After initially denying reports of his death, Taliban spokesmen have now confirmed that Mullah Dadullah, their most public and prominent leader, has been killed in clashes with Afghan and Nato forces in the southern province of Helmand. [Al Jazeera, May 13] Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's military commander, had a bloody reputation earned through numerous alleged atrocities, including most famously the massacre of Hazaras – a Shia minority group – in the province of Bamiyan eight years ago. [The Telegraph, May 15]

At least 61 Haitian migrants drowned after their boat capsized as it was being towed by a police vessel near the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British overseas territory about 125 miles north of Haiti, in the early morning of May 4. Officials said about 160 people were crowded on to the 25-30-foot Haitian sloop and that 78 were rescued; about 30 people are missing and presumed dead.

A federal grand jury in Newark, NJ, has been investigating charges that Cuban-born Luis Posada Carriles masterminded the bombings of hotels in Cuba in 1997 that resulted in the death of one Italian-Canadian tourist. The Miami Herald revealed on May 3 that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cuban government have been cooperating to an unusual degree on this investigation, with FBI agents traveling to Havana in the fall of 2006.

According to government figures, nearly 2,000 current and former employees of two sugar mills in the Chichigalpa region of northwestern Nicaragua suffer from chronic renal insufficiency (CRI), a fatal kidney disease. While the cause remains a mystery, a workers group puts the death toll at more than 560 employees of one of the mills alone over the past 30 years. Residents point to the chemicals used in sugar-cane fields at the San Antonio and Monte Rosa mills, which produce most of Nicaragua's sugar exported to the US. The mills deny responsibity, and say workers who sued the companies presented no scientific evidence.

The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón May 11 authorized the dispatch of federal army and police to the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. "This morning, I spoke with [Veracruz] Gov. Fidel Herrera," Interior Secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña told a news conference in Mexico City. "We agreed to take steps so federal forces can lend support to state authorities."

The People's Mujahedeen of Iran (Mujahedeen Khalq Organization) has appealed to be taken off the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, accusing the EU of stifling Iran's legitimate opposition. The organization has also launched suit against EU governments for 1 million euros ($1.35 million) in damages at the European Court of First Instance. The EU imposed an asset freeze on the group in 2002 and reaffirmed the ban in January. "The only Iranian terrorism that exists is that of the state," Jean-Pierre Spitzer, a lawyer for the group, told a Brussels press conference today.

Iraqi MPs are gathering votes to force their government to set a deadline for US forces to withdraw from the country and think they have a majority, a leading Shiite politician announced May 11. Baha al-Aaraji, a supporter of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told AFP that 144 members of the 275-seat national assembly have signed a draft law that would set a departure timetable for US troops. However, other legislators said the bill would probably become a non-binding petition, and that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would martial enough support to renew the US mandate next month. (iAfrica, May 12)

The governments of Saudi Arabia and the US are working with other Middle East states to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in the May edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks are planned against Iran's oil sector. David Samuels, in a lengthy article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, reports that the US is promoting the direct action campaign against Iran.