Haiti’s new national plan ignores the people
Haiti has a new, all-embracing plan aimed at pulling the country out of its economic, social, and political rut. Critics argue the plan has been written behind closed doors, follows a neo-liberal economic recipe, and is little more than “disguised colonialism” because of the large role played by international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The Interim Cooperation Framework calls for more free trade zones, stresses tourism and export agriculture, and hints at the eventual privatisation of the country’s state enterprises.
The plan was developed over the past six weeks by about 300 mostly foreign technicians and consultants, some 200 from institutions like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, and the rest mainly government cadres. (IPS)

World Bank rebuked for fossil fuel strategy
The subsidies paid by the World Bank and export credit agencies to fossil fuel industries to expand in the developing world, particularly Africa, will drive countries deeper into debt rather than helping the poor, a report by the New Economics Foundation claims.
Fossil fuels, such as oil, gas, and coal, will never provide enough power for developing nations because of the cost of connecting remote communities to a national grid, whereas renewable forms of electricity generation could provide a cheaper solution, the report says.
But with small-scale hydro-electric schemes, wind and solar power, developing world villages could become self-sufficient in power. And the death rate among women and children from respiratory diseases brought on by fumes from unsuitable stoves would fall dramatically.
This path out of poverty contrasts with the route offered by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organisation, where alongside large-scale coal, gas, and oil power projects, corruption can leave little of the money generated in the hands of local people and much of the profit passed on to developed countries. (Guardian (UK))

Dozens die in Colombia massacre
Armed men in Colombia have killed 34 coca farmers in the north-eastern region of Norte de Santander.
A regional police commander said that 50 gunmen rounded up the farmers in the village of Rio Chiquita and shot them. The authorities blame the left-wing rebel group, FARC, for the attack. A government official said the farm appeared to belong to right-wing paramilitaries. Landless peasants often pick coca leaves and sell them to both left-wing guerrillas and their right-wing opponents, which can leave the farmers targets of reprisals. Other villagers and farmers are now fleeing the area, fearful of further attacks. (BBC)

Saudis kill suspect in hostage beheading
An al-Qaida cell beheaded American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., and in a swift retaliation Saudi security forces tracked down and killed the leader of the terrorist group in a shoot-out June 18.
Johnson,who was kidnapped the weekend of June 11 is the latest victim of an escalating campaign of violence against Westerners that aims to drive foreign workers from the kingdom and undermine the ruling royal family.
The death hours later of Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, the reputed leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, was a coup for the Saudi government, which has been under intense pressure to halt the wave of attacks against Westerners.
Johnson, 49, worked on Apache attack helicopter systems for Lockheed Martin. His captors had threatened to kill him by June 18 if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands (AP)

Iran to charge British sailors
Iran is to prosecute eight UK sailors detained for illegally entering its territorial waters. Three British naval craft and their crews were seized on June 21 in the Shatt al-Arab waterway close to the Iraqi border. The British Foreign Office has demanded an explanation from Tehran. British embassy officials have not been told where the men are being held or by whom. Their request for immediate consular access has so far met with no response. Iranian interrogators have been questioning the eight men, who the British defense ministry says were part of a Royal Navy training team delivering a boat from the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr to Basra.
Recent television footage of the sailors show them to be unharmed. (BBC)

French neo-Nazis attack Muslim graves
Anxiety is growing in France about a series of neo-Nazi attacks on Jewish, and now Muslim, sites especially. There have been five serious incidents in or near two Alsatian cities in the past seven weeks, culminating in the desecration of a Muslim cemetery in Meinau last week.
Community leaders insist that they are part of an entrenched pattern of racist abuse. More than 300 people of all races and religions gathered on June 26 for a religious service and protest in the Muslim section of the Meinau cemetery, in the suburbs of Strasbourg, where 50 graves were daubed with black swastikas.
A similar attack on a Jewish cemetery in April also drew a protest by Alsatians of all races -- the first time that there has been a clear anti-racist stand by ordinary people in the German-speaking province.
The reasons for the upsurge in racist and neo-Nazi activity is unclear. Political analysts say that the attacks could be motivated by the relative failure of the “legitimate” far right in recent elections. (Independent (UK))

