In response to years of activist pressure, Congressional Democrats have proposed amendments to the Bush administration's annual foreign aid appropriations request for Colombia. If the Democrats have their way, overall funding will be cut by 10%, while 45% of the total package will now be devoted to economic and humanitarian assistance, the remainder to the military. Yet, the majority of aid would still be directed at Colombia's military, regularly implicated in horrendous human rights abuses. Moreover, despite the proposed cuts, Colombia is "expected to get an additional $150 million in purely military and police assistance through a separate appropriation in the defense budget bill," as the Houston Chronicle reported June 7. Nor do the Democratic proposals appear to include any new mechanisms for ensuring that remaining military aid is not used to commit human rights abuses. (Jake Hess for Upside Down World, June 27)

Thousands of Chileans clashed with police, blocked roads and set fire to buses on Monday to protest Chile's state-owned mining company Codelco. "We are going to intensify the strike," said Cristian Cuevas, a spokesman for the newly formed Confederation of Copper Workers (CTC) that comprises 30,000 subcontracted workers at Codelco. Contract workers with the state copper giant are demanding higher wages, bonuses, access to health care and education benefits. The price of copper has almost tripled in three years. "We will not end this movement until a negotiation with Codelco, with the government, is resumed," added union leader Cuevas.

The press is abuzz with the June 26 release of the CIA's "family jewels," nearly 700 pages of documents concerning domestic meddling, foreign assassinations and other real and potential violations of the Agency's charter that then-director James Schlesinger ordered compiled in 1973 in response to the scrutiny focused by the Watergate scandal. The front-page coverage in the New York Times noted (on the front page, above the fold) that in a note to Agency employees, current CIA director Gen. Michael V. Hayden said the release of documents was part of the Agency's "social contract" with the American public, "to give those we serve a window into the complexities of intelligence." Added the Times: "General Hayden drew a contrast between the illegal activities of the past and current CIA practices, which he insists are lawful."

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says he is strengthening his army in preparation for an attack by regional rival Eritrea. "Our defence forces have the capacity to deter aggression and to repulse it if it occurred," Zenawi told Ethiopian members of parliament June 28.

Ethiopia's Federal High Court will hand down sentences to 38 imprisoned opposition leaders and journalists on July 9, the body has announced. Following reports that members of the opposition facing charges of "genocide" and attempted coup d'etat signed a document confessing to the crimes in return for their release, it was expected that the court would speed up the date of the ruling. The announcement dashed the hopes of friends and relatives of the accused.

The Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) castigated the international community June 27 for "indifference" to a media crackdown in Eritrea. "Because of the world's indifference, we are reduced to just watching, appalled and powerless, as the authorities continue to pick off journalists who have been unable to flee the reign of terror in Asmara," RSF said. The statement said Fathia Khaled, a presenter on state-owned Eri-TV's Arabic service, was arrested earlier this month and taken to a military camp in the northwest. Asked RSF: "How much longer will we have to continue adding names to the list of people imprisoned by President Isaias Afwerki's government?"

From Reuters, June 25:

Man, 80, killed after round-Japan bike tour
An 80-year-old man on the verge of completing a round-Japan cycling tour was struck and killed by a truck only a few hours ride from his home, police say.

ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have opted to abandon their heavy crude oil projects in eastern Venezuela's Orinoco Belt rather than cede majority ownership and operating control to the state-owned oil company PDVSA, Venezuelan officials announced June 26. President Hugo Chavez had set that day as the deadline for the six foreign owners of four projects in the region to agree to new terms, a part of his program to "re-nationalize" the energy sector, along with banks and telecommunications.