New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer threw his support behind a proposal to curtail the president's recently expanded powers to take charge of the National Guard in domestic crises. "Given the Guard's growing importance in local emergencies, we are concerned about having the president assume more control over the Guard," said the governor's spokeswoman, Christine Anderson. Spitzer was reacting to a change in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2007 that expanded the president's ability to "federalize" the Guard during terrorist attacks, natural disasters, pandemics and other emergencies, without consulting the governors. (Newsday, May 15)

The "Islamic State of Iraq," having claimed responsibility for an ambush on a US patrol south of Baghdad May 12, has warned the US military to stop searching for three soldiers missing after the incident, if they want them to remain safe. (The Guardian, May 15) In a Web statement, a rival coalition of Sunni insurgent groups—the "Jihad and Reform Front"—accused al-Qaeda of killing 12 of its senior members in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood. The coalition claimed to represent the "Islamic Army of Iraq," the "1920 Revolution Brigade" and the "Mujahedeen Army." (Newsday, May 15)

A US and Pakistani soldier are purported to have been killed [May 14] after meeting Pakistani troops near the Afghan border. NATO announced that two of its soldiers, as well as two civilian employees, were injured in the incident. [BBC, May 14] [In Pakistan,] at least 24 people have been killed, and 25 to 30 wounded, in a bomb blast at a Peshawar hotel. [The Guardian, May 15]

Excerpts from an April 22 editorial in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

A community debate over religious freedom surfaced in Western Pennsylvania last week when Dutch feminist author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee who has lived under the threat of death for denouncing her Muslim upbringing, made an appearance at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

George Monbiot writes on ZNet, May 12:

Request for Climate References
People who deny that manmade climate change is taking place have this in common: they do not answer their critics. They make what they say are definitive refutations of the science of climate change. When these refutations are shown to be nonsense, they do not seek to defend them. They simply repeat them as if nothing has changed, then move on to another line of attack.

Thousands of protesters formed a human chain May 13 in Okinawa, Japan, to protest the US military presence. The human chain symbolically encircled the 17-kilometer perimeter of the Kadena Air Base. Banners demanded a withdrawal of the 22,000 US troops stationed there, reported NHK public television. The protest was organized by local labor unions and pacifist organizations. It took place two days before the 35th anniversary of the return of the Okinawa archipelago to Japan after it was occupied at the end of World War II, remaining in US hands until 1972. (Periodico26, Cuba, May 14)

The First Summit of Latin Americans Migrant Communities concluded May 14 with a "Declaration of Morelia," named for the city where the meeting was held in Michoacan, Mexico. The declaration called for modifying national and international laws on immigration, calling them obsolete and unjust. (Agencia Causar via MiMorelia, May 14) Representatives of NGOs from throughout Latin America, as well as the US, Europe and Africa attended. Michoacan Gov. Lázaro Cárdenas Batel and US Rep. José Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois were also in attendance. (Quadratín via MiMorelia, May 14)

Gunmen fatally shot a high-ranking Mexican intelligence official as he drove to work at the federal Prosecutor General's office in Mexico City May 14. Jose Nemesio Lugo, who investigated drug trafficking and illegal migration, was shot several times. The assailants fled and no arrests were made. US Ambassador Tony Garza expressed his condolences and praised Lugo as "a principled and tireless crime fighter." Lugo last month was named general coordinator of the Prosecutor General's National Center of Planning, Analysis and Information for the Combat of Delinquency. Under former President Vicente Fox, Lugo was director of border operations for the federal Public Security Department. He also served as director of a Federal Preventative Police unit investigating trafficking of drugs, contraband, migrants and minors. (Notimex, AP, May 14)