More than 1,000 people turned out Monday for a protest against hate crimes, ending their march at West Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue, where Mark Carson was killed in an apparent anti-gay bias attack last week.

Members of Carson’s family addressed the crowd, which included City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

“The family would like to have justice be served, so that Mark’s death is not in vain,” said Carson’s aunt, Flourine Bompars.

Chilling reports emerged on Tuesday that the man charged with Carson’s murder, Elliot Morales, was laughing as he confessed to the killing.

Meanwhile, another assault against a gay man was reported in the East Village on Monday night.

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Hundreds of fast-food restaurant workers in New York City are expected to walk off the job Thursday in what organizers said would be their largest rally yet for better pay.

Employees from familiar chains such as McDonald’s Corp., Wendy’s and Yum Inc.’s KFC are seeking to roughly double their hourly pay to $15. They also want the right to form a union without intimidation or retaliation.

Winning such concessions will be difficult. Low-wage, low-skill workers lack political clout and face significantly higher unemployment than college graduates.

As many as 400 workers from more than five dozen restaurants around New York City have committed to turn out for protests planned at various locations, said Jonathan Westin, director of Fast Food Forward, which organized Thursday’s actions and is backed by labor, community and religious groups.

That turnout would be twice as large as in November, when the city’s fast-food workers also walked off the job, Westin said.

And, he said, the majority of employees from some individual fast-food outlets have vowed to participate in Thursday’s actions.

“It’s going to be difficult for these businesses to operate this time,” Westin said.

The nearly $200 billion U.S. fast-food industry has long been known as a employer of teenagers and students. But the 18-month “Great Recession” that began in December 2007 helped change that. It destroyed thousands of middle-income jobs and forced more adults to seek part-time, largely minimum-wage work flipping burgers and manning fryers.

In his State of the Union address in February, President Barack Obama proposed raising the federal minimum wage as a way to help lift some workers out of poverty — a plan critics said would kill jobs by burdening small businesses with higher costs.

The state of New York is already on that path. Its recently passed budget included plans to raise the state minimum wage, now at $7.25, to $9 by the end of 2015.

But even with that 24 percent hike, New York’s minimum wage would remain below the roughly $11 hourly pay needed to lift a family of four above the poverty line.

Such pay-boosting efforts are welcome but not enough for workers struggling to make ends meet, said fast-food employee Joseph Barrera, who plans to join Thursday’s protests.

The 22-year-old says he has earned $7.25 per hour for the 10 months he has worked at a KFC restaurant in Brooklyn. Even with a side job as a freelance mechanic, he still stretches to cover rent on his basement apartment that has no windows or heat.

“Anywhere where the cost of living is very, very high, $9 is not enough. Everyone should be able to make a living wage,” Barrera said.

McDonald’s Corp., the world’s biggest fast-food chain by sales, in November said that the majority of its namesake U.S. restaurants are owned and operated by independent businessmen and women who offer pay and benefits competitive within the quick service restaurant industry.

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Coney Island’s Luna Park opened Sunday for the first time since Hurricane Sandy. While local leaders and longtime fans of the park celebrated the traditional opening that comes one week before Easter every year, some local residents who are still struggling to recover from the storm came out to protest.

The opening arrived on schedule, even though devastation from the storm almost delayed the event, the New York Times reported. The storm had damaged rides and flooded electrical equipment. Most restaurants still remain closed, but Sunday’s celebration and opening of the rides signaled a return to normalcy for some New Yorkers.

Sunday’s excitement also highlighted how much more work needs to be done in the area following the storm’s damage. About a dozen nearby residents came out to the park to protest. They held signs that read “Coney Island is not back” and “People live here,” the Times reported.

A number of local businesses as well as major institutions like libraries, hospitals and police stations remain closed in the area.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said he understands the residents’ concerns and that it is important to keep the focus on them.

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The band’s supporters burst into chants of “Shame” outside the Moscow courthouse and said the case showed Putin’s refusal to tolerate dissent. The U.S. embassy in Moscow said the sentence appeared disproportionate to what the defendants did.

The women have support abroad, where their case has been taken up by a long list of celebrities including Madonna, Paul McCartney and Sting, but opinion polls show few Russians sympathize with them.

“The girls’ actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church’s rules,” Judge Marina Syrova told the court as she spent three hours reading the verdict while the women stood watching in handcuffs inside a glass courtroom cage.

She declared all three guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, saying they had deliberately offended Russian Orthodox believers by storming the altar of Moscow’s main cathedral in February to belt out a song deriding Putin.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, giggled as the judge read out the sentences one by one. They have already been in jail for about five months, meaning they will serve another 19.

They say they were protesting against Putin’s close ties with the church when they burst into Moscow’s golden-domed Christ the Saviour Cathedral wearing bright ski masks, tights and short skirts.

State prosecutors had requested a three-year jail term.

Putin’s opponents portray the trial as part of a wider crackdown by the former KGB spy to crush their protest movement.

“They are in jail because it is Putin’s personal revenge,” Alexei Navalny, one of the organizers of big protests against Putin during the winter, told reporters outside the court. “This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin.”

Putin’s spokesman did not immediately answer calls following the verdict, but the president’s allies said before the trial that the Kremlin would not have any influence on the outcome. The Russian Orthodox Church also did not comment.

FOREIGN SUPPORT

Foreign singers have campaigned for the trio’s release, and Washington says the case is politically motivated. Madonna performed in Moscow with “PUSSY RIOT” painted on her back.

“As in most politically motivated cases, this court is not in line with the law, common sense or mercy,” veteran human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alexeyeva said.

But Valentina Ivanova, 60, a retired doctor, said outside the courtroom: “What they did showed disrespect towards everything, and towards believers first of all.”

The judge said they had “committed an act of hooliganism, a gross violation of public order showing obvious disrespect for society.” She rejected their argument that they had no intention of offending Russian Orthodox believers.

The trio’s defense lawyers said they would appeal.

Many in Russia’s mainly Orthodox Christian society backed the authorities’ demands for severe punishment, though some have said the women deserved clemency.

Putin, who returned to the presidency for a third term in May after a four-year spell as prime minister, has said the women did “nothing good” but should not be judged too harshly.

