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To: shades who wrote (59843)	4/29/2006 1:42:30 AM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Venezuela Chavez: Minimum Wage To Increase By 10% Sep 1 . CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday announced a 10% increase in the minimum wage starting Sept. 1, just three months before the country's presidential elections. "We have decided on an additional 10% minimum wage increase beginning Sept. 1," he said in a televised address to celebrate Labor Day. As a result, Venezuela's minimum wage - now at 465,000 bolivars ($216) a month - would reach VEB512,000, or $238, a month, the president noted. Chavez announced a series of labor law changes as well as pension and wage increases in what he called another step in paying off the "social debt" the country owes to the poor. The president also announced an increase in the salaries of public school teachers. Chavez said teachers will receive a 30% increase starting May 1 and a further 10% starting Oct. 1. The wage hike for teachers stands to benefit 365,479 people, Chavez noted, of which roughly 233,000 remain active. The leftist leader has promised to continue a generous redistribution of the country's windfall oil gains this year ahead of December's election. Chavez has vowed to run for another six-year term and to remain in politics until 2030. -By Raul Gallegos, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-212-564-1339; raul.gallegos@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires April 28, 2006 15:18 ET (19:18 GMT) Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 03 18 PM EDT 04-28-06

To: shades who wrote (59843)	4/29/2006 1:47:33 AM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Man In Hawaii Gets 26 Yrs For Forced Labor Of Tongan Men HONOLULU (AP)--A man convicted of smuggling Tongans into the country and forcing them to work for his landscaping and construction businesses was sentenced Friday to 26 years in prison. Lueleni Fetongi Maka, a Tongan national who lives in the United States as a permanent resident, was convicted in December 2004 of 34 counts, including human trafficking, involuntary servitude and forced labor. Between May 2001 and January 2003, Maka used legitimate passports belonging to Hawaii residents who resembled the seven Tongan men who were smuggled. The men, who worked from sunup to sundown at least six days a week, were housed in Nanakuli where Maka operated a pig farm. Maka, 54, of Waipahu, paid his victims between $40 and $100 a week and sometimes nothing at all, according to court testimony. Witnesses described the pig farm as squalid, with no indoor plumbing in the living area. There was often no food, and the men sometimes resorted to killing stray dogs to eat, prosecutors said. The victims and witnesses also testified that when the men didn't work hard enough, Maka beat them with his fists and objects, including pieces of lumber and a long metal spike. Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific, east of Australia. (END) Dow Jones Newswires April 29, 2006 01:32 ET (05:32 GMT) Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 01 32 AM EDT 04-29-06