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Newcastle Uni cleaners protest against cuts

On May 21 University of Newcastle cleaners staged a protest at the twin entrances to the campus. They demanded that big budget cuts be reversed and the prior cleaning regime and working hours be restored.

Burma: New charges prove elections 'a sham'

On May 18, human rights activists rallied outside Australian foreign affairs minister Stephen Smith’s office in Perth to protest against the treatment of Burma’s democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

ABCC targets second unionist

A Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) member in South Australia has become the second worker to face charges for refusing to speak to the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

Cuba: Anti-homophobia day celebrated

\The article below is compiled from Prensa Latina reports on May 16 and 17.

International Day Against Homophobia marked

Close to 100 people attended a May 17 Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH)-organised International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) rally in Newtown to commemorate the day the World Health Organisation took homosexuality off its list of mental disorders.

Is Rudd losing his shine?

Opinion polls in both the Fairfax and Murdoch dailies on May 18-19 show voter support for PM Kevin Rudd has fallen. Rudd, who scored a 74% approval rating in the Fairfax Nielsen poll on March 30, dropped 10 points in the May 18 poll, down to 64%.

Tamil youth call for aid, homeland

When the United Nations describes the Sinhalese army’s attacks on the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka as a “bloodbath on the beach” you know a massacre is going on.

Epic tale of love and tragedy

Samson and Delilah
Written and directed by Warwick Thornton
With Marissa Gibson and Rowan MacNamara
In cinemas

Friends in the struggle for a better world

Friends in deed
By Heather Saville
Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Inc., 2009
337 pages, $24.95 plus postage (pb)

Fidel's declarations of resistance

The Declarations of Havana
By Fidel Castro, with an introduction by Tariq Ali
Verso, 2008
138 pages, $26.95 (pb)