Witnesses say at least 24 people were detained by police in scuffles or for unfurling banners or donning ski masks in support of Pussy Riot outside the courtroom. Among those detained were Sergei Udaltsov, a leftist opposition leader, and Garry Kasparov, the chess great and vehement Putin critic.

“Shame on (Russian Orthodox Patriarch) Kirill, shame on Putin,” Udaltsov said before he was detained.

“A disgraceful political reprisal is under way on the part of the authorities … If we swallow this injustice, they can come for any one of us tomorrow.”

The crowd of about 2,000 people outside the court was dominated by Pussy Riot supporters but also included some nationalists and religious believers demanding a tough sentence.

“Evil must be punished,” said Maria Butilno, 60, who held an icon and said Pussy Riot had insulted the faithful.

An opinion poll of Russians released by the independent Levada research group on Friday showed only 6 percent had sympathy with the women, 51 percent said they found nothing good about them or felt irritation or hostility, and the rest were unable to say or were indifferent.

RADICAL PROTESTERS

Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and Samutsevich are educated, middle-class Russians who say their protest was not intended to offend believers.

The charges against Pussy Riot raised concern abroad about freedom of speech in Russia two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“Today’s sentence in the Pussy Riot case looks disproportionate to the actions,” the U.S. Embassy in Moscow wrote on its Twitter microblog in Russian.

Protests in support of the group were planned in cities from Sydney to Paris, and New York to London. A crowd of several hundred gathered in a New York hotel late on Thursday to hear actress Chloe Sevigny and others read from letters, lyrics and court statements by the detained women.

In the centre of Kiev, a bare-chested feminist activist took a chainsaw to a wooden cross bearing a figure of Christ, while in Bulgaria, sympathizers put Pussy Riot-style masks on statues at a Soviet Army monument.

“Huge damage has been done to the country’s image and attractiveness for investors,” former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin wrote in a message posted on his website.

Protest leaders say Putin will not relax pressure on opponents in his new six-year term. Parliament has already rushed through laws increasing fines for protesters, tightening controls on the Internet, and imposing stricter rules on defamation.

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The DNA may have been left by the same lab technician who handled both the CD player and the padlock left by OWS, according to reports.

Several law enforcement sources said the DNA is likely contaminated.

“It was a total screw up,” one told the Post.

“What are the chances that the killer came in contact with this chain and left his DNA on it all these years later?” another source told the Post.

Occupy Wall Street members are denying that the movement organized a March subway protest where DNA was collected that matches the 2004 murder scene of a Juilliard student.

On March 28, activists used chains to open the emergency gates at several subway stations, prompting free rides in protest of MTA fare hikes. A sample collected by police from a chain used at the Beverley Road subway station in Flatbush matches DNA gathered from the 8-year-old unsolved murder of 21-year-old Sarah Fox, according to the Daily News.

Fox’s nude body was found in 2004 after she disappeared near Inwood Hill Park during a run six days earlier. The DNA on the chain is a match to genetic material found on Fox’s portable CD player, police said.

The activists who placed the chains at Beverly Road station were masked.  Occupy Wall Street denies that it had anything to do with organizing the subway protest, saying news of the March 28 action came as a surprise.

“After it happened, a lot of media gave credit to OWS, but we don’t actually know the people who organized it,” Occupy Wall Street press team member Linnea Paton told Metro this morning.

When asked about tweets that Occupy Wall Street accounts made in March spreading the word about the subway protest, Paton responded, “A lot of people were excited to see that type of protest happen, but it terms of organizing it, we did not. It didn’t come from one of our working groups.”

However, OccupyWallStreet.org posted a release on March 28 crediting OWS protesters and local union workers with the event:

This morning before rush hour, teams of activists, many from Occupy Wall Street, in conjunction with rank and file workers from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Amalgamated Transit Union, opened up more than 20 stations across the city for free entry. As of 10:30 AM, the majority remain open. No property was damaged. Teams have chained open service gates and taped up turnstiles in a coordinated response to escalating service cuts, fare hikes, racist policing, assaults on transit workers’ working conditions and livelihoods — and the profiteering of the super-rich by way of a system they’ve rigged in their favor.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 spokesperson Jim Gannon said it’s possible union members were involved in the protest, but would have been disciplined if they were caught.

“If they were there, they did it on their own without any encouragement from the union,” Gannon told Metro. “I haven’t seen anything that shows any of our people were there.”

No arrests were made during the March 28 action and police are continuing the investigation to determine whether the DNA will lead to a real break in the case.

Daniela Bernal contributed reporting.

[View the story "Subway protest" on Storify]

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The decision comes after animal rights group PETA issued a statement condemning the tests, which involved using a syringe to inject human urine into a frog. Proteus Gowanus gallery officials initially vowed to feature the exhibition as planned, but Kirksey informed Metro Wednesday evening that board members decided not to include the tests.

“I will still be talking about the history of the test, describing the techniques for performing it, and telling people about how they can help with frog conservation,” Kirksey, who would have been performing the tests, told Metro. “We still hope that a representative of PETA will attend.”

Metro’s original story is below.

A Brooklyn gallery that has invited women to inject frogs with their urine to replicate an antiquated pregnancy test has not been deterred by the outcries of the animal right group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The exhibition, by anthropologist Eben Kirksey, will take place at Proteus Gowanus gallery on July 6, and will include an outdated method of pregnancy testing developed in the 1930s. Doctors used to inject the African clawed frog with the urine of a woman to determine if she were pregnant, based on whether the frog laid hundreds of eggs within about 10 hours. The injection does not cause permanent harm, and frogs can be re-used for the tests up to 60 times according to Kirksey.

However, scientists attribute the African clawed frog with the demise of some frog populations. The species is a carrier of a deadly fungus known as Chytrid. When the African clawed frog was widely exported from South Africa to be used in testing, it spread the fungus to other frogs.

When informed that the opening would feature tests on animals that included injecting them with a syringe, PETA called on the gallery to cancel the event.

“Replicating a cruel, antiquated pregnancy test on frogs to show how the very test’s being replicated may have led to the demise of frog populations is laughable at best,” PETA fumed in a statement released to Metro.

The organization added, “It’s bad enough that frogs who are being injected with urine and infected with a deadly fungus for the sake of so-called ‘art’ will suffer significant pain, but for Eben Kirksey to do so knowing that animal pregnancy tests were long ago replaced with better non-animal methods and that he is potentially risking the lives of every frog in the area shows that he lacks as much compassion as he does common sense.”

