Global briefs

USA: The New York City Parks Department denied an appeal 
from anti-war campaigners who want to stage a massive 
demonstration in Central Park on the eve of the Republican 
national convention. The department had previously denied United 
for Peace and Justice's application for an August 29 rally for 
250,000 people, saying that such a crowd would be too large and 
would damage the Great Lawn. A lawyer for the group accused the 
city of an "apparent unwillingness to allow the protest to go 
forward".

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INDIA: The new Congress Party Government of India has 
offered the post of Speaker in the Lok Sabha, India's parliament, 
to Somnath Chatterjee, a leader of the Communist Party of India 
(Marxist). The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) has decided to accept 
the post. It explains that this does not contradict the decision 
of the Party to support the Congress led government but to not 
join it. The Party says that parliamentary democracy has three 
wings of government — the legislature, the executive and the 
judiciary. The government concerns itself with the executive 
functions of the State while the Speaker heads the legislative 
wing. The post of speaker cannot be confused with that of the 
executive said a Party statement. The CPI(M) won 44 seats and the 
left as a whole won 61 seats in the new Indian parliament.

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ITALY: One of the biggest inquiries into marketing 
practices of pharmaceutical companies ended in Italy with the 
Italian police seeking to put on trial almost 5000 people, 
including more than 4000 doctors and at least 273 employees of 
the British pharmaceutical giant Glaxo-SmithKline. Some face up 
to five years in jail if convicted. Pharmaceutical companies 
spend millions of dollars on "sweeteners", in other words, bribes 
to doctors to prescribe particular brands of medication. Italian 
authorities said Glaxo-SmithKline "should be held responsible for 
corporate crime as its managers and other employees acted in the 
company's interest".

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KOREA: North and South Korea have agreed to open their 
first cross-border road and rail links by October this year.

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KENYA: Kenya's Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) 
will go to the International Labour Organisation Conference in 
Geneva to protest government plans to lay off thousands of 
workers. Internal Security Minister recently announced that the 
government plans to retrench 21,338 workers on a voluntary basis 
beginning in June, and ending in 2007. Civil Servant Union leader 
said the union would oppose the layoffs, which could result in 
unrest in the public service. The union leader also said the 
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were exerting 
pressure on the government to carry out the layoffs.