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)

Thousands of Egyptians filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square for a Friday rally May 13 calling for national unity after attacks on Coptic churches, and for solidarity with the Palestinians. Protesters held Egyptian and Palestinian flags, and placards reading in Arabic "No to secterian strife." The "Unity Rally" was called following clashes between Muslims and Christians that left 13 people dead after a church was attacked in Cairo's Imbaba district earlier this week. "If you attack a Christian, you're attacking all Egyptians," said one activist delivering a speech at the podium. "The churches attacked in Imbaba are not less than the mosques attacked in Jerusalem," he said, linking the two themes of the rally. Authorities have arrested 23 presumed Salafist militants in the church attack. (Daily Star, Lebanon, DPA, May 13; al-Masry al-Youm, May 12; BBC News, May 10)

Two suicide explosions targeted a paramilitary Frontier Constabulary training center in Charsadda district of Pakistan's Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province (the former North West Frontier Province) May 13, killing up to 90 recruits as they lined up to be bussed home on leave. Over 140 others sustained critical injuries. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility, calling it response to the killing of Osama bin Laden. "This was the first revenge for Osama's martyrdom," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said by telephone from an undisclosed location. "Wait for bigger attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan." (Pakistan Observer, Pakistan Times, May 13)

Lobsang Sangay, the newly elected prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, met May 12 with three Tibetan activists on indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi to protest against a Chinese crackdown at the Kirti monastery in Sichuan province. The activists are members of the Tibetan Youth Congress, which says the aim of the hunger strike—now in its 18th day—is to press for the immediate withdrawal of Chinese security forces from the monastery and the unconditional release of all Tibetan political prisoners, including those recently arrested in Sichuan's Ngaba county. They are also demanding that a TYC delegation be granted access to Tibet to assess the situation of political prisoners there. Sangay, who is due to take office in August, was a leading member of the TYC during his college years in New Delhi.