Experiments with truth: 8/3/09
- Witnesses estimated as many as 20,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday in defiance of government warnings for people to shun the rally against the Internal Security Act, which allows the indefinite imprisonment of people regarded as security threats. Police broke up Malaysia’s biggest street protest in nearly two years by firing tear gas and chemical-laced water at thousands of opposition supporters (video above).
- Railway traffic in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) ground to a halt Thursday after train drivers went on strike to protest government plans to cut salaries in the sector by 10%.
- On Saturday, 168 Palestinian refugees in Iraq in Tanaf refugee camp on the Iraqi-Syrian border staged a sit-in before the UNRWA tent demanding their immediate evacuation from the desert camp to Italy that announced readiness to accommodate them.
- Thomas Cook staff have started a sit-in protesting the decision to close the Irish operation a month ahead of schedule.
- Around 25 workers on the Isle of Wight are continuing their occupation of the Vestas Wind Systems factory in a bid to stop the factory closing with the loss of 625 jobs.
- Palestinian detainees in the Israeli Salem detention facility have conducted a two-day hunger strike in protest to the ongoing violence practiced against them by the Israeli prison guards and the bad living conditions.
- More than 1,000 people protested for a second day in central China on Thursday over pollution from a chemical plant that they say has sickened locals and poisoned surrounding farmlands.
- Some 200 Venezuelans gathered outside a Caracas broadcaster Saturday to protest a decision by President Hugo Chavez’s government to revoke the licenses of 34 radio stations.
- California’s largest state employees’ union, the SEIU, voted on Saturday to approve a strike authorization measure to protest furloughs of state workers and pressure state officials to ratify its labor contract.
