Hugo Chavez has been re-elected as president of Venezuela with just under 55 percent of the total vote—the lowest since he first took the presidency in 1998.
Women face a new threat to their abortion rights. Jeremy Hunt, the new secretary of state for health, and Maria Miller, the new minister for women and equalities, have both declared support for cutting the abortion time limit.
The national executive of the NUT teachers’ union met on Thursday as action short of a strike got underway. But the executive failed to take crucial steps towards calling a national strike this term.
"The spotlight is now on Turkey, which is firing artillery rounds into Syria. But I don’t think Turkey is going to escalate. It’s not in their interests, and none of the Arab countries have shown support for this.
A diatribe against welfare provision from Johann Lamont, leader of Scottish Labour, has been supported by prominent Labour figures at the party’s conference this week.
Teachers in UCAC, the Welsh teaching union, have voted overwhelmingly for strikes over pay. In a recent ballot they backed discontinuous strikes by 84 percent and action short of a strike by 91 percent.
Doctors in hospitals across Egypt began a partial open-ended strike on Monday of this week. They are demanding a rise in health spending to 15 percent of the state budget and a minimum wage for doctors of 3000 Egyptian pounds per month (£300).
