In news from Colombia, about 30,000 people marched in Bogotá on Thursday in support of a 10-day protest by small farmers against privatization, trade deals and alleged neglect of rural areas. Farmers say they have been unable to compete with subsidized U.S. and European crops imported under so-called “free trade” deals.

Julio Roberto Gómez, union leader in Colombia: “The purpose of this protest is to express our deepest solidarity with the farmers movement in this national farming strike and demand that the national government immediately solve this problem. The situation is extremely serious, involving 12 million farmers, but it affects 47 million Colombians.”