Kirksey fired back, explaining that the frogs he will be using for the exhibition have tested negative for the fungus. He also added that the tests do not actually spread or cause the fungus. (It only affects other frogs if infected animals are released into the wild.) Kirksey plans to give away his frogs as pets after the tests are completed. He also told Metro he will try to make the tests as painless as possible for the frogs. 

“The frog pregnancy test is just like getting a TB test, a little bit of liquid will be injected into them,” Kirksey said. “I will do my utmost to ensure that the frogs just feel a tiny pinprick.”

Gallery owner Tammy Pittman not only confirmed that the exhibition will go on as scheduled, but also extended the offer to PETA to see the tests first-hand and attend another upcoming event that invites frog owners to test their pets for the fungus.

“PETA is a venerable institution and we hope that one of their representatives will join us at the Proteus Gowanus gallery,” Pittman said.

While PETA insisted the exhibition may even go so far as to violate New York’s cruelty-to-animals laws, Kirksey said his work is largely about ethics and encouraging people to think about their impact on other species.   

“In the Anthropocene, an era when humans have altered planetary ecologies, we need to rethink our ethics,” Kirksey said. “Is peeing on a stick, and routinely sending plastic trash to a landfill, more ethical than caring for a frog at home and using it as a pregnancy test?”

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Earlier this afternoon, a group of protesters crossed the Williamsburg Bridge into Manhattan and moved up Avenue B. Dozens of tweets from protesters indicate several arrests and the New York Daily News reports at least four people were arrested.  One tweet from Occupy Wall Street NYC’s main account claims traffic has been shut down on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters are marched through Midtown.

In what may have been the day’s first arrest, a man who said he was a Vietnam veteran was cuffed for blocking traffic at 42nd Street and 6th Avenue early this morning. Later in the morning, protesters have tweeted about a handful of other arrests.

More than 400 protesters gathered at Bryant Park between 8 and 9 a.m., despite the early morning rain showers.

“It shows we;re going to be out here, rain, sleet or snow,” said protester Andrew Speirs. “The weather is not going to stop us.”

Many of them split up into groups to head to Midtown corporations like Bank of America, Disney, GE, Newscorp and Paulson & Co., where they plan to stage picket protests.

Outside the Bank of America headquarters, protesters chanted, “Hey, hey, B. O. A., who did you foreclose today?”

“It’s going to build up throughout the day. This is pretty good for a
rainy morning at 9 a.m.,” said OWS press spokesman Mark Bray, referring
to the several hundred people who showed up in Bryant Park this
morning.

There are dozens of police barricades set up at the Brooklyn Bridge with
officers standing by. The NYPD reports no arrests were made overnight.

May Day protests around the world are underway. Occupy Wall Street is live blogging events in international cities and here in NYC.

The Golden Gate ferry in San Francisco has expected to be shut down for most of the morning in anticipation of a strike by 380 members of the Golden Gate Bridge Labor Coalition, according to KTVU.

Jesse Greenspan contributed reporting.

Metro’s original story is below:

The Occupy movement’s “May Day” general strike could include “the biggest shut down the city of New York has ever seen,” according to one call of action.

An announcement posted on OccupyWallSt.org calls on activists to block at least one Manhattan-bound bridge or tunnel as part of Tuesday’s “May Day,” a day of action encouraging the 99 percent to skip work, school and shopping.

More than 700 protesters were arrested when the movement marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, snarling traffic for hours. Occupy Wall Street is vowing to re-create the action tomorrow.

“We are announcing these blockades now as a fair warning to the rest of the working people of New York and New Jersey who are considering joining the strikes and mobilizations of the day: the city will be shut down, so enjoy the day without the 99%!,” the announcement states, which appears to have been re-posted on the site from strikeeverywhere.net.

When asked to confirm the movement’s plans to shut down any bridges or tunnels, Justin Wedes, a usually vocal member of the Occupy Wall Street media working group, responded with “No comment.”

Bill Dobbs, a press team member, said he didn’t have any other information about the plan other than what was stated in the announcement, but did warn people to be prepared for “spontaneous and surprise actions.”

Nobody has any interest in confrontations with police. This is about Wall Street greed,” Dobbs said. “But sometimes you have to fight for the right to protest.” 

Other protesters frequently interviewed by Metro said they hadn’t seen flyers about the action or yet heard any plans about blocking bridges or tunnels during regular discussions about May Day. A website for May Day events names Koch Brothers, Chase banks and James Farley Post Office as locations for picket protests tomorrow. The Daily News reports protesters may also be planning to descend upon Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg acknowledged the impending day of action at a press conference Sunday, but did not give details about the city’s plans for response.

“We are prepared for everything that we can think of all the time. Our tactics are something that we don’t talk about in advance for obvious reasons,” Bloomberg said. “People have a right to protest. We will protect that right. They don’t have a right to disrupt other people and keep other people from protesting or just going about their business, and we will do as we normally do – find the right balance.”

Officers on duty near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall told Metro they expect more barricades in the area and an influx of officers on Tuesday.

Other May Day actions include rallies, workshops and musical acts in Bryant Park and Union Square. A permitted march from Union Square to Wall Street is planned for 5:30 p.m tomorrow.

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That’s what protesters donning Dodger-esque baseball uniforms sang today — the deadline for filing taxes — on the streets of Manhattan, as they protested what they say are corporate tax loopholes.  Members of several local unions including UFT, New York Communities for Change and 32BJ, participated in the Tax Day protest.  

The “Tax Dodgers,” who channel the Occupy movement’s 99 percent theme, held a rally at James A. Farley Post Office, then marched to Trump Towers where a birthday party for Ann Romney was hosted by Donald and Melania Trump.

“Today is about making sure that our voices are heard,” Vickie Owens, Vice-President of 1199′s Retirees’ Division, said in a statement.  “I worked hard for many years to make sure that once I was ready to retire, I could do so comfortably, but the companies who benefited from that work are now refusing to do their part.  It’s not right.”

The “Tax Dodgers” continued their march to Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase, where speakers shared stories of foreclosure, immigration and higher education struggles.

