PANA­MA CITY-Pana­ma's pres­i­dent says he is will­ing to can­cel plans to sell state-owned land in a du­ty-free zone on the Pana­ma Canal fol­low­ing protests in the city of Colon. Pres­i­dent Ri­car­do Mar­tinel­li says in his Twit­ter ac­count that "if the peo­ple of Colon don't want the land in the du­ty-free zone to be sold, the sale will be can­celled."

Three peo­ple have died in protests since Fri­day. Heav­i­ly armed po­lice used tear gas and fired shots in the air to dis­perse the ri­ot­ers. Pro­test­ers ob­ject to leg­is­la­tion signed in to law yes­ter­day that will let ex­port-im­port busi­ness­es buy land they are now leas­ing in the du­ty-free zone. Late Tues­day, Mar­tinel­li's econ­o­my min­is­ter had of­fered to use pro­ceeds from such sales for de­vel­op­ment projects in Colon.

AP