Colombian presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos of the ruling Social Party of National Unity ("Partido de la U") has won the first round in the May 30 election, but will now face a second-round run-off with Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus. Santos has 46.57% of the 14,760,255 votes counted, followed by Mockus with 21.49%. They are followed by Cambio Radical candidate German Vargas Lleras and the Polo Democratico's Gustavo Petro with about 10% each. The turnout was high, with 49% of eligible voters going to the polls, 4% more than in 2006. (Colombia Reports, May 30)

Up to 16 people have been killed as Israeli naval commandos boarded aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip on May 30. The six-ship aid convoy led by a Turkish vessel with 600 people on board set sail for Gaza from waters off Cyprus the previous day in defiance of Israel's blockade of the territory. Footage from the flotilla's lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, shows armed Israeli troops boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead. The BBC reports that the incident took place in international waters.

A report says Israel is to deploy three submarines armed with nuclear-equipped cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf. Three German-made submarines from Israel's Flotilla 7 will be sent near Iran's coastline, reports the London Times citing claims in Israeli newspapers. The vessels Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan have previously been sent to the region, but the report claims the Israeli Navy has fresh plans to keep at least one of the submarines in the region on a permanent basis.

Two Turkish soldiers and three members of a Kurdish militia helping the army were killed on May 29 in separate clashes with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerillas. The violence reportedly surged after imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan decided to abandon peace efforts and leave local commanders in charge of the conflict. Two soldiers and a "village guard" member died in clashes in Sirnak province, while two militia members were killed in Siirt province, after PKK members attacked a military patrol. (Southeast European Times, May 29)

An anonymous reader writes on Slashdot, May 13:

Here's a listing of several scientific and economic guides for estimating the volume of flow of the leak in the Gulf of Mexico erupting at a rate of somewhere around 1 million barrels per day. A new video released shows the largest hole spewing oil and natural gas from an aperture 5 feet in diameter at a rate of approximately 4 barrels per second. The oil coming up through 5,000 feet of pressurized salt water acts like a fractionating column. What you see on the surface is just around 20% of what is actually underneath the approximate 9,000 square miles of slick on the surface. The natural gas doesn't bubble to the top but gets suspended in the water, depleting the oxygen from the water. BP would not have been celebrating with execs on the rig just prior to the explosion if it had not been capable producing at least 500,000 barrels per day—under control. If the rock gave way due to the out-of-control gushing (or due to a nuke being detonated to contain the leak), it could become a Yellowstone Caldera type event, except from below a mile of sea, with a 1/4-mile opening, with up to 150,000 psi [pounds per square inch] of oil and natural gas behind it, from a reserve nearly as large as the Gulf of Mexico containing trillions of barrels of oil. That would be an Earth extinction event.

The government of Bolivia announced a preliminary study for a program of uranium exploration in the southern department of Potosí this month, and broached the possibility of uranium exports to Venezuela. The program, projected at costing $500,000, will be financed by the Potosí departmental government and carried out by the National Mineral Geological and Technical Service (Sergeotecmin). The Bolivian Institute of Nuclear Technology, a moribund agency since its uranium processing plant in Potosí was closed 25 years ago, may be revived if the exploration program is successful.

Four lion cubs freed under Bolivia's circus-animal ban arrived at San Francisco International Airport this week, heading to a new life in a northern California refuge built with the help of TV personality Bob Barker and the Performing Animal Welfare Society. The deal was arranged by Animal Defenders International. The Bolivian law, to take effect in July, prohibits circuses from having any animals, the world's most comprehensive ban. (ADI press release, May 26 via Business Wire; AP, May 27; KTVU, San Francisco, May 22)

The Bolivian government says it will negotiate with an indigenous group that apparently lynched four police officers on May 23. Government rights ombudsman Rolando Villena said he was travelling to the southern department of Potosí to try to convince the group to hand over the officers' bodies. An assembly of "Ayllus Guerreros" (generally translated as "Warrior Clans," although ayllu is perhaps better rendered as "community") has declared the local municipality of Uncía a "zona roja," and are barring authorities from entering to search for the bodies.