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Sleeping as a form of protest is protected by law under the first amendment, as long as half the sidewalk is still accessible for pedestrians. Protesters have now begun occupying the sidewalk on Wall Street overnight, beginning on Monday evening when a small group of them showed up with a poster-sized sign of the law allowing them to use sleep as a form of political expression. More than 80 protesters joined last night’s sleepover near the New York Stock Exchange, according to SleepOWS.

“We are sleeping across from the NYSE to symbolize the loss of homes in the foreclosure crisis brought on by Wall Street practices,” said protester Martin Bisi. “We represent these homeless.”

While the sidewalk “camp” lacks the tents and tarps that once covered the ground in Zuccotti Park, more protesters are joining the group each night, armed with nothing but warm clothes and sleeping bags. So far, there has yet to be a clash between the slumbering protesters and NYPD officers who stand ground near them nightly. No arrests have been made. In fact, protesters note, there seems to be a renewed, more cordial, relationship between them.

“They seem to like this action. They were almost jovial last night,” Bisi said of officers. “Seems like if there’s a professionality and gravitas to the action, there are some NYPD who almost seem to enjoy it.”

Police asked protesters to leave at 6 a.m Tuesday morning after their first Wall Street sleepover. However, they could still be seen in their sleeping bags on the sidewalk this morning after 8 a.m.

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Kim, though, is certainly not the only celebrity to get flour-bombed — or antiqued, as some call it. In fact, Kim shares this honor with several celebrities who have been the victim of the embarrassing prank, both in flour form and pie form.  

1. Paris Hilton. Everyone’s least favorite socialite was on the receiving end of a flour bomb in London during fashion week in 2006. PETA was responsible for this one, probably in protest against fur.

2. Lindsay Lohan. Poor LiLo can’t catch a break. PETA, once again, was responsible for this flour attack as Lohan left a Paris nightclub wearing a black fur coat in 2010.

3. Jonathon Cheban. The unsuspecting Kardashian sidekick was antiqued a few months, reportedly by a Kris Humphries fan — possibly the one thing Cheban can say happened to him before it happened to Kim Kardashian.

4. Ryan Seacrest. The E! host experienced a different kind of antiquing during the last Academy Awards while he interviewed Sacha Baren Cohen dressed as his dictator character General Aladee on the red carpet. Aladee doused Seacrest in what he said were the ashes of Kim Jong-il.

5. Rupert Murdoch. While sitting in on a Parliament hearing following the News Corp. phone hacking scandal in 2011, the most unpopular man in the world was targeted with a shaving cream pie to the face by an angry protester.

6. Fashion guru Calvin Klein found himself at the receiving end of a pie attack on the red carpet in 2001. He wasn’t the intended victim, though — Karl Lagerfeld was.

7. Conservative author Ann Coulter had a double-pie attack during a speaking engagement at the University of Arizona in 2004. The culprits, two men, both missed.

The post Kim Kardashian isn’t the only celeb to get flour bombed appeared first on Metro.us.

It’s a fantasy that women across the world have envisioned for years: George Clooney in a pair of handcuffs.

It came true today, though not on satin sheets in a candlelit room — in front of the Sudan embassy in Washington, D.C.

The actor was taking part in a protest against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Activists claim he is responsible for blocking food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains along the border with South Sudan. Protesters, including Clooney, were calling for al-Bashir’s arrest and trial on charges of genocide in front of the International Criminal Court.

Clooney and his journalist father, Nick Clooney, were arrested, along with several other notable activists, including NAACP president Ben Jealous and Martin Luther King III, according to CBC News.

As he was led away in zip tie handcuffs, Clooney said to reporters, “Well, it’s not actually a humiliating thing to be arrested no matter what you do, but I’m proud to be standing here with my father.”

Clooney is one of Hollywood’s more motivated stars when it comes to humanitarian issues. Yesterday, he warned members of the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee that there is “murder and fear and displacement and starvation” in Sudan right now.

The post Friday gossip roundup: George Clooney arrested at D.C. protest outside Sudan embassy appeared first on Metro.us.

The protestors are chanting and conducting a mock funeral procession, complete with Mitt Romney masks and a coffin to represent dying jobs. Other protestors are donning hula hoops to signify tax loopholes that benefit the 1 percent.

“The goal today is to show the world that the 99 percent is not going to stand by Mitt Romney,” protester Justin Wedes told Metro. “He’s here to pick up checks from rich campaign donors. We don’t want our democracy for sale.”

When asked whether Occupy Wall Street will protest the fundraising efforts of other candidates, including President Obama, Wedes said, “We’re not just choosing one. We are protesting corporate greed and corruption.”

He added that OWS has protested “many Obama fundraisers,” including one in November where he said protesters were corralled for three hours by security.

Today marks the beginning of a series of events this week, marking a rekindling of the movement. Tomorrow, activists will march and protest outside several Bank of America locations in the city. Occupy Wall Street will also mark its six-month anniversary this weekend.   

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A photo of the flier is rapidly spreading online. It has a  Chick-Fil-A logo with the message, “Thank you NYU for keeping Chick-Fil-A part of your family. We are now HIRING!”

The outrage, though, sparked over the fine print:

Remember Chick-Fil-A is a Christian company. We strive to have our values reflected in our employees. Please be prepared to discuss your religion, family history, personal relationships, etc., upon interviewing. Chick-Fil-A reserves the right to question, in detail, your sexual relationship history. The Bible and Chick-Fil-A define a traditional relationship as consisting of a man and woman. Anyone living a life of sin need not apply. The Chick-Fil-A foundation. God, Family, Tradition.

“It’s inappropriate and we had nothing to do with it,” Chick-Fil-A public relations representative Tiffany Greenway told Metro from the company’s Atlanta headquarters. “If you look at the logo, you can see it’s not correct, which is further evidence that it’s fraudulent.”  

The image, though, has fooled plenty of people on social networks. It’s been shared hundreds of times on Facebook and Twitter by angry users who vow to boycott the chain in protest.

One Facebook user said, “And this is why anyone who knows, values, respects and loves someone who is LGBT should avoid Chick-fil-a like the plague. They are not a part of the solution – they are part of the problem.”

The hoax was likely created in response to a recent report that revealed Chick-Fil-A’s donations to organizations like Focus On The Family, Exodus International and the Family Research Council, which critics say promote anti-gay agendas.

