World Briefs

LIMA – Canada and Colombia signed a free-trade agreement on Friday, hoping to boost investment and trade flows at a time of global economic instability.

The pact, criticized by union leaders in both countries as well as opposition politicians and human rights activists who say Colombia is not doing enough to stop attacks on activists, includes side agreements on labor and environmental rights.

The deal must be ratified by lawmakers in both countries.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said at a news conference the trade deal sent an anti-protectionism message at a time of economic turmoil when some countries have increased trade barriers.

Trade between the countries topped US$ 675 million last year.

BEIJING – China's provinces have drawn up long wish lists for roads and other projects since Beijing unveiled its economic stimulus plan, state TV said Sunday, indicating local leaders are rushing to take advantage of a new willingness to spend amid the global economic crisis.

Provincial officials had been under orders the past three years to curb building in an effort to cool an investment boom that regulators worried might ignite a surge in inflation or cause a debt crisis.

Spending proposals announced over the past week by provincial governments totaled 10 trillion yuan, or about $1.4 trillion, China Central Television reported. It provided few details and gave no indication how much the central government might approve.

Beijing's stimulus plan aims to boost consumer spending to reduce China's reliance on the cooling global export market.

BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau – Mutinous soldiers fought their way into the fortified residence of Guinea-Bissau's president, launching a three-hour gunbattle with his guards as the leader and his family hid elsewhere in the building, a top official said.

The soldiers attacked President Joao Bernardo Vieira's home shortly after midnight, killing at least one of his guards and injuring several others before security forces were able to push them back, Interior Minister Cipriano Cassama said.

The attackers did not reach the room where Vieira was hiding and neither he nor his wife was hurt, Cassama said. "It's unacceptable that we should have another coup in this country," he declared.

Guinea-Bissau has had three coups since 1980, when Vieira himself first took power that way.

Dozens of security forces surrounded the president's home in a residential area of the capital after hours of artillery and rocket-propelled-grenade fire.