Global briefs
GERMANY: Over 25,000 people rallied in eastern Berlin on January 11 to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the deaths of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. About 7000 marched through rainy streets to the Friedrichsfelde cemetery, where they joined thousands of others to lay flowers in honour of the co-founders of the German Communist Party. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were killed by far-right militiamen during a failed uprising in Berlin. Their deaths are commemorated on the second Sunday of every January. Some 600 police officers were on hand. They reported eight arrests, with four people charged with minor offences. Marchers carried a wide range of signs, including one advocating a shorter working week, which read: "Longer sleep for the same money".* * * GEORGIA: Georgia and the US have drafted a five-year plan of military co-operation. The US military has been actively involved in Georgia for years on one-year programs. The US will retain a permanent base there and train and equip troops. Georgia's newly elected President Mikhail Saakashvili welcomed the US troops and demanded that Russia withdraw its forces — a demand backed by the USA, which had offered to pay for part of the operation.* * * IRAQ: On December 6, US occupation forces attacked the temporary headquarters of the Iraqi Federation of Workers' Trade Unions (IFTU). The IFTU headquarters remain closed. Without giving any reasons, the US troops ransacked and destroyed the IFTU's possessions, took documents and briefly detained and then released members. The IFTU has since met with a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and demanded an apology from the local US military commander responsible for the attack. "Unfortunately, nothing has so far happened", the IFTU said. The IFTU expressed its appreciation to organisations in the international labour movement who sent messages of solidarity.* * * TURKEY: Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said that in the event of Iraq's disintegration, Turkey would intervene. Erdogan stated that Iraqi Kurds are trying to take the oil regions under their control and "this should not be allowed. Kurds should be prevented from playing with the fire", Erdogan stated.* * * USA: Saying 18,000 people die every year because they lack health insurance, federal advisers said the US Government must come up with universal health coverage by 2010.* * * BRAZIL: Brazil has begun fingerprinting and photographing US visitors on orders of a judge who compared planned US security controls on travellers from Brazil and other nations to Nazi horrors. Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva was furious at US plans to fingerprint and photograph millions of visitors entering the United States. The US measure does not apply to citizens of 27, mainly European, nations who do not need a visa to enter the United States. "I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis", said the judge.