A ship carrying tons of UN aid has refused to leave Kenya for Somalia following the May 19 pirate attack on an aid ship. The pirates failed to seize the ship, but one crew member was killed. It was the eighth priate attack of the year off Somalia's coast. The US Navy warned vessels to stay clear of Somalia's coast. The UN World Food Program has appealed for international action to secure the waters off the coast.

Patriarch Alexy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, gave Russian President Vladimir Putin an icon May 17, as a token of appreciation for his contribution to the unification of the Moscow-based Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). The agreement signed earlier in the day reunited the two branches of the Russian Orthodox Church, ending the generations-long breach that followed the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.

Lebanese security forces fought militants linked to al-Qaeda in the northern city of Tripoli and at the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared early May 20, leaving at least 10 dead, including four police. Witnesses said gunmen from the Fatah al-Islam faction seized Lebanese army positions at the entrance to the camp, then moved out to roads leading to the city and ambushed a military unit. Army reinforcement were called in and fighting spread. The attack may have been a reaction to a police raid on a Tripoli apartment that morning. Police were looking for suspects in a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli, in which gunmen made off with $125,000 in cash. The militants resisted arrest and a gunbattle ensued.

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe has ordered his military to intensify efforts to free hostages in the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC)—asserting that they are being held in "concentration camp" conditions "more cruel" than those of the Nazis. Former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US intelligence agents, and eight more hostages were reportedly being held in the same Amazon jungle camp from where National Police officer Jhon Frank Pinchao escaped April 28, after eight years in captivity. Frank said Betancourt is forced to sleep chained by her neck as punishment for having tried to escape five times.

A home-made bomb ripped through a bus terminal in Mindanao's Cotabato City May 18, killing three and injuring 15 others. About half of the casualties were children. Authorities said the motive was probably extortion, as the bus company had been receiving letters from armed groups demanding money. But Mindanao has been hit by seven bombings this year, many of them blamed on Muslim extremists linked to the Jemaah Islamiah or al-Qaeda terror networks. The bombing came barely a week after Australia and the United States warned their citizens of possible terror attacks in Central Mindanao. On May 8, a device went off in a crowded market in Tacurong, killing eight. (Manila Times, May 19; GMA, May 18)

An Israeli airstrike targeting a minivan supposedly carrying a Hamas fighter in northern Gaza City killed three people and wounded 12 on May 18. Israeli tanks also fired five shells near a housing project in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya, wounding five. (AP, May 19) On May 17, Israel moved tanks and troops over the Gaza border and launched eight airstrikes, killing at least seven Palestinians. Some 14 rockets fired by Hamas militants in Gaza May 17 landed in Israel, six near the border town of Sderot. The government bused some Sderot residents to hotels, calling it a "respite," not an evacuation. (NYT, May 18)

Mexico May 15 called upon the US to prevent weapons from landing in the hands of drug gangs that increasingly use them to kill soldiers and police. "The firepower we are seeing here has to do with a lack of control on that side of the border," Assistant Secretary of Public Safety Patricio Patiño told the Associated Press. Patiño said that earlier that day, federal agents arrested two gunmen carrying assault rifles and half a dozen hand grenades in the city of Morelia, Michoacán—apparently on their way to carry out a hit. The escalating attacks on security forces come in response to a "radical change" in Mexico's law enforcement strategy, Patiño said, noting that Mexico is now going after the cartels' entire structures rather than just leaders. (Press TV, Iran; AP, May 16)

Fidelity Investments of Boston is denying that a sharp reduction in holdings of oil companies doing business in Sudan is a result of activist pressure over Darfur. Anne Crowley, a spokeswoman for the mutual-fund giant, said the sales were decided by the managers of individual Fidelity funds. "Fidelity doesn't tell fund managers how or when to buy or sell any given stock," she said. Fidelity documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week show its ownership of PetroChina Co. shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange declined from about 4.5 million earlier this year to 420,916 as of the end of March—a decrease of more than 90%. (Boston Globe, May 17)