The EU's carbon trading scheme has increased electricity bills, given a windfall to power companies and failed to cut greenhouse gases, according to an investigation by BBC Radio 4's "File on 4" program. According to the consumer watchdog Energywatch, after two and half years the scheme has yet to cut in carbon dioxide emissions.

Ecuador has offered to drop plans to develop the country's biggest oilfield at Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) in the Amazon basin if developed nations pay it to protect the land. President Rafael Correa hopes wealthy governments and environmental groups will pay $350 million annually to leave the oil in the ground and help slow global warming.

Palestinians and Israelis gathered in Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah on the West Bank June 5 to mark the anniversary of the start of the 1967 Six-Day War, and to demand an immediate end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. In East Jerusalem, Israeli police shut down a Palestinian conference marking 40 years since Israel occupied the sector of the city.

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor refused to attend the opening of his trial at The Hague for war crimes both in his own country and Sierra Leone, where he is accused of supporting a brutal guerilla movement. In a letter, read by attorney Karim Khan, Taylor said: "I am driven to conclude that I will not receive a fair trial before the Special Court at this time and I must decline to attend hearings... I cannot take part in this charade that does injustice to the people of Liberia and the people of Sierra Leone."

A militant Islamist group, the Mujahedeen Youth Movement, has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack against the home of Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi at the weekend, which killed five soldiers and two civilians. Several hours after the announcement, a would-be suicide bomber was shot dead by Ethiopian soldiers at the Ethiopian forces' headquarters in Mogadishu. [Reuters, June 4]

From the American Civil Liberties Union, June 4:

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, CUBA - A United States military judge today dismissed charges in the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 years old when he was arrested by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The American Civil Liberties Union said today’s surprise decision is further evidence that the Military Commissions Act signed by President Bush in October 2006 is fundamentally flawed.

Police stormed impoversihed Nairobi neighborhoods June 4 in search of Mungiki militants accused in a string of beheadings—killing 22 suspects and arresting 100 in overnight gun-battles. The raids came after two police officers were shot dead in the Kenyan capital's Mathare district. The Mungiki cult is suspected in the deaths of at least 18 people in the past three months, including 10 found mutilated or beheaded since May. The latest beheadings were overnight, the same time as the Nairobi gunbattles, in Muranga, 40 miles north of the capital.

From Reuters, June 4:

Car Plows into D.C. Street Festival, Injuring 35
WASHINGTON - A woman plowed her car through several blocks at a crowded street festival in Washington, D.C. on Saturday night, injuring 35 people, police said.