NYU freshman Hillary Dworkoski launched a petition on Change.org last month and led a protest calling for the school to boot the chicken sandwich chain from campus for having values that she felt contradict with NYU’s standards.

The post Chick-Fil-A confirms: Viral homophobic hiring flier is a hoax appeared first on Metro.us.

Freshman Hillary Dworkoski launched a petition on Change.org about a month ago after it was reported that Chick-Fil-A donated almost $2 million in 2009 to organizations like Focus On The Family, Exodus International and the Family Research Council. Critics of those organizations say the groups have anti-gay motives.

“NYU prides itself on being a diverse, open and inclusive campus community. That’s one of the major reasons why I enrolled at NYU as a freshman last fall,” Dworkoski said on the petition website. “Unfortunately, maintaining a contract with an anti-gay vendor like Chick-fil-A undermines what makes this university so great.”

The petition, which has garnered nearly 11,000 signatures, calls on NYU to remove Chick-Fil-A from its campus. For students who are on the fence about supporting the chain’s removal, Dworkoski poses this choice: waffle fries or human rights?

“She wants students to know they have to make that choice and live by those values and not just talk about them,” said Mark Anthony Dingbaum, a campaign manager with Change.org.

On Thursday, supporters of the petition plan to rally outside NYU’s Weinstein Residence Hall, which houses Chick-Fil-A.

Though campaign members admitted they have not been in touch with Chick-Fil-A, a company official did comment about the donations in an recent interview, calling the report about them “folklore.”

“We’re not anti-anybody,” said Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Our mission is to create raving fans.”

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The “nurse-in” was planned after Vancouver mom Emma Kwasnica launched an online campaign, calling on Facebook to stop deleting images of mothers nursing their children. Kwasnica said Facebook removed her photos numerous times, despite the company’s claim that it does not delete images unless they show an exposed breast that is not being used for feeding.

The group of moms who attended the NYC “nurse-in” insist that even though the photos are acceptable by Facebook’s
Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, they are continually removed. They met in the lobby of 335 Madison Avenue, the building where Facebook
operates on two floors. The small contingent was first asked to leave but later returned to the lobby where security allowed them to stay. The moms nursed their children and chanted lines like, “Facebook, Facebook, don’t be mean — breastfeeding is not obscene.”

“People view breasts as this sexual thing,” said Wendy Ledesma, an Astoria mom who has a 17-month-old son. “We need to get over that as a society and realize that breastfeeding is normal, natural, beautiful and important.”

No one from Facebook came downstairs to address the moms, but a spokesperson blamed the deleted photos on human error. Each photo that gets flagged as offensive is reviewed by an employee who then decides whether the photo will be deleted and the user’s account frozen.

“Facebook receives hundreds of thousands of reports every week, and as you might expect, occasionally we make a mistake and remove a piece of content we shouldn’t,” a Facebook spokesperson told Metro. “When this happens, we work quickly to address it by apologizing to the people affected and making any necessary changes to our processes to ensure the same type of mistakes do not continue to be made.  We encourage people to re-upload the photos they believe were removed in error.”

The movement has garnered the support of thousands of people across the globe. Emma Kwasnica organized the worldwide protests after she said many of her own photos were deleted and that Facebook continues to delete the photos of other breastfeeding moms.

“We have the legal right to breastfeed anywhere,” Kwasnica said over the phone from San Francisco. “If someone tells us to cover up, which is what Facebook is doing, that’s harassment. You should never discriminate against women who are trying to do the best for their kids.”

Kwasnica said she believes Facebook employees are “running rogue” and deleting images based on their own personal sensitivity rather than the established photo guidelines. The images have also sparked debate within the court of public opinion over whether or not it’s appropriate to share breastfeeding photos on social networks. Critics of the movement claim breastfeeding should be kept private. For others, it depends on how much of the breast or nipple is visible in the photos.

“Showing the aureola, that’s between the mother and the child,” said Nathaniel Harris of The Bronx. “That part of the breast shouldn’t be shown. People of all ages could be looking at it.”

“It’s just the natural thing and if people don’t want to look at those photos, don’t look at them,” said Sarah Milcetic, an Astoria mom who attended this morning’s nurse-in. “People feel very nervous when they see someone breastfeeding because they haven’t been exposed to it enough. I think that if it was around more and not covered up, it would just be easier for it to be part of normal life.” 

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A campaign to organize worldwide protests has launched online, after Vancouver mom Emma Kwasnica claimed Facebook removed photos she posted of her child breastfeeding. Kwasnica says Facebook continually deleted the images, deeming them “sexually explicit content.” More than once, she was blocked from posting content for days at a time after Facebook said she violated photo guidelines which prohibit nudity.

Multiple Facebook pages and online petitions have sprung up, many of them administered by Kwasnica. She has re-posted several photos she said Facebook initially deleted. They show her toddler daughters breastfeeding. In some photos, Kwasnica’s nipple is visible.

The images are garnering ample amounts of both criticism and support. The photos have even sparked debate over the proper age to stop breastfeeding a child. Some Facebook users insist the act is perfectly natural and mothers should be free to breastfeed in public or post photos online.

“Why is feeding a child the way nature intended (and the best way for the child) considered obscene?” one Facebook user asked.  

Others strongly decry the images, saying they are offensive and should be kept private.

“Don’t you worry about the sickos in this world who would see such a picture?…I won’t even post pictures of my child on Facebook for public view,” another user wrote.

Facebook did apologize to Kwasnica for removing the photos, according to CBC News, but she is still encouraging mothers to protest the social networking giant for censoring breastfeeding images.

“I am not accepting the apology until they right the wrong that they are doing still, and that they have done for the past five years,” Kwasnica said. “They can’t just say, ‘We are very sorry.’ They’ve said it before and they will say it again. I need to see action and so do the thousands of mothers who are troubled by this.”

Supporters are encouraged to attend “nurse-ins” outside Facebook offices across the globe, including a protest on February 6 at Facebook’s NYC location on Madison Avenue. Organizers are asking mothers to change their Facebook profile photo to an image of them breastfeeding “in order to normalize breastfeeding in our society.”

“The final way Facebook can put things right is to ensure they adopt the only acceptable policy on breastfeeding images, which is that all breastfeeding images must be left alone,” Kwasnica said.

