Thousands of Afghans protested outside the Pakistani embassy in Kabul May 16, chanting "Death to Pakistan, Death to Musharraf!" The rally comes days after the bloodiest clash in decades on the disputed border between the two countries. Pakistani forces crossed into Afghan territory and killed 13 people, including children and police, in two days of clashes over the weekend, according to the Afghan Foreign Ministry. Many of the protesters come from Paktia, the southeastern province where the clashes took place.

A chlorine bomb has exploded in a village [Abu Sayda] in the religiously-mixed province of Diyala, killing 32 people [May 16]. Iraqi insurgents have been increasingly accused of using chlorine—which causes severe burns—in their attacks. [BBC, May 16] Lieutenant-General Douglas Lute has been appointed as the US' new "war tsar" for Iraq, a position that has proven quite difficult for the Bush administration to fill. [AlJazeera, May 16]

When Adm. William Fallon was named to replace Gen. John Abizaid as chief of Central Command in January, we recognized it as part of a tilt to the "pragmatists" and away from the hubristic neocons in Washington. Now comes word (via InterPress Service, May 15) that Fallon essentially "vetoed" an administration plan to increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three in February, and vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CentCom. The story by Gareth Porter relies on anonymous sources, but seems plausible enough. An excerpt:

A new blue-and-green-throated hummingbird species, dubbed the gorgeted puffleg, has been discovered in a threatened cloud forest of southwest Colombia. The name comes from the iridescent emerald green and electric blue patch on the throat—or gorge—of the males, and from tufts of white feathers at the top of the legs, a characteristic of puffleg hummers. The new species is easily twice as big as the thumb-sized hummingbirds found in the eastern United States.

From the International Crisis Group, May 10:

Colombia’s New Armed Groups
The disbanding of the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 2003 and 2006 is seen by the administration of President Alvaro Uribe as a vital step toward peace. While taking some 32,000 AUC members out of the conflict has certainly altered the landscape of violence, there is growing evidence that new armed groups are emerging that are more than the simple “criminal gangs” that the government describes. Some of them are increasingly acting as the next generation of paramilitaries, and they require a more urgent and more comprehensive response from the government.

As a campaign of nonviolent protests mount in Okinawa over construction of a new off-shore US military heliport at Henoko, an e-mail alert from the local anti-militarism group "Project Disagree" informs us that the the Japanese government has dispatched the Maritime Self Defense Force ship Bungo to the Henoko base. The Bungo is a gunboat and mine-sweeper equipped with divers, and its mission is apparently to assist private contractors in the environmental "pre-survey" for the off-shore expansion. The environmental assessment is being overseen by the Defense Facility Administration Bureau, and local media have noted that Maritime Self Defense Force involvement in this type of environmental review is unprecedented. Writes Project Disagree: "Although Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Chief Cabinet Secretary, said the Maritime Self Defense Force in Henoko is not tasked with suppression of local base opposition, Okinawans suffering from the US presence and the Japanese government's discriminatory policies reacted with anger."

John Holmes, the United Nations (UN) emergency humanitarian co-ordinator, has said that the UN will investigate accusations that human rights were violated during recent fighting in Mogadishu. Somalia has agreed to the inquiry. [AlJazeera, May 14] Aid workers are said to only be reaching one third of those civilians affected by the violence in Mogadishu. [Reuters, May 14]

The European Union (EU) has lifted a visa ban on several top Uzbek officials, despite a failure to make substantive advances on human rights in the country [according to international monitors]. [The four formerly on the list who are now free to travel to Europe are; Ruslan Mirzayev, a former national security advisor who is currently serving as minister of defense; Saidullo Begaliyev, Andijan’s former governor; Ismail Ergashev, a former top Defense Ministry official; and Kossimali Akhmedov, the former defense boss of the Eastern Military District, which encompassed Andijan.] An arms embargo and other sanctions are to hold up for another year, however. [Eurasianet, May 14]