Nov. 12, 2005

BERLIN — Everything has changed! Nothing has changed!

A new coalition is taking shape in Berlin. Former Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder has been replaced by the first woman to head a German government, Angela Merkel. She’s an East German at that, though she has never pushed for the rights of women or East Germans.

In an Oct. 29 statement, the Tudeh Party of Iran denounced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his statement earlier that month calling Israel a “disgraceful blot … that should be wiped off the face of the world.”

Though the long-standing Nov. 7 holiday celebrating the anniversary of the Russian Revolution has been canceled, press reports indicate that nearly 200,000 people throughout the country observed the holiday anyway, with rallies, demonstrations and ceremonies.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — After two weeks of striking in defiance of government anti-strike laws, British Columbia’s 38,000 public school teachers returned to the classroom Oct. 24, strongly united for the next round of battles for the education system. Members of the B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF) voted 77.6 percent to support their leadership’s call to accept settlement terms proposed by mediator Vince Ready.

Russia: Ford workers strike; Canada: Labor vows solidarity with indigenous peoples; Uruguay: Health workers strike; Nigeria: Charge new human rights violations; Korean Peninsula: Working together for Olympics

‘Everyone stuck together’; Derailment averted; America’s ‘Roads scholars’; Unions form Delphi coalition;Boeing strikers in Ala. free speech victory

PHILADELPHIA — Buses, subways and trolleys began running again here early Monday morning Nov. 7 as members of Transportation Workers Union Local 234 and United Transportation Union Local 1594 returned to work with a new four-year contract. The weeklong strike by 5,300 Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority workers forced the agency to back off its demand that the transit workers pay 5 percent co-pays on their health insurance premiums.

Top aide seen looking at Cheney’s paper during pop quiz

Just days after President George W. Bush ordered the White House staff to take what was called a “refresher” course on ethics, his top aide Karl Rove was caught cheating during the first pop quiz given in the course, the White House confirmed today.

Danger of pandemic is real, but technology exists to deal with it if sufficient resources are allocated

A flu pandemic is a global outbreak of disease that occurs when a new influenza A virus appears in the human population, causes serious illness, and then spreads easily from person to person worldwide. Pandemics are different from seasonal outbreaks of flu that are caused by a new variety of an old flu that already has circulated among people.