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“There’s a lot of talk about numerous things going in different directions,” said Shane Patrick, 32, a member of OWS from Queens who works in press relations for the movement. “There are a lot of people working toward occupying another space.”

Many displaced campers are staying at local churches. Protesters still hold  regularly scheduled meetings, including the 7 p.m. general assemblies, but the number of attendees is no longer in the thousands, Patrick said.

Dec. 6 has been selected as a second “Day of Action” to replicate the crowds of people that turned out on Nov. 17 for marches through the Financial District and across the Brooklyn Bridge. Protesters have said they will stage sit-ins at foreclosed properties throughout the city.

“What occurred on the 17th, such as disrupting the opening bell on Wall Street or protesting outside the homes of the wealthy, that will continue,” Patrick said.

Some OWS members admit their numbers have dwindled since the NYPD raided the camp.

“I think everyone’s going underground until spring,” said Christopher Geist, 38. “Zuccotti is gone; it was our sanctuary. I’ve seen people fading.”

But protester Matt Sky, 27, said the movement is just entering a transitional phase. “I think we’re seeing a much stronger global presence of the ideas that started here,” Sky said.

Burned on books

Occupiers say they lost thousands of books when the city kicked them out of Zuccotti Park nearly two weeks ago. Police trashed roughly 4,000 books and other documents, according to William Scott, a member of the Occupy Wall Street people’s library.

Occupy Wall Street protesters said they have retrieved 1,099 books that belonged to the library from the police, of which only 800 are usable. Protesters say they are still looking for about 2,900 books. Less than one-fifth of the original collection is still usable, they estimate. 

Mo’ money?

The last reported amount of Occupy Wall Street’s general assembly donations left the number at around half a million dollars.
   
Protesters said the money would be distributed through consensus at the general assembly, as always. Even though Zuccotti is gone, they said, there’s still work to be done.

Follow Emily Anne Epstein on Twitter @EmilyatMetro.

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Approximately 25 Occupy Wall Street members met at 60 Wall Street yesterday to discuss their willingness to be arrested when they take to the streets this morning as part of their Day of Action.

The protesters will attempt to march to the New York Stock Exchange at 7 a.m. On their way, they say they will “confront Wall Street with the stories of people on the frontlines of economic injustice,” according to OccupyWallSt.org.

The NYPD and the MTA are preparing for the worst. Last night more than 20 NYPD squad cars gathered at Battery Park to prepare for the protesters’ march. Department of Homeland Security vehicles and two NYPD mobile command units — vans carrying officers and police technology — were also on hand.

“The protesters are calling for a massive event aimed at disrupting major parts of the city,” Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said yesterday.

“Everything that we have seen and heard suggests that we may have tens of thousands of people tomorrow protesting,” he added.

Subway shutdown?

Protesters plan to “occupy” the following stations at
3 p.m. today:
   
Bronx:
Fordham Road
Yankee Stadium

Brooklyn:
Broadway Junction
Borough Hall
   
Queens:
Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue
Jamaica Center-Parsons-Archer
   
Manhattan:
125th Street A,B,C,D station
Union Square
23rd Street/Eighth Avenue
Staten Island:
St. George, Staten Island Ferry Terminal

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“They dropped our business down by 30 percent,” complained Panini & Co. owner Angelo Tzortzatos, one of the four business owners. He told Metro he had to close his bathroom for repairs after protesters broke his sink. Then, he said, protesters began threatening his employees when they couldn’t use the restroom.

“They’re coming in and grabbing [employees] and saying ‘Watch your back,’” Tzortzatos said. “I don’t feel safe.”

Ever since he heard about Panini & Co.’s plight, Astoria resident Jeremy Madden has been volunteering at the café once he’s finished with his 9-to-5 finance job, he said.

Chinese restaurant Ho Yip is losing business too, said manager Hong Zhao. Even worse, he says protesters are depositing bags of feces in his garbage, leaving Ho Yip on the hook for sanitation violations.

“They have been taking our bins and filling them with human waste,” Zhao said. “A lot of human waste.”

Occupy Wall Street protesters present at last night’s rally said they couldn’t possibly control the actions of everyone who identifies as a member.

“Certainly, someone may be putting feces in someone else’s garbage,” said Eric Lazarus, 50, of Occupy Wall Street. “We will do everything we can do to reduce this kind of behavior. We have somewhat limited control.”

OWS is planning to shut down the Stock Exchange at 7 a.m. Thursday and will take over the subways.

Follow Emily Anne Epstein on Twitter @EmilyatMetro.

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Occupy Wall Street announced a student week of action, beginning today with a protest at Columbia University, calling on law professor Michael Sovern, who is also chairman of the board of Sotheby’s, to end the auction house’s lock-out of its art handlers, according to a press release from OWS. Protesters said the idea if the week of action came after concerns about student debt, tuition hikes and university ties to Wall Street were voiced at general assembly meetings.

Events will continue throughout the week, as students from CUNY, Columbia, the New School, New York University, Pratt and Juilliard are encouraged to join protesters in a fight against issues like student debt and tuition hikes.

“It’s about uniting against the progressive attack against tertiary education over the last few decades,” said CUNY PhD student Zoltán Glück, who is an organizer for the student week of action.

“I would say students are not prominent enough of voice yet,” Glück said. “Part of the aspirations of this week are to try to fostoer more of a spirit of collective struggle within the student community.”

Thursday’s Student Strike is also being endorsed by the Occupy Colleges movement. Here’s a round-up of the week’s events, but find the full list is here:

Monday

CUNY Graduate Center, 12 to 7 p.m.: Tabling and Graffiti Wall of Grievances in the GC Lobby. Get militant teaching materials, find out about the week’s CUNY and Citywide student events including the student strike, connect with folks, and express your discontent, grievances, and questions.

Tuesday

Columbia University, 8 p.m.: Teach-In/Dialogue with Professors on “Education as a Right, not a Privilege.” Meeting will take place at the Sundial.

Wednesday

Julliard, 9:45 p.m.: Occupy Opera! — The Juilliard School has commissioned an opera about the history of international student uprisings and protest. Let’s show the bankers that the student movement is not a thing of the past, but an ongoing reality. Meet at 9:45 sharp Outside the Juilliard School.

