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International News Title: Public sector strike rallies held across UK Tens of thousands of people joined rallies around the UK as a public sector strike over pensions disrupted schools, hospitals and other services. About two-thirds of state schools shut, and thousands of hospital operations were postponed, as unions estimated up to two million people went on strike. The TUC called it "the biggest strike in a generation". The prime minister described it as "a damp squib". Unions oppose plans to make members pay more and work longer to earn pensions. The strike had the following effects: * Department for Education figures suggest 62% of England's 21,476 state schools were closed, with another 14% partly shut * In Scotland just 33 of the 2,700 state schools were open, according to local authority body Cosla. In Wales, more than 1,500 out of 1,776 schools shut. In Northern Ireland, about two-thirds of the 1,200 schools closed * On Wednesday evening, London Ambulance Service formally requested help from police to answer 999 calls, and has urged people only to call if life is at risk; South East Coast Ambulance Service has said it is only responding to "life-threatening emergencies" * Discussions were held between the police and the Independent Police Complaints Commission about the increased risk that someone could die while being transported in a police van or being treated by police - this would still be classified as a "death in custody" and the IPCC would still need to be notified * NHS managers said a little under 7,000 of approximately 30,000 routine operations were cancelled or postponed across the UK as well as tens of thousands of appointments * BBC News Channel's chief political correspondent Norman Smith tweeted: "(Health Secretary) Andrew Lansley says patients who have ops cancelled today will still be seen within 18-week limit." * In Northern Ireland, no bus or train services operatedg * Plane arrivals and take-offs at Britain's two biggest airports - Heathrow and Gatwick - were said to be largely unaffected with only a few cancellations of in-bound transatlantic flights to Heathrow * The Local Government Association said about a third of England and Wales council staff were not in work, equating to about 670,000 out of 2.1 million. About 250,000 public sector workers went on strike in Scotland while 170,000 workers in Wales took action * Just 14 job centres out of more than 900 across the UK closed, according to the Cabinet Office * Twenty-one people were arrested after an office in London's West End was targeted at about 15:50 GMT on Wednesday by a group of protesters believed to be from the Occupy London anti-capitalist campaign group * Scotland Yard said that, by early evening on the protest day, it had made 75 arrests across the capital for a variety of offences
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#1. To: lucysmom (#0)
2 million +. Largest in 90 years. But read that first line. The Brits are PastMasters at AgitProp.
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