April 22, 2006

Though winter rains are finally ending, managers of California’s many dams and aging, sometimes dilapidated levees expect the system will face serious challenges into the summer.

While Delphi CEO Steve Miller has proposed in bankruptcy court to cancel labor agreements, slash the company’s hourly workforce by approximately 75 percent and phase in a wage cut from $27 an hour down to $16.50, it has sung a different song to its executives.

The course of Venezuelan politics after the failed 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez contains elements of both change and continuity.

NEW YORK — Reinaldo Bolivar, Venezuela’s deputy prime minister of foreign affairs, told an audience here that the government of Hugo Chavez has made a historic turn toward Africa.

After Western-funded candidates failed to unseat incumbent Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the March 19 elections, the U.S. and the European Union have intensified a campaign to isolate the country’s government.

Although Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, again refused to concede defeat when he spoke to reporters April 18, official results continued to point to the almost certain victory of Romano Prodi, the candidate of the center-left “Union” coalition in the country’s parliamentary elections

Tens of thousands of peaceful protesters against the autocratic rule of King Gyanendra continued to fill the streets of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, and cities and towns throughout the country this week despite brutal government repressive measures, including a daytime curfew and orders to shoot on sight.

Arizona labor won’t back down; N.Y. docs organize; Retired can workers save medical plan; Guest worker contract signed; Boston rallies for New Orleans