Police agents took control of the entrances to the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in San Juan on the morning of May 14 in an effort to cut off student protesters on the campus from their supporters outside. The action came one day after an assembly of some 2,000 students voted to continue an open-ended strike that started on April 21 at Río Piedras, the largest of the UPR's 11 campuses, to protest plans for a $100 million cut to the annual budget of the public university, which has a student body of about 65,000.

A "mysterious" fungus that has damaged opium poppy crops in Afghanistan is sparking fears of US biological warfare. Helmand farmers interviewed by BBC Pashto service were convinced that "they" had deliberately destroyed the crops—the pronoun "they" being a euphemism for US secret agents, believed by the farmers to have sprayed the crops with the fungus. The UN drug control office in Afghanistan is conducting an investigation into the outbreak.

A proposed strategy document dubbed "NATO 2020," released at the alliance's summit in Brussels May 17, calls for an expanded readiness and capacity to operate beyond the borders of member states, and names the campaign in Afghanistan as a top priority. "NATO must be versatile and efficient enough to operate far from home," said former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who led a team of experts in writing the report. Already this year, 200 NATO soldiers have died in Afghanistan, compared with 119 in the same period last year. (NYT, May 17)

Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced on May 16 that the partial recount of the March parliamentary elections will not alter seat allocations awarded in accordance with the provisional results. The commission held that the original count showed no signs of fraud or major irregularities, and confirmed the two-seat lead of the the Iraqiya coalition of Iyad Allawi over al-Maliki's State of Law coalition.

A former presidential candidate in Mexico and prominent member of President Felipe Calderón’s National Action Party (PAN) was declared missing May 15, in an attack being blamed on narco gangs. The car of Diego Fernández de Cevallos was found near his ranch in the state of Queretaro, the Prosecutor General's Office confirmed. Authorities say they found his belongings in the car and "signs of violence."

Indigenous leaders in Ecuador announced the temporary lifting of their protest campaign against the pending national water law on May 13. The announcement came as Ecuadoran lawmakers failed to reach a deal on putting off debate on the contested water bill, leaving the legislation with an uncertain future. Unrest over the past week had left 20 injured and 30 detained. Delfín Tenesaca, president of the indigenous organization ECUARUNARI, said, "The mobilizations are suspended for now, to give a turn to the popular assemblies" to decide the next move.

At least six people were killed—three of Serbian nationality and three Bolivians—and one was kidnapped in an assault perpetrated by suspected drug traffickers in Bolivia's eastern department of Santa Cruz on May 15. The victims were stopped at a false police checkpoint and were tied up, tortured and executed, authorities said. The gunmen kidnapped Bolivian national William Rosales Suárez, who police identified as "the ringleader of a drug-trafficking gang in Santa Cruz," with a price of $1 million on his head. (LAHT, May 15)

Noam Chomsky, once demonized as a crypto-Zionist on this website, has been barred by Israeli authorities from entering the West Bank. From AFP, May 16:

Renowned Jewish-American scholar and political activist Noam Chomsky said he was barred from entering Israel and the West Bank on Sunday to speak at a Palestinian university.