US Senate approves 28.5 billion dollars for Homeland Security 
The US Senate approved on Thursday 28.5 billion US dollars for the Homeland Security Department next year, in the first bill financing the new government agency of the United States. 

The legislation provides nearly 2.9 billion dollars for state and local governments, with 750 million dollars for cities thought to face high threats of terror attacks. 

The bill also allocates 380 million dollars for an administration plan to check databases for information on foreigners entering the country. 

The vote of 93-1 in the Senate showed lawmakers' reluctance to vote against a bill for domestic security, but lawmakers of the Democratic and Republican parties traded sharp words against each other. 

Democrats offered several amendments to add millions to the bill, but were rejected by the majority Republicans. 

The Republicans contended that Democrats were taking a passive approach to fighting terrorism, while the Democrats said the Republican-written Homeland Security bill and President George W.Bush's plans for the department would shortchange emergency responders, and security at chemical plants and other areas. 

The homeland security issue has become a hotly partisan issue with the approach of next year's presidential and congressional elections. 

The department was established in January after combining 22 agencies and 170,000 workers, including the Coast Guard and border patrol. 

The House of Representatives approved its version of the bill last month. 

Colombian paramilitaries threaten to kill people disturbing peace process 
The Colombian far right paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), threatened to kill the people in Segovia, northern Colombia, who they said disturbed the peace process, a local official said Thursday. 

Albert Rodriguez, mayor of Segovia, said that AUC's Central Bolivar Block (BCB) threatened the lives of those people in Segovia who supposedly supported the Metro Block, a dissident faction of AUC, which had withdrawn from the peace dialogue between AUC and the government. 

The mayor said that he had been kept for several hours by the BCB on Wednesday. Segovia in Antioquia state is 500 kilometers north of Bogota, the country's capital. 

The Metro Block is one of AUC's three factions that abandoned efforts towards peace with the government in late 2002. 

On July 15, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and AUC signed an agreement on the demobilization of its 13,000 members by the end of 2005. 

AUC, established in the 1980s by drug traffickers and land owners to fight leftist guerrillas in areas where government troops exercise little control, has been active in northeast Colombia, particularly in the states of Antioquia and Cordoba. 

The AUC demobilization process would help ease a 39-year civil conflict in the country, the longest in Latin America, which kills about 3,500 people every year. 

EC takes Germany to court over media discrimination 
The European Commission (EC), the executive body of the European Union (EU), has decided to take Germany to court since one media law in the German region of Rheinland-Pfalz is considered discriminatory. 

The commission believes that some provisions of the law and the way the authorities apply them give preference to local radio broadcasters in granting licenses and thus discriminate against broadcasters from other EU countries, according to a press release issued here by the EC on Thursday. 

It said that only three licenses have so far been granted in the region for terrestrial radio-broadcasting, a fact which itselfconsiderably limits the possibility of exercising this activity. 

The legislation, which was amended in 1996, has doubled the length of validity of licenses already granted. To obtain second and third licenses, applicants have to propose different programs from those of the operators which received the first license. So it was believed to introduce a general preference for applicants operating from studios located in the region. 

Moreover, the authorities have applied other provisions in a discriminatory manner, deliberately favoring operators which belong to groups representing and linked to the local community, the press release added. 

While the German authorities claim that these measures are necessary to protect media pluralism, the EC holds that the measures do not respect the principles of non-discrimination, necessity and proportionality required by EU laws. 

Knowing that the German authorities are now considering to repeal at least part of the incriminated provisions and that no precise timetable for necessary amendments has been provided, the EC has decided to refer the case to court under the EU laws, said the release. 

EU market most open one to world farm products: study 
An independent study conducted by a group of French specialists shows the European Union (EU) is one of the worlds most open market to imports of farm products from third countries, especially developing countries. 

The study, prepared by the French National Institute of Agriculture Research for EU executive European Commission, will provide EU with much-needed ammunition to fight back criticisms of its farm policy just two months before the World Trade Organization Cancun meeting. 

Taking into account trade preferences given to developing countries, the study says that the average customs duty actually applied by the EU to farm imports is 10.5 percent, a figure three times lower than frequently mentioned data. 

As a result of this low level of protection, the EU is by far the world's number one importer of agricultural products, and the main importer of farm products from developing countries as well as from Least Developed Countries (LDCs). 

About 60 percent of agricultural imports into the EU come from developing countries, against 40 percent only in the case of the United States, Canada and Japan. 

"This study demonstrates that when the EU talks about incorporating development into trade policy, we mean what we say and we do what we say," said EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.