Thursday

All Day: Student Strike in solidarity with the National Day of Action, Occupy Wall St. and Organized Labor rallies.

Friday

All Day: Occupation Day.

Saturday

Washington Square Park, 1:30 p.m.: Olivier Besancenot speaks at the People’s University.

Monday, November 21

City College, 1 p.m. CUNY-wide Walkout in protest of the tuition hikes. Stand up, walk out, come to the NAC Plaza, and let your voice be heard! Then after rallying for a little bit at City, students and teachers will head downtown to Madison Sq. Park to march on the CUNY Board of Trustees meeting.

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The two made it official Sunday morning, just six weeks after they first met.

According to the New York Daily News, Emery Abdel-Latif, 24, of Westchester County, PA married his sweetheart Micha Balon, 19, of Staten Island in a traditional Muslim ceremony.

NYU Islamic Center Chaplain Khalid Latif officiated the ceremony.

Abdel Latif, who was living with his parents and applying to law schools before making Zuccotti Park his home told the Daily News that he didn’t come to Lower Manhattan in order to find love.

“Neither of us believed in love before we came here, and now that we found each other, we believe it exists,” he told the Daily News.

Abdel Latif’s wife, Balon, is an undergraduate in Middle East studies at Hunter College.

The couple, who up until now stayed in separate tents, did not know whether they will move in to the same tent now that they’re married. Regardless, the couple told the Daily News that plan on staying at the protest throughout the winter.

While we might think getting married after only six weeks is a little hasty (hello, did Kim Kardashian teach us nothing?) we wish these two love birds all the best. 

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Chanting “Hell no, Joe won’t go” and “We want Joe back,” they also cursed former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was charged on Saturday with sexually abusing eight young boys over a period of nearly 15 years.

Two other university officials have been charged with failing to report an incident in 2002 when Sandusky allegedly was seen sexually assaulting a child.

Paterno, who has been head coach for 46 years, was dismissed Wednesday by the university’s board of trustees along with university President Graham Spanier hours after the U.S. Education Department announced an investigation of conduct at Penn State.

The students filled two city blocks near the campus and turned over a media van before earth-moving equipment was brought in to right the vehicle. Members of the crowd also damaged at least two light poles.

Scores of police and state troopers, some in riot gear, tried to clear the streets, and some officers used a chemical spray to disperse the demonstrators. Crowds thinned somewhat after a light rain began to fall.

At least three people were escorted away by police but it was not immediately clear if they were arrested. A police spokeswoman had said she was not aware of any arrests.

“I haven’t seen this kind of student outrage about anything since I’ve been here,” said Caroline Celoquin, a senior from Westchester, Pennsylvania.

Asked how she felt about Paterno being fired, Nicole Atlak, a freshman from Toms River, New Jersey, said: “Absolutely disgusted. From a student’s perspective, it’s like where do we go from here? We no longer have a president. We no longer have a 45-year legacy.”

A student with a bullhorn addressed the crowd, saying: “I think it’s only fair to let him (Paterno) ride out the season because this is the house that Joe built.”

While most of the students were protesting the decision, some said they understood the move by the board of trustees and did not condone Paterno’s failure to report the alleged sexual abuse to police. Still, the majority seemed more upset that Paterno was not allowed to complete the season, as he had wanted.

Paterno won more games than any other major college coach in history. He told a grand jury investigation that when he was informed in 2002 of his assistant coach’s alleged sexual abuse of a boy, he passed the information on to the athletic director but did not follow up. The alleged abuse continued for several more years.

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Real estate agents say they not only have to promise buyers the area is safe from another terrorist attack, but they also have to escort potential renters through a maze of barricades, screaming protesters and unsightly portable toilets.

“A client asked me, ‘What is this all about?’” said broker Gea Elika at Elika Associates. “I wish I knew.”

Buyers are often bothered by the hubbub at Zuccotti Park, another broker said.

“The clients are definitely turned off by the idea of walking through a protest to look at apartments,” Bethany Walsh, the managing director of Prime New York, said.

She’s learned to slip past the protest to reach a Greenwich Street property with minimal exposure, and she directs her clients to do the same.

“It’s a concern for a lot of clients,” she said. “They ask when is the best time to go down there, how long will it be there.”

With no end in sight, Walsh, who said she supports the group’s right to protest, downplays the movement.

“I just say it’s not really that big of a deal,” she said.

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The “End to End” march began at 10:30 a.m. at the corner of 181st Street and St. Nicholas in Washington Heights. Marchers didn’t finish until they hit Zuccotti Park at about 4:30 p.m.

The 11-mile march snowballed throughout the day, with Occupy Wall Street recording 1,000 marchers at its max. Police reported the march began with 300 protesters and finished with 500 at the park.

“Communities of color have been especially hard hit,” said Tyler Combelic, a volunteer with Occupy Wall Street. “We’re proud to stand with our brothers and sisters from diverse communities around New York.”

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was reportedly spotted amongst the marchers, along with City Comptroller John Liu and other local officials. The NAACP and members of Community Board 12 also marched.

Among the marchers was Sal Laquila, 55, a Brooklyn veteran who trudged the entire 11 miles while waving Old Glory.

When asked if he was tired, Laquila shot back: “I’m tired of the unnecessary tactics against the poor. They’re human beings at the bottom of the pyramid.”

Follow Emily Anne Epstein on Twitter @EmilyatMetro.

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Some discussed the idea of issuing identification cards for protesters to better establish who belongs in the camp — and who doesn’t.

“I am concerned about other people’s safety here,” a man told the group yesterday afternoon.

A woman suggested checkpoints like those she saw at Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where volunteers posted at the perimeter asked everyone entering a few questions, such as why they came.

Keeping a list of repeat offenders would allow protest security to say, “We don’t want you here,” demonstrator Priciano Pierre said.

Following reports of sexual assault, the camp erected a tent solely for women on Friday. Last week, protester Tonye Iketubosin, a 26-year-old kitchen volunteer, was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman, joining a list of others arrested since the protest began Sept. 17.

Alysa Boone, 17, traveled from Pennsylvania with her mother, and slept in the women’s tent Saturday night. “I felt safe,” she said. Someone was always outside monitoring the tent, she said.

