Mixe residents at the remote Oaxaca municipality of Santiago Choápam were killed and some 20 wounded when they were ambushed on a mountain road May 14. The ambush took place near the hamlet of El Portillo as the campesinos were making their way from their homes at La Tani hamlet to the municipal center for a political rally ahead of extraordinary elections called for Choápam after the results of December polling were annulled due to reported irregularities. The community, near the Veracruz state line, is harshly divided between two political factions—one led by the family of a former state deputy with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Dámaso Nicolás, the other by César Mateos of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Mateos accuses Nicolás of being a "cacique" (political boss) who maintains power over the municipality through corruption and intimidation, despite the fact that it elects its leaders through the traditional indigenous process called usos y costumbres (uses and customs), in which candidates ostensibly have no party affiliation. (Cronica de Hoy, OEM-Informex, May 15; Excelsior, Diario Oaxaca, May 14)

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law on May 13 an "Arizona style" anti-illegal immigration bill, HB 87, that allows law enforcement officers to ask about immigration status when questioning suspects in criminal investigations. The law also imposes fines and prison sentences of up to one year for anyone who knowingly transports illegal immigrants during the commission of a crime, and requires businesses to use the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of potential employees, providing that workers convicted of using fake identification to gain employment could face up to 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. A CNN report described the measure as "one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration measures enacted by an individual state." In addition to demonstrations outside the capitol, the legislation has drawn threats of both lawsuits and boycotts, as have similar recent measures in other states.

South Sudan is witnessing a sharp rise in armed conflict—with less than three months to go before the formal independence of the fledgling nation. Heavy fighting has killed some 1,000 and displaced an estimated 100,000 since southerners voted overwhelmingly for independence in January, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The fighting is centered in Unity and Jonglei states, near the border with the North (see map). The most recent clashes have pitted the southern armed forces of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) against a breakaway SPLA faction led by Peter Gadet, who has taken up arms against the South Sudan government. (Reuters, May 11; IRIN, April 26)