BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) condemned yesterday the arrests of Turkish trade union leaders and members at a May Day rally in Istanbul. “It is unacceptable for the police to arrest peacefully demonstrating trade unionists and to scatter hundreds of other demonstrators by using tear gas,” ETUC chief John Monks said in a statement. ETUC, whose members include Turkish trade unions, also expressed concern “about the turn political events seem to be taking in Turkey at the present time.” Almost 900 people were arrested on Tuesday as Turkish police fired warning shots and fought pitched battles with May Day marchers intent on holding a banned rally in Istanbul’s symbolic Taksim Square.

BUCHAREST (AP) – Romania’s parliament yesterday approved an agreement allowing the USA to use four Romanian military bases and station up to 3,000 troops in the former communist country. Lawmakers voted 257-1, with 29 nationalists abstaining, to approve the 10-year agreement, which was signed in December 2005 by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “It is very serious for Romania to become a buffer state between two major nuclear powers,” said Lucian Bolcas, a senior leader of the nationalist Great Romania Party, referring to the USA and Russia. Russia has criticized the deployment of US troops in former communist countries such as Romania.

Romania’s suspended President Traian Basescu said yesterday that parliament removed him because he refused to make deals with leading politicians on judicial and moral reforms, adding he was confident that he would not be impeached in a May 19 referendum. “I was not part of the system,” said Basescu, adding that Romania, a new European Union member, was still run by “a very important number of politicians who are controlled by oligarchs from a financial point of view.” He referred to business leaders who own media groups and are politically connected, either as party members or through business alliances to top politicians. “Negotiation means harmonizing positions but that is not possible when our positions are so different,” he said about his relationship with lawmakers. (AP)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic on Tuesday and praised the partnership of the two countries in what she described as the increasing stability in the Balkans. With Vujanovic at her side, Rice spoke at a brief ceremony at which they signed documents specifying the ground rules for US military personnel who may be deployed in Montenegro. “We share your aspirations for a Euro-Atlantic future,” Rice told Vujanovic. (AP)