International news briefs
Rio Tinto workers resume blockade
JAKARTA — Coalmining company PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) stopped operations on July 18 for a second time in less than five weeks after striking workers resumed their blockade in the Sanggata regency in East Kalimantan on July 17 after negotiations with the company failed to yield any results.
Of some 2600 KPC employees, 150 have joined the strike. They are demanding, among other things, a 15% salary increase and the reinstallment of daily allowances. The workers began their strike on June 14 and took over the company's mining site a day later.
The company, which is owned by the Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto and the Anglo-American company BP Amoco PLC, said it would suspend the wages of the striking workers to "ensure that the settlement deal would not cause jealousy among workers who did not join the strike". The workers, however, agreed to negotiate only on the condition that no sanctions would be applied to them.
According to KPC, the strike is costing it about US$1.4 million per day.
British Labour resists gay law reform
The London Independent reported on July 14 that the British Labour government is blocking the reform of laws relating to gay sex because it fears a backlash by "middle Britain". PM Tony Blair is reported to be "concerned" at plans by the Home Office to scrap the law that outlaws homosexual "cruising", group sex and kissing in public.
The Independent reported that Blair had ordered Home Secretary Jack Straw to shelve proposals relating to gay sex that are part of a wider reform of Britain's sexual offences legislation. In May, news that the Home Office was reviewing the laws provoked howls of homophobic outrage from churches, conservative family groups and the right-wing press.
Blair's back-down means that the 1885 offence of "gross indecency", which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence, will stay on the law books. It makes it illegal for adult males to have any form of sex where there are more than two people present.
Ecuador activists released
Accion Ecologica (Friends of the Earth) in Ecuador announced on July 18 that three activists who had been arrested and detained the previous week for occupying the embassy of the Vatican in Quito have all be released unharmed. The activists were protesting against the social effects of International Monetary Fund-imposed structural adjustment measures in Ecuador.
Accion Ecologica thank all those people who responded to its action alert last week.