Global briefs

COLOMBIA: Unionists and five MPs were beaten up by 
aggressive police at a demonstration in Cartagena, Colombia. On 
May 21 twenty thousand people marched against the Free Trade 
Agreement with the US. President Uribe, a US stooge, urged local 
authorities to stop the march by violent means, including the use 
of tear gas bombs fired from helicopters. The confrontation 
between the police and the protesters lasted for three hours. In 
Bogota, Bucaramanga, Cali, Popayan and other cities the workers 
declared a 24-hour general strike, leaving their places of work 
to take to the streets. More than seven million pupils in the 
public education system missed their classes as 300,000 teachers 
joined the strike.

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SYRIA: Syrian President Bashar Assad said that the United 
States had provided no proof to warrant the sanctions it had 
imposed on Syria and stressed that he would not accept US demands 
to expel Palestinian militants. He disputed the case that the 
Bush administration had made to impose the embargo, saying that 
Syria does not have weapons of mass destruction and there is no 
evidence of foreign fighters crossing the border from Syria to 
Iraq. The sanctions ban all US exports to Syria except food and 
medicine and direct flights between Syria and the US.

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RUSSIA: Russia's chief auditor has called for the 
billionaire energy tycoon and Chelsea Football Club owner, Roman 
Abramovich, to step down as governor of Chukotka in Siberia. The 
region's authorities have been accused of "misappropriating" 
US$50 million and allowing the oil company he controls to evade 
US$470 million in taxes. Forbes business journal estimates that 
the personal fortunes of Russia's 100 richest businessmen amount 
to a quarter of the country's entire economy.

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IRAQ: The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) 
expressed its "great sorrow, concern and indignation" at the 
revelations of torture and inhuman repression unleashed by US and 
British occupation forces at Iraqi prisons. The WFTU expressed 
"its indignation and surprise that these acts were committed by 
two Great Powers who claimed that their illegal aggression on 
Iraq was to defend liberty, democracy and human rights". The WFTU 
demanded the "immediate restoration of sovereignty to the Iraqi 
people to enable them to govern themselves and to build their 
national parliamentary and administrative institutions, to defend 
security and national sovereignty".

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USA: George W Bush's 2005 Budget was withdrawn from the 
Senate when it became clear it would not be passed. Four 
Republican Senators stated their intention to vote with the 
Democrat bloc against making permanent Bush's $1.5 trillion tax 
cut for millionaires made in 2001. One of the rebels, Senator 
John McCain of Arizona, said he wanted to send a message to 
Republican "fat cats" who wallow in Bush tax cuts but are 
unwilling to make any sacrifices while US soldiers are dying in 
Iraq. The 2005 Budget forecast a record deficit of US$367 
billion.