Jose Miguel Gomez / Reuters

A farmer harvests coffee beans at a farm near Sasaima city in Colombia.

Jose Miguel Gomez / Reuters

A farmer harvests coffee beans at a farm near Sasaima city on Monday.

John Vizcaino / Reuters

Workers prepare roses at Elite greenhouse in Facatativa on Monday.

John Vizcaino / Reuters

A worker checks on Gerbera flowers at Elite greenhouse in Facatativa.

Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

An employee arranges a bundle of cotton material inside a workshop of textile factory Fabricato in Bello, Antioquia province on Monday.

Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

An employee pushes bundles of cotton inside a workshop of a textile factory.

Stringer/Colombia / Reuters

A panoramic view of the port of Cartagena on Monday.

Stringer/Colombia / Reuters

A crane operator moves a container at the Port of Cartagena.

Colombia Reports quotes an Oxfam report saying that the free trade deal will "bankrupt small farmers and increase poverty in rural Colombia:"

According to the report, the deal with Colombia’s leading trade partner will hit the poorest farmers the hardest, arguing that 400,000 of those already making below minimum wage, currently set at $328.08 a month, will lose between 48% to 70% of their income.

To make up for the loss, the report said that farmers are "likely to take up coca cultivation" for illegal armed groups. The other option for farmers will be to “migrate to urban areas to join some 5 million Colombians – over 10 percent of Colombia’s total population –  who have been forcibly displaced from the countryside over the last 12 years and the great majority of whom live in extreme poverty,” it claimed.

The Colombian government has denied that the FTA will harm key agricultural sectors.

“I do not personally believe, nor does the government believe that an apocalyptic shadow is rising over the Colombian countryside, agriculture and livestock industries that will wipe out everything that has been built in the country,” the Agriculture Minister, Juan Camilo Restrepo has said.

Read more...

See more images from Colombia in PhotoBlog.

Yonhap News Television via EPA

Representative Kim Seon-dong of South Korea's opposition Democratic Labor Party explodes a tear gas canister in front of the speaker's chair to block the National Assembly's Vice Speaker Chung Eui-hwa from pushing for the procedure to handle a pending bill on ratification of a Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) on November 22, in Seoul, South Korea.

Jo Yong-Hak / Reuters

Lawmaker Kim Seon-dong, center, struggles with security guards after he detonated the tear gas canister.

The AP reports from SEOUL, South Korea:

South Korea's parliament ratified a long-stalled free trade deal with the United States on Tuesday after ruling party lawmakers forced a vote amid shouts and shoves from opposition rivals.

YNA via EPA

Kim Seon-dong (out of frame) explodes a tear gas canister in front of the speaker's chair to block ratification of the agreement.

South Korean lawmakers voted 151 to 7 in favor of ratifying the landmark trade agreement in a surprise legislative session called by the ruling Grand National Party, parliamentary officials said.

Shouts filled the National Assembly as lawmakers pushed, shoved and screamed while ruling party lawmakers forced their way onto the parliamentary floor. One opposition lawmaker fired tear gas, reports said. Some lawmakers were seen wiping their eyes after being doused with the chemical.

Security guards later manhandled that opposition lawmaker out of the chamber as he shouted and tried to resist being thrown out. Opposition members also scuffled with police outside the National Assembly building as they tried to get inside to block the deal's passage.

The pact is America's biggest free-trade agreement since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. Two-way trade between South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, and the United States totaled about $90 billion last year, according to the South Korean government.

Lawmakers have been wrangling over ratification of the free trade deal since U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama approved the deal last month after years of divisive debate in the U.S. Continue reading.

Ahn Yopung-Joon / AP

National Assembly Vice Speaker Chung Eui-hwa, second from top left, wearing glasses, declares the passage of a bill on ratification of a South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement amid shouts and shoves from opposition rivals.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Brawl breaks out in Sri Lankan parliament
• Tensions over economic reform lead to blows in Rome parliament
• Parliamentary debate in Kuwait leads to a fistfight