BOGOTA, Apr 1 (IPS) - "If their slogan was land, dignity and peace, this time it will be terror, murder and hell," said a threat sent to human rights defenders and trade unionists who took part in a Mar. 6 march in homage to the victims of Colombia's far-right paramilitary groups.

Since the march, four of the organisers have been murdered and another survived an attempt on her life. In addition, more than 50 people and organisations have been named in written threats distributed by a group calling themselves the "Black Eagles", who say they will be "implacable" with those who organised the demonstration.

The Mar. 6 protest was convened by the Movement of Victims of Crimes of the State (MOVICE), made up of hundreds of associations, and was backed by trade union federations and a number of other social movements.

"Land, dignity and peace" was the theme of a two-day march by people displaced by Colombia's four-decade civil war, who reached Bogotá to take part in the larger Mar. 6 demonstration.

Four days after elections in Zimbabwe, pressure is growing on the country's electoral commission to issue results.

Amid intensifying global scrutiny, Morgan Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change would issue its own results if the commission did not.

Mr Tsvangirai has said he is convinced he defeated President Robert Mugabe, but that he will not claim victory until the official count is known.

He denied rumours of a secret deal allowing Mr Mugabe to step down.

George W. Bush arrives at a NATO summit in Bucharest Wednesday focused on both the details and the big picture of his presidency's transatlantic policy.

His ability to get what he wants from the three-day gathering of NATO leaders - on boosting the alliance's combat presence in Afghanistan, advancing a continental missile-defense program, and extending the prospect of NATO membership to Russia's neighbors Ukraine and Georgia - will be challenged by his status as a lame-duck president.

While the trip is unlikely to be much of a victory tour, Mr. Bush is making what may be his last major European trip as president with his legacy intact as an American leader who helped expand eastward the reach of democracy and freedom on the Old Continent.

"Against the backdrop of ... a foreign policy that overall looks threadbare and that will hand off two land wars to his successor ... this president's expansion of the freedom agenda to the newer democracies of Europe has the semblance of success," says Wess Mitchell, research director for the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Note: Center for European Policy Analysis.

The Nato-led alliance is "getting pretty close" to losing control of Afghanistan, Lord Ashdown, the former UN envoy to Bosnia has warned.

The peer, who was blocked from being UN envoy to Afghanistan by President Hamid Karzai, says it will take more than extra troops to quell the fighting.

He spoke as Gordon Brown flies to Romania for Nato's biggest summit.

"I'm not saying for a moment that we have lost... I'm saying that we're getting pretty close to it," he said.

Governments across the developing world are scrambling to boost farm imports and restrict exports in an attempt to forestall rising food prices and social unrest.

Saudi Arabia cut import taxes across a range of food products on Tuesday, slashing its wheat tariff from 25 per cent to zero and reducing tariffs on poultry, dairy produce and vegetable oils.

On Monday, India scrapped tariffs on edible oil and maize and banned exports of all rice except the high-value basmati variety, while Vietnam, the world's third biggest rice exporter, said it would cut rice exports by 11 per cent this year.

The moves mark a rapid shift away from protecting farmers, who are generally the beneficiaries of food import tariffs, towards cushioning consumers from food shortages and rising prices.

China has branded the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's robes" and his followers the "scum of Buddhism." It stepped up the rhetoric Tuesday, accusing the Nobel Peace laureate and his supporters of planning suicide attacks.

That's a spin...

The average percentage of people saying that the US has a positive influence has risen to 35% from 31% a year ago, according to the survey.

Those saying the US has a negative influence fell five percentage points to 47%.

The poll, part of a regular survey of world opinion, interviewed more than 17,000 people in 34 countries.

Hey, we rank ahead of Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea.  USA!  USA!  USA!

We all bleed the same color.