Brazil protesters, police clash in first general strike in decades Tanzania sacks 9,900 civil servants over ‘fake degrees’
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, (Reuters) - Brazilian protesters torched buses, clashed with police in several cities and marched on President Michel Temer’s Sao Paulo residence yesterday amid the nation’s first general strike in more than two decades.Unions called the strike to voice anger over Temer’s efforts to push austerity measures through congress, bills that would weaken labor laws and trim a generous pension system. The blackened hulls of at least eight burned commuter buses littered central Rio de Janeiro as police launched rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets at masked protesters. Despite the protests, Temer and members of his centre-right government denounced the strike as a failure. They said that the unions’ targeting of public transport meant that people who wanted to go to work were unable to. Unions said the strike was a success and pointed to adherence by millions of workers in key sectors like automakers, petroleum, schools and even banking. Strikes hit all 26 states and the Federal District.
“It is important for us to send a message to the government that the country is watching what they are doing, taking away workers’ rights,” said Marco Clemente, head of the 4,000-member radio and TV workers union in Brasilia, leading a picket line outside the headquarters of state broadcaster EBC.
Temer, who was in Brasilia, denounced the violence used by some protesters. He said in an emailed statement that “small groups” had blocked the population from using public transport and said that “work toward the modernization of national legislation will continue.”
Brazil’s last general strike took place in 1996, in protests over privatizations and labor reforms under former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
Despite Friday’s action, many analysts said the strike would have little immediate impact on the president’s austerity push, and that the bills are still expected to pass given Temer’s continued support among lawmakers. Temer’s reforms have deeply angered many Brazilians and he is weighed down by a 10 percent approval rating for his government.
He took over last year when former leader Dilma Rousseff, whom Temer served as vice president, was impeached for breaking budgetary rules. Her supporters denounced the act as a ‘coup’ orchestrated by Temer and his allies in a bid to derail a sweeping corruption investigation.
“This is not a government that was elected with these proposals,” said Bernard Costa, a 27-year-old medical student protesting in Sao Paulo. “These reforms are showing people that this government has is neither legitimate nor representative.”
“Shameless government” read one placard waved by one of a group of protesters who gathered outside Temer’s family home in Sao Paulo. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Nearly one-third of Temer’s ministers and several congressional leaders are under investigation in Brazil’s largest political graft scheme yet uncovered. It revolves around kickbacks from construction companies in return for winning lucrative projects at state-run oil company Petrobras . Temer has proposed a minimum age for retirement, which would compel many employees to work longer to receive a pension and reduce payouts in a country were many workers retire with full benefits in their 50s. DAR ES SALAAM, (Reuters) - Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Friday ordered the immediate dismissal of more than 9,900 civil servants after a nationwide verification of academic credentials uncovered workers with forged school and college certificates.
Elected in October 2015, Magufuli has dismissed several senior officials, including the head of the government’s anti-graft body, the tax chief, a senior rail official and head of the port authority as part of a wider anti-corruption drive.
Businesses have long complained that corruption and government inefficiency were major obstacles to investing in Tanzania.
The crackdown on fake degree holders comes after another purge launched in March last year discovered more than 19,700 “ghost workers” on the East African nation’s public sector payroll.
“We have been working hard to create new jobs while there are people in government who hold fake degrees,” Magufuli said after receiving a report on academic fraud in the civil service.
The government had also been losing 238 billion shillings ($107 million) each year to “ghost workers” who had now been removed from the public payroll, he said. HOUSTON, (Reuters) - Rising crude prices helped Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp easily beat Wall Street’s profit expectations on Friday, a sign the oil industry has regained its footing after a two-year price spiral.
While cost cuts and asset sales provided a boost to both companies, the results highlighted the slowly improving dynamics for the energy industry as oil prices have climbed more than 50 percent since early 2016.
The results were especially strong at Exxon, where quarterly profit more than doubled to $4.01 billion.
Chevron swung to a quarterly profit and turned cash flow positive, earning more than it spent, a milestone Wall Street had long sought.
Shares of Exxon rose 1 percent and shares of Chevron were up 1.3 percent.
Their energy peers, BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc , are set to report quarterly results next week.
Looming over the large international oil companies, though, is uncertainty over whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will extend a production cut when it meets next month in Vienna. Should the cut not be continued, oil prices would likely drop, pushing the sector back into recession.