German President Joachim Gauck, remembering a Nazi purge of trade unionists 80 years ago, on Thursday called for greater rights for workers from Bangladesh to South America. "Freedoms, rights and dignity only exist as long as we practise and defend them, even in today's democracy," said Gauck, who was a pastor and rights activist in communist East Germany. He spoke at an event commemorating May 2, 1933 when Adolf Hitler's regime smashed the country's trade union movement and sent their leaders into exile, to jail or to their deaths.

It's a wonder they move at all -- the big old Chevrolets and other American jalopies from the 1950s and 60s that ply the potholed streets of Cuba. Now, ingenious Cubans have rigged them to run on propane and Cuban police are cracking down, out of fear there are "rolling bombs" on the country's roads, the official newspaper Granma reported Tuesday. The jimmy rig is done because gasoline is so expensive -- nearly $6.50 a gallon, payable in dollars, in a country where the average monthly wage is around 20 dollars.

By Jan Lopatka PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas accused opposition Social Democrats on Monday of trying to cosy up to the Communists ahead of polls next year by seeking to suppress secret police files that could embarrass the party that ruled for 40 years.

The adoption of a parliamentary report by a commission on Wednesday on the subject of the Dec. 28, 2011, Uludere air strike that killed 34 civilians has caused outrage among the families of the victims as well as opposition politicians and various civil society groups.Thirty-four men were traveling back to their villages in Şirnak’s Uludere district from cities in northern Iraq after a day of trading in late 2011 when Turkish jets bombed the border-crossers, later saying the commanders mistook them for Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists.