EU presses Poland for `reforms'
The Polish government has pledged to draft a "restructuring and privatization" plan for the steel industry, according to European Union (EU) external affairs commissioner Hans van den Broek. EU officials are pressing Warsaw to lift tariffs on steel imports, as one condition for bringing Poland into EU membership. The Polish government had promised to drop the tariffs by the end of this year, but now wants to extend protections until 2000.

Warsaw also plans to sell off Petrochemia Plock, the country's largest oil refinery, and CPN, the state-owned gasoline distributor, by the end of this year. Plock has a productive capacity of 13 million tons per year, and CPN owns some 1,400 gas stations. Together, the companies are worth more than $1 billion.

Rome tightens immigration rules
The Italian government tightened its immigration laws February 19, using the pretext of a large influx of Kurdish refugees fleeing the imminent bombing of Iraq. Previous laws gave immigrants a two-week grace period to leave the country on their own after being expelled; the new legislation calls for cops to escort deportees to the border. Those who appeal expulsion will be locked up for 10 days, until their trial. "Those who don't have a right to stay will be rejected even more firmly," crowed Interior Minister Giorgio Napolitano.

Swiss perfume workers strike
Workers at Givaudan-Roure's main plant in Geneva struck for two days beginning February 15, demanding a 2 percent wage increase. According to the Financial Times, about 700 workers - half the workforce -walked out. This was enough to hamper production both days, at what is one of the world's top two perfume suppliers. On February 17 the workers narrowly voted to end the strike, but left open the possibility to go out again if the demands are not met.

German company cuts 4,000 jobs
Philip Holzmann, Germany's largest construction company is "restructuring" - that is, cutting 4,000 jobs by year's end. This includes shutting down its operations in France and Thailand, where the currency crisis has precluded making any profit, as well as terminating 3,000 workers in Germany. The German construction boss already faced economic trouble when the post-reunification construction boom ground to a halt, as it became clear capitalism would not be easily restored in eastern Germany. In 1997 Holzmann applied its special reserves capital to cover $449 million in losses from restructuring its French and Thai operations and paying compensation for layoffs. In 1996 Holzmann employed 52,000 workers. By 1998, they project to have 36,000.

Palestinians: U.S. get out of Iraq
More than 800 Palestinians, most of them high school age and younger, marched in Dura, West Bank, February 19 denouncing Washington's plans to bomb Iraq. The Palestinian Authority declared that demonstrations against U.S. war moves were illegal, but that policy has been ignored. "Why do the Iraqi people have to pay the price for Clinton's affairs?" read one sign. Israeli troops fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, and tear gas to disperse the crowd, in what Associated Press writer Nasser Shiyoukhi described as, "the tensest confrontation" since the antiwar protests began. Two Palestinians were injured by rubber-coated bullets, and six others were overcome by the tear gas. Some protesters blocked the main road to Dura with boulders and pelted Israeli troops and settlers with stones.

In Egypt about 100 protesters met at the U.S. embassy in Cairo with an Iraqi flag in hand, chanting, "Arab blood is not cheap!" in opposition to military strikes. "If there is an attack, the people here will be boiling," warned protester Omar Azzam. Riot cops prevented them from entering the building.

ANC presses affirmative action
"Our end is a society of no discrimination and this is the means to get there," said Lisa Seftel, chief director of labor relations in the South African labor department. She was explaining why the African National Congress-led government moved February 20 to push ahead on several affirmative action laws. Two new laws are aimed at forcing employers to hire blacks and other oppressed nationalities who were denied equal rights to jobs for decades under the former apartheid state. They apply to businesses with more than 50 workers and to government institutions. Opposition groups like the majority-white Democratic Party claim the new laws will result in "skilled whites" losing jobs, thus hurting the economy. The National Party, the former ruling party under apartheid, claimed the laws were a black version of apartheid. South African president Nelson Mandela responded to these charges. "We shall build a real South Africa, not the parody evoked by those who hanker for an artificial life of privilege."

Meat war shifts to Australia
Government officials in Europe and the United States have said they will ban meat imports from Australia, citing new inspection regulations adopted by Canberra. The Australian government is planning to give each meat-producing company authorization to check its own product before export - a shift from the current government-run inspections procedure. European Union officials said February 17 that they would reject meat produced under Project 2, as the looser regulations are called. U.S. trade officials did the same in early February. The Australian meat industry has annual exports of more than $1.6 billion.

Factory explosion releases toxins
Hundreds of families had to evacuate their homes in Natalia, Texas, after an explosion at a National Foam Co. factory February 19. The fire was caused by a hot pallet of foam that exploded, triggering a series of explosions and igniting the building. A cloud of black smoke rose over the building and the small South Texas town. Some of the base chemicals of the foam are extremely toxic in concentrated form. About 40,000 pounds of toulene-2, 4-diisocyanate and 30,000 pounds of diphenylmethane diisocyanate, which both produce deadly cyanide-based gases, were crammed into the same area.

NY court: `Megan's Law' stays
The New York State Court of Appeals ruled February 19 that "Megan's Law" -an undemocratic law that allows state officials to publicize the names and addresses of alleged sex offenders upon their release from prison - is not an additional punishment and therefore should not be overturned. The decision was against the appeal by two people in Suffolk County who faced this rule following their release from prison, after serving time on sex offender charges. Judge Joseph Bellacosa struck down their appeal under criminal law; a civil lawsuit is still possible. All but three U.S. states - Kentucky, Nebraska, and New Mexico - have adopted some form of sexual offender registration law, based on a New Jersey law enacted in 1994. There have also been many challenges to these measures across the country. None have resulted in the laws being tossed, but some have been modified.

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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