Spanish Government Foresees Five Million Unemployed
The Spanish Minister of Employment Valeriano Gomez admitted Saturday that the number of people unemployed could reach five million if the active and eligible work force keeps growing.
In an interview with the newspaper “Expansion”, Gomez said that the work force in Spain grew a lot during the first part of the economic crisis and maintains at an excessively high number. “If the number of unemployed people surpasses or not the five million will depend on the behavior of the work force,” said Gomez.
Gomez ruled out a deficit in the Social Security System in 2011.
By the end of 2010, the unemployment rate in Spain was 4.6 percent, representing 20.33 percent of the work force, according to figures published in January 2011 by the country’s National Statistics Institute.
Syria: New Cabinet Takes Oath before President
The newly-reshuffled Syrian cabinet was sworn in before President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, as he presided over the cabinet’s first meeting, official SANA news agency reported.
On March 29, al-Assad accepted the resignation of the cabinet headed by Naji al-Otari, who had been in place since 2003, to help quell a wave of popular fury that erupted about a month ago.
Syria blames the unrest on armed gangs and foreign conspiracy.
Media reports put the number of those who were killed since the beginning of the unrest in mid-March at 200.
President al-Assad has made a series of reforms, including reshuffling his cabinet and releasing hundreds of political detainees.
The reshuffle, which aims to improve the government’s performance, brought in 16 new ministers to the cabinet.
Chilean Mapuche Prisoners Continue Hunger Strike
Four indigenous Mapuche leaders serving 25-year prison sentences marked one month of hunger strike Friday to demand a fair trial.
Hector Llaitul, Ramon Llanquileo, Jose Huenuche, and Jonathan Huillical were reported to be in a delicate state of health after losing more than 12 kilograms (26.4 pounds) each, while still suffering the effects of a previous hunger strike that lasted more than 80 days.
The four men, leaders of the Arauco Malleco Coordinating Committee, are asking for the annulment of the so-called Cañete trial in Bio Bio, in which they were found guilty of an attack on a Chilean government attorney in 2008, based on what experts termed as a highly questionable testimony from a masked witness.
After the sentence, the four defendants decided on March 15th to return to the hunger strike that they and 34 other Mapuches had waged in 2010 to protest the application of the antiterrorist law in their case.
Llaitul, Llanquileo, Huenuche and Huillical are demanding a trial in an impartial court without the application of the anti-terrorist law.