National News

Stealth rise in prescription costs

FAMILY doctors are coming under pressure from primary care trusts (PCTs) to reduce costs by prescribing medicines for chronic conditions for 28 days instead of the current norm of 56 days.

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Mau Mau victims of torture sue

FOUR ELDERLY Kenyans, former members of the Mau Mau uprising against colonial theft of their ancient farm lands, have launched a High Court case against the British government claiming they were subjected to “systematic” torture while detained by the colonial authorities.

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BP lock-out on Humberside

HUNDREDS of construction workers at the new BP biofuels site in Hull have been locked out in a dispute over contracts.

Talks convened by ACAS in Wakefield last Sunday 10th April ended when the employers walked out of the talks.

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RMT demands urgent Tube safety action

TRANSPORT union RMT last week demanded urgent after an incident where workers’ lives were put at great risk by a decision to turn the current on while maintenance workers were still clearing up after a flood at Charing Cross Station.

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Don’t target jobseekers, says PCS

JOBCENTRE staff should not be forced to refer jobseekers to have sanctions imposed to meet cost-saving targets, the civil service union PCS says.

Following the story in the Guardian newspaper last week that revealed jobseekers were being tricked into having their benefits taken away, the unions have written to Jobcentre Plus management to ask for urgent clarification.

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Families £910 worse off

THE CENTRE for Economic and Business Research last week revealed that families in Britain will be on average £910 worse off in 2011 than they were last year.

Research by the CEBR showed that consumers will have less to spend as inflation and costs eat into wages. The average family faces the biggest peace-time squeeze on their finances since 1921.

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London Ambulance to cut 890 jobs

THE LONDON Ambulance Service last Tuesday announced plans to cut 890 jobs over the next five year as part of a plan to make savings of £53 million.

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All take and no give

THE PUBLIC sector union Unison last week described the Winsor report into police pay as “All take, no give, for police staff”.

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Building friendship with the DPRK

by New Worker correspondent

MEMBERS and supporters of the Juché Idea Study Group of England, the Association For the Study of Songun Politics and UK Korean Friendship took part in a public seminar at London’s Marchmont Centre “Building Friendship with the DPRK and celebrating success” held to mark the 99th anniversary of the birth of the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung.

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International News

Terror attack in Minsk

by our European Affairs correspondent

BELARUSSIAN police have made a number of arrests following a terror attack in a metro station in the heart of the capital on Monday. Twelve people were killed and 204 others injured when a bomb packed with nails and ball bearings exploded under a bench in the Oktyabrskava Metro station during the evening rush-hour. Two suspects have confessed but Minsk remains on high alert and extra security checks have been taking place at stations and at the city’s main airport.

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Gbagbo under arrest in Abidjan

Radio Havana Cuba

OUTGOING Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has been captured by the military forces of his rival, President-elect Alassane Ouattara, recognised by the United Nations and the international community as the winner of the recent elections.

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Havana prepares for massive march

Radio Havana Cuba

HAVANA’S residents are ready to fill Revolution Square with joy and celebration on behalf of all Cubans this coming 16th April. The important event will serve to endorse the popular commitment of support for the work of the Cuban Revolution.

Next Sunday, over half a million people will march across this historic square to welcome the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the Cuban revolution.

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First man in space: Celebrating the 50th anniversary

by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

FIFTY years ago Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to enter space, providing a remarkable benchmark in a victorious and heroic Soviet space programme. It is important to remember that the space race was also to develop into the pinnacle of peaceful and scientific cooperation.

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World Federation of Trade Unions

The heart of the international working class is beating in Athens WORKERS from every corner of the capital of Greece, holding up high the flags of international solidarity, under the sounds of working class militant songs and slogans and the waving of banners, gave a warm welcome to the trade unionists who arrived in Athens after travelling miles and miles in order to participate in the 16th World Trade Union Congress.

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Features

Lies of our time

by Joan Coxsedge

TO SAY we are living in dangerous times is an understatement. Despite its economic decline, we are still dominated by the aggressive mendacious US of A, which sees every country as either a target or a landing strip and we’re [Australia] a landing strip.

If you shut your eyes and pointed to a map of the world, you’d be bound to lob on a place where the White House has sent in the army.

It’s called a “leaning forward” policy. With a bit of luck they might lean so far forward, they’ll fall flat on their face.

But Washington hasn’t drawn breath after destroying Iraq on the basis of a deliberate lie, a re-run of its 1991 lie to justify Gulf War 1 when Iraq was accused of invading Kuwait, despite Saddam Hussein getting the green light from the US ambassador to Kuwait, April Glaspie, after a long, frank and detailed conversation with her about the way Kuwait was cheating on OPEC production quotas.

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