鈥淚n my country, a surgery like that costs [US]$8,000鈥, said Roberto Andrade from El Salvador about the operation he received in Cuba that removed cataracts from both his eyes, completely free of charge, according to a January 10 Miami Herald article. 鈥淚 make $12 a day. I would never, ever, be able to save that much.鈥
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On January 21, a day after 25 US soldiers died in Iraq (the third-highest death toll for a single day since US troops invaded Iraq in March 2003), 3200 additional US troops arrived in Baghdad as part of US President George Bush鈥檚 plan to boost US forces in Iraq by 21,500 troops. All but 4000 are to be sent to Baghdad, already occupied by 24,000 US combat troops.
On January 22, the Lebanese parliamentary opposition, led by the Shiite-based Hezbollah movement, organised a general strike to demand the resignation of the US-backed government of PM Fuad Siniora.
On January 8, Venezuela鈥檚 socialist President Hugo Chavez swore in his new cabinet, including five new members, calling upon them to take an oath that they would 鈥渘ever rest arm or soul in the construction of the Venezuelan path towards socialism鈥. One the ministers sworn in was Hector Navarro, previously higher education minister and now Venezuela鈥檚 minister of science and technology.
Last November, Hu Deping, the deputy chief of the united front department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) central committee, called for a halt to the popular campaign that seeks to force mainland China聮s new class of capitalists, most of whom acquired their initial wealth from embezzling the state sector, to return their ill-gotten gains for the public benefit.
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