Brazilian senate raises minimum wage
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has suffered a major political defeat with the Senate voting for a monthly minimum wage of $90 which the government says is higher than the country can afford.
Since coming to office last year, Brazil’s first working-class president has struck to a strict austerity program to try to keep the country’s massive public debt under control.
During his years in the opposition, Lula made increasing the minimum wage a central plank in the platform of his Workers’ Party.
The government is now admitting that its pre-election promise was unrealistic and that $85 a month is feasible.
About a third of the country’s workers and state pensioners are on the minimum wage, which will mean a big increase in public spending with the new wage.
The senate’s proposal will now be sent back to the lower house where the government will have its work cut out to stop another defeat. (Guardian (UK))

Indians clash with power company workers
A group of southern Mexican Indians clashed with some 20 Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) workers who had come to cut off service because of unpaid utility bills.
The residents of Zinacantan, in Chiapas state, expelled the workers from the municipality and threatened to detain and lynch them if they returned.
Gerardo Perez Perez, a resident of the town, denounced the Better Life Rate program set in place last year by the government, in cooperation with the CFE, for not having lowered energy costs as promised. The program has been rejected in several municipalities in Chiapas, one of Mexico’s poorest states. (EFE)

Uribe nearer to re-election bid
A bill to allow Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe to stand for a second term has passed another hurdle in Congress.
The bill was approved by 92-6 in the House of Representatives. The bill would amend the constitution to allow Uribe to stand for a second consecutive four-year term. Polls suggest the move is supported by 80 percent Colombians but it is opposed by some lawmakers, who say it would encourage corruption. (BBC)

ETA suspect wins extradition fight
An Argentinian judge is refusing to allow the extradition of a suspected member of ETA, Spain’s militant Basque separatist movement.
Claudio Bonadío rejected Spain’s request on the grounds that under Argentinian law the charges against Jesús María Lariz Iriondo were inadmissible. He also attacked Spain’s treatment of ETA prisoners.
The ruling could still be overturned by the supreme court, but Bonadío said that any future extradition should be conditional on guarantees from Madrid regarding Iriondo’s physical and psychological well being.
Spanish prosecutors want Iriondo to stand trial for a 1984 attack in the Basque village of Eibar in which three policemen were injured. Iriondo admits membership of Batasuna, the political wing of ETA, which is banned in Spain, but denies involvement with ETA. (Guardian (UK))

Nuclear agency admits Iran error
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has admitted wrongly reporting that Iran held information from it.
Iran has recently come in for strong criticism from IAEA and the United States over its nuclear programs.
The IAEA reported in June that Tehran had failed to inform it about importing magnets for advanced centrifuges which can produce weapons-grade uranium.
However, it now says Iran made an oral statement about the magnets in January.
Admitting the mistake on June 17 IAEA deputy director general Pierre Goldschmidt said the agency “acknowledges that it omitted to take notice of the oral statement made in January with respect to the importation of magnets.”
But IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei played down the importance of the admission but said more transparency is needed from Iran in reporting on its nuclear program.
The IAEA is investigating US charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons. (BBC)

Rebel tribal leader killed in Pakistan
Nek Mohammed, the young Pashtun who led the tribal resistance that frustrated and humiliated the Pakistani military in their attempts to hunt down al-Qaida leaders, was killed June 18.
He was fast emerging as a popular and dangerous resistance leader against President Pervez Musharraf’s rule and only last week threatened in a telephone interview with the BBC Pashto service to take his fight against the establishment into Pakistan’s cities. (Independent (UK))

Mugabe backtracks on farm seizures
President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwean government has backtracked on its plan to nationalize all farmland, saying it will now honor ownership rights to land bought on the property market.
A letter by foreign ministry official Joe Bimha to Zimbabwean embassies abroad said t the government would be nationalizing only the land it had already seized under its land reform program.
The report contradicts a statement by land reform minister John Nkomo on June 8 that title deeds to all productive land were being abolished and replaced with 99-year state-issued leases.
The often violent land seizures, combined with erratic rains, have crippled the country’s agriculture-based economy and sparked political clashes.
Critics of the redistribution program say much of the best farmland has been allocated to Mugabe’s supporters and is currently under-utilised or lying fallow. Production on many other farms has dropped sharply as new owners lack financial resources, seed, fertiliser, fuel, and farm machinery. (AP)