Colombian National Police chief Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro and his intelligence boss Gen. Guillermo Chaves were forced to retire May 14 following cliams that police illegally tapped calls of opposition political figures, journalists and members of the government. "The procedure is totally unacceptable, illegal and contrary to the policy of the government," President Alvaro Uribe‘s office said in a statement. The scandal broke over the weekend when newsweekly Semana reported the interception of phone conversations revealing that imprisoned paramilitary leaders continue to operate their networks from behind bars. The scandal is being dubbed the "Colombian Watergate." Castro's replacement was named as Oscar Naranjo, director of the police investigative agency DIJIN. Also May 14, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of 20 politicians and business leaders, including four senators and one lower house representative, on criminal conspiracy charges for signing the 2001 "Rialto Pact" with paramilitary leaders. (El Espectador, Radio Caracol, AP, May 14)

Nigeria's outgoing president Olusegun Obasanjo visited the restive southern Niger Delta region [May 14] to perform a ground-breaking ceremony for a new $8 billion gas plant. Militants in the region have waged an intensifying campaign against the many foreign oil companies present in the Delta. [The Brass LNG plant is a partnership of Italy's Eni, France's Total, and ConocoPhillips] [Reuters, May 14] [Also May 14,] militants kidnapped a manager working for Italian company Agip. [Reuters, May 14]

Algerian security forces claim to have intercepted three Libyan men, on their way to join "Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb," the terrorist network's wing in North Africa. [AlJazeera, May 12] Three Algerian soldiers were killed by a bomb blast in the country-side east of Algiers [May 14]. The Algerian army has stepped up its assault on the country's Islamist militants, and now faces sharper reprisals. [Reuters, May 14]

At least a million people marched in Turkey's second city Izmir [May 13] against the ruling AK party. Pro-secular, Kemalist Turks fear that the ruling party's Islamist roots will undermine Turkey's secular constitution. On [May 12], a bombing in the city killed one man and injured 14 people. [AlJazeera, May 13]

A car-bombing attack on the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party [in Makhmur] killed over fifty people [May 13]. The blast comes as the autonomous and relatively stable Kurdish region in Iraq is in the grips of a fit of terrorist violence. [Makhmur's mayor was among the dead.] [AlJazeera, May 13] The militant group "Islamic State in Iraq"—with alleged al-Qaeda leadership—has claimed responsibility for the attack. [Reuters, May 14]

During a visit to the US-allied United Arab Emirates [May 13], Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the withdrawal of all US troops from the Persian Gulf region. [Reuters, May 13] He also promised "severe retaliation" to any attack on Iran by the United States. [AlJazeera, May 14] Ahmadinejad's bluster comes as US and Iranian representatives look likely to meet in the coming weeks to discuss how to stabilize the precarious security situation in Iraq. [AlJazeera, May 13]

Two people were killed [May 14] in bomb blast in a marketplace [at Guwahati] in the restive northeastern state of Assam, where separatists continue to mount a violent insurgency. [AFP, May 14] Elsewhere in Assam, protests staged over the killing of a civilian by state security forces [in a counter-guerilla operation] prompted clashes between Assamese and "tribespeople," who attacked the protesters' barricades with sticks and bows and arrows. [The clashes in the town of Digboi left five dead, including two burned to death, and halted work at the local oil refinery.] [Reuetrs, May 14]

Afghan and Pakistani forces clashed and bombarded each other's border posts over the weekend, leaving 12 people dead. The fighting has been described as the worst in decades between the two prickly neighbors. Pakistani officials claim that the fighting was prompted by a misunderstanding between an Afghan and a Pakistani border post. Both governments and US and NATO representatives have met to resolve the dispute. [AFP, May 14] Despite the political intervention, three American and two Pakistani soldiers were wounded in subsequent firing that allegedly came from the Afghan side. [Reuters, May 14]