Bomb blasts in China
Seven people were killed and 67 injured when three bombs exploded on public buses on February 25 in Urumqi, the capital of China's north-west Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A fourth bomb was found before it exploded.
The blasts took place a few hours after a memorial service for Deng Xiaoping. No group has claimed responsibility, but the action is believed to be revenge for a crackdown on Muslim dissidents after the anti-Beijing riots in Yining on February 5 and 6, which left nine people dead.
Ethnic Uygurs — who are Muslims and speak a distinct Turkic language — make up 60% of the population of 16 million in Xinjiang and have been struggling for independence since 1950.
Radioactive leak in France
Residents near La Hague, in north-east France, where Cogema operates a state-run nuclear processing facility, are exposed to a dangerous level of radioactivity according to the Commission of Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity.
The commission revealed on March 12 that a section of the pipe transporting waste from the nuclear facility was exposed by record low tides on the previous two days. Cogema claims that radioactive leaks are neutralised under water. But the British Medical Journal reported in January that children living within 32 kilometres of the plant are three times more likely to develop leukaemia.
Victory for Colombian unions
Following a week-long strike from February 11, in which an estimated 800,000 workers in telecommunications, road freight services, education and most hospitals stopped work, Colombian public sector unions have won a 20% pay rise. The government is also setting up a bilateral commission to reform the Social Security Law, which deals with unemployment and housing.
The government has been forced to delay its plans to privatise the national telephone, gas and electricity companies. It has agreed to scrap the current labour law, which criminalises trade union activity, and will set up a commission to promote trade union rights including collective bargaining in the state sectors.
Iranian oil workers killed
According to the International Trade Union Solidarity Campaign, at least two Iranian oil workers arrested after protest demonstrations in Tehran last month have since died of injuries sustained while in detention. Oil workers told ITUSC that at least two others have probably died after being tortured.
On February 16, oil workers demanding their right to organise, rallied at the oil ministry in Tehran. Islamic militias attacked the crowd and hundreds were arrested; most were released several days later. In early March, more than 50 oil workers, including some of their leaders, were imprisoned.