Emily Rappaport, 21, heard about crime before she arrived, but was not dissuaded. “It made me nervous,” she said, but bunked with two guy pals.

Arrests timeline

Crimes in Zuccotti Park, from the NYPD:
   
Oct. 11:  Cops arrested Connecticut resident David Park, 27, and charged him with sexual abuse. Officials said he was also facing outstanding warrants for open containers. “He’s occupying Rikers now,” police spokesman Paul Browne said.
   
Oct. 22: Officers arrested Garfield Leslie, 19, a Brooklyn resident, and charged him with trying to sell drugs. Cops said Leslie punched a woman who refused the drug offer, as well as a man who tried to help. He was charged with assault.

Oct. 28: Cops said Dustin Taylor, 34, an Ohio resident, threatened a television reporter with a ballpoint pen while threatening to “stab you in the f—ing throat” and ripping the microphone out of the reporter’s hand. He was charged with menacing.
   
Nov. 3: Cops arrested Christopher Geiset, 38, and charged him with assault after they said he punched another protester.

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Bloomberg said a number of illegal activities in the park have not been reported to police, endangering the lives of all New Yorkers.

“Instead of calling the police, they form a circle around the perpetrator, chastise him or her and chase (them) out into the rest of the city — to do who knows what to who knows whom,” Bloomberg said.

He called protesters who keep quiet “despicable.”

The mayor’s criticism comes after the arrest of kitchen worker Tonye Iketubosin, 26, for allegedly groping an 18-year-old protester on Oct. 25. Iketubosin is also suspected of another alleged rape in the camp, Bloomberg said.

Police Commissioner Paul Browne said protesters delay reporting crime because it is “OWS protocol not to report such incidents to the police until there were three complaints against the same individual.”

But protesters disputed his claim, saying it’s up to victims to decide if they want to report a crime.

“If there’s a rape, the survivor has all the decision power,” said protester Tashy Endres, 29. She said she knows of three rapes that have occurred in the park. Two of the victims went straight to the NYPD to report it, and the third victim has yet to report it, she said.

“Sometimes victims need time,” she said.

Follow Emily Anne Epstein on Twitter @EmilyatMetro.

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“As long as there’s fire in people’s bellies, they’ll stay warm,” said protester Evangelina Jimenez, 33, of Portland, Ore, who was bundled up in two sweaters, three shirts, a jacket and two pairs of jeans.

“The last couple of days were pretty rough,” admitted Miami native Lily Casteanedo, 22. “But it’s not going to stop us.”

Not all protesters share that conviction: A few have fled Zuccotti Park for the winter, according to Jimenez. About one in five protesters packed up and left this weekend to avoid the snow and ice, reports claim.

Protester Michaela Weber, 18, has been camped out for three weeks, but says she doesn’t know how much longer she can take it.

“I’m from Florida and I’m already sick and have an ear infection,” Weber said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay through the winter.”

Without generators, protesters are using metallic “space blankets,” hand warmers and layers of clothing to shield them from the weather.

Others use plain old body heat.

“I’m staying here with my girlfriend, so we use body heat to stay warm,” said protester Nelson Cespedes, 18, of Washington Heights. “I almost went into hypothermic shock, but I’m going to stay as long as my body will allow it.”

Pedal power skirts crackdown

The FDNY confiscated fuel-powered generators from the OWS camp on Friday, saying they were a fire hazard. But one generator passed muster — one with wheels.

“We’re powering batteries with the bike,” said Brooklynite Keegan Stephan. “This is the one generator they can’t take.”

The batteries are used to power computers and small electronics, said Steven Ma, 27, a bike mechanic from Brooklyn. Each battery holds 100 volts of electricity, but four hours of biking yields only 25 volts, he said.

“We would need 10 people to power a hair dryer,” said Ma.

More on Occupy Wall Street

Protesters take measures to deal with homeless in Zuccotti Park

OWS demands free subway rides for the jobless

Protesters march in solidarity with Occupy Oakland

Follow Emily Anne Epstein on Twitter @EmilyatMetro.

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Last week, protesters met with members of Community Board 1 to address noise complaints from residents who live near Zuccotti Park. CB1 drafted a resolution calling on protesters to limit loud noise, including drums, to two hours per day.

But their plea did not seem to make much difference.

Kelly Magee, communications director for City Councilwoman Margaret Chin, whose district includes Zuccotti Park, told Metro yesterday she still received calls from downtown residents complaining of eight hours of drumming on Friday and 11 hours of drumming on Saturday.

The Occupy Wall Street camp has established two phone numbers for residents and business owners to voice complaints. Eric Lazarus, a member of the OWS mediation team, answered the line for merchants on Monday.

He said he received fewer than 10 calls from businesses, with the biggest complaint being that protesters have been using restrooms without making purchases.

“This is an unusual situation in that all we have is the ability to say to our people, ‘We would like you to be polite,’ and tell them why it’s important to be good citizens,” said Lazarus.

Metro called the number designated for residents multiple times, but could only reach a voice mail greeting, which did not identify the line as associated with Occupy Wall Street.

Community Board 1 will meet again tonight to discuss the noise complaints.

Cuomo vs. Protest

The mayor of Albany defied instructions from Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the weekend to enforce an 11 p.m. curfew at a city park where Occupy Albany protesters are camped out.

Cuomo’s press secretary reportedly called Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings to ask the state police to enforce the park curfew, and arrest protesters if they didn’t leave. Jennings, however, refused to comply. 

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Hours after Greek police clashed with black-clad demonstrators outside parliament, all 154 of the ruling Socialist PASOK party’s lawmakers voted in favor of the measures, which must secure a second vote today before the new wave of austerity is enforced.

The view of the ancient Acropolis was obscured by smoke from burning piles of rubbish and a bank building was evacuated after being set on fire by petrol bombs as a strike called by Greece’s two main unions degenerated into violence outside parliament.

“It’s one of the biggest demonstrations in recent years,” said Mary Bossis, international security professor at the University of Piraeus. “People showed they were determined to protest against these policies.”

After repeated rounds of austerity measures, which have hit middle class Greeks hard, protesters said new cuts would only drive the stricken economy deeper into the ground. Unions urged deputies not to pass the law.

Trapped in the fourth year of deep recession, which few now believe can be paid back, Greece has sunk even deeper into crisis.

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