What's going on in the world these days?????

I put together a couple blips of what is currently going on in our world from a labor standpoint today:  (LABOR ALWAYS NEEDS TO BE STRONG!)

Cuba: Proposed U.S. oil sector sanctions elicit response
Oil industry officials announced plans recently to increase oil extraction from Gulf of Mexico oil fields, some in conjunction with foreign partners. In response to U. S. legislation introduced by Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the weekly Trabajadores, newspaper of the CTC labor federation, accuses Ros-Lehtinen, Chairwoman of House Foreign Affairs Committee, of "applying blackmail."  Her bill, H.R. 2047, would impose new sanctions against foreign corporations investing in Cuban oil production. "We cannot allow the Castro regime to become the oil tycoons of the Caribbean," she said, according to thehill.com. As Trabajadores points out, however, "Cuba has always said that it would welcome U.S. petroleum companies interested in exploring its waters." Cuba produces 46 percent of its own hydrocarbon needs.

Egypt: Stirrings of labor independence
The Center for Trade Union and Workers' Services (CTUWS) on May 29 called upon the government to take steps to ensure trade union independence. In a statement, the CTUWS accused the state supported Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions (EFTU) of continuing repressive measures common in the Mubarak era and demanded that the official labor federation be dismantled on grounds of corruption. According to Ahram Online, the condemnation stemmed from questions as to whether 23 EFTU "top bureaucrats" attending an International Labor Organization conference in Geneva were being paid by the government or by business owners. Established in 1990 under Oxfam auspices to promote Egyptian labor independence, CTUWS had backed textile workers' strikes seen as weakening the Mubarak status quo.

Italy: Berlusconi on the way out
Second round voting in local elections held May 29-30 left Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right governing coalition in desperate shape, probably facing early national elections in 2012, Reuters reported. Left-center forces made big gains in Milan and other cities, winning by a landslide in Naples. Spokespersons for Berlusconi's coalition partner, the rightist Northern League, suggested the scandal-plagued media magnate turned politician was a liability now, despite racist pre-election rhetoric Berlusconi served up to please its supporters. With 25 percent of Italians living in poverty, the Berlusconi government is seen as remote from their concerns. Of those aged 29 or less, only 50 percent have employment in northern Italy, only one in three in the south.