Bangladeshi cops kill student
Police in Dhaka, Bangladesh, opened fire on high school students protesting the expulsion of classmates for allegedly cheating on English exams there March 13. One 18- year-old student was killed and 70 more injured while blocking a nearby highway. Cops claim they sprang into action when students began to pound on cars.

Comoros workers demand pay
Workers, students, and others in Moroni, Comoros Islands, shut down "all administrative and commercial activity," reports the Associated Press. In three days of protests, started March 12, protesters blockaded the main road to the center of town. Prime Minister Ahmed Abdou blamed the demonstrations on "elements opposed to the regime." These "elements" are striking teachers and other workers who were promised eight months' back pay at the beginning of this year and have yet to see it. Students are calling for the government to meet the demands of the teachers' strike. Some angry protesters burned down one of Abdou's houses. When the Comoros government sent in cops to break up the actions, they opened fire on protesters, killing one and injuring several. Comoros president Mohamed Taki Abdoul Karim sent government troops in "reinforce" the cops.

EU cool to Turkish membership
Foreign ministers of the European Union countries, meeting March 15-16, put off any decision on the Turkish government's application for membership to the organization. Earlier in the month, top government officials from, Italy, Spain and Germany, along with prominent politicians from Belgium, met to declare their opposition to bringing Ankara into EU membership. Wilfred Maartens, former Belgian prime minister, said, "Turkey is not a candidate to become a member of the European Union, short term or long." Those against Turkish membership argue that the country is too large, too underdeveloped, and too Muslim.

Washington dispatched diplomat Carey Cavanaugh to Europe to urge the EU to keep the door open to Ankara, which has threatened to veto any expansion of NATO if its EU application is rejected. Meanwhile, the Wall Street credit agency Moodys downgraded Turkey's foreign debt rating March 14, citing political instability and insufficient austerity measures. It was the last of major international lending agencies to do so.

Belarusians call gov't's ouster
On March 15, at least 10,000 people demonstrated in central Minsk, the capital of Belarus, chanting antigovernment slogans. The day before, the cops, on the order of President Alexander Lukashenko, arrested and clubbed over 100 demonstrators who were calling for the government's ouster.

Prior to these protests, the Stalinist government cracked down on civil liberties, closing down newspapers, limiting public protests, and restricting the activities of the Belarusian Popular Front (BNF), the main opposition group, which called the demonstrations. Police arrested BNF deputy chairman Yuri Khadyka on March 13, but provided no reason. Speaking to the British Broadcasting Company, Lukashenko compared Belarus to Albania and Yugoslavia, saying if imperialist countries want to avoid such unrest "then the West should support the policy of strong power here."

Bonn kicks out accused U.S. spy
The German government, for the first time, has accused a CIA employee - working as a U.S. diplomat - of espionage and asked him to leave the country, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel. The diplomat reportedly tried to tap a high-ranking German economics ministry official for information about Bonn's high-technology projects. U.S. embassy officials had no comment except to say, "If indeed it's an intelligence issue, normally the department does not comment on intelligence matters."

2,000 march for pay hike in Venezuela
Some 2,000 Venezuelan university students, employees and professors, joined by textile workers, doctors, and others took to streets of Caracas March 13, demanding wage raises and opposing government moves towards selling off nationalized industries like steel and aluminum. Police helicopters patrolled the protest, and toward the end the cops moved in with tear gas and water cannons. They arrested 14 youth, seven of whom are being turned over to the federal police on charges of manufacturing explosives. The demonstration paralyzed downtown Caracas. Some bosses gave workers half the day off, since many were planning to join the protest. Seventeen universities that have been struck for two months remained closed.

Jury rejects coerced confessions
A Philadelphia jury, in just three hours of deliberations, acquitted two men of charges of raping and killing a young female jogger. Herbert Haak, one of the defendants, said he was beaten and tortured by the cops for six hours until he signed a confession containing blank pages, later filled out by police. Richard Wise said police also coerced a statement from him. DNA evidence did not link either of the defendants to the victim, and the prosecution had to agree that the "confessions" were the only evidence.

In the last two years alone, 12 Philadelphia cops have been charged with robbing or framing people up, and 283 criminal cases have been dismissed as the result of police corruption scandals.

Prisons abused female inmates
Prisons run by the states of Arizona and Michigan violate the Federal Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980, recent U.S. Justice Department suits charged, because they do not adequately protect female inmates from prison guards and staff. Women imprisoned in both states have been subjected to sexual misconduct and invasion of privacy, the suits allege. Additionally, two prisons in Michigan also provide inadequate medical and mental healthcare. The lawsuits will seek court orders mandating state governments to protect female inmates from rape, sexual assault, and other already illegal abuses by prison staff.

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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