World in brief: Thousands protest pension reform bill

Athens, Greece – Greece approved a pension reform bill on Thursday while thousands of striking workers took to the streets in protest over tough austerity reforms aimed at pulling the country out of a budget-deficit crisis.

More than 11,000 private and public sector workers marched peacefully through central Athens toward parliament in the sixth major protest since the government unveiled austerity measures to help Greece narrow what has become the European Union’s second-biggest budget deficit.

In parliament, lawmakers debated and eventually passed a reform bill that curbs early pensions and raises the retirement age to 65. The bill, passed by the 157 ruling Socialist deputies in the 300-seat parliament, is part of large-scale austerity measures agreed to with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a $140 billion emergency aid package.

Cuban activist ends hunger strike

Santa Clara, Cuba – Cuban opposition activist Guillermo Farinas ended his 134-day hunger strike Thursday, following signs the communist government is making good on its promise to release 52 political prisoners.

Farinas drank sips of water at a hospital near his home in the central city of Santa Clara, said Licet Zamora, a spokeswoman for the 48-year-old psychologist and freelance journalist. Zamora described Farinas’ condition as “grave” after he recently suffered a potentially fatal blood clot in his neck.

Kept alive by intravenous feeding, Farinas had refused food and water since shortly after the Feb. 23 death of fellow dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died following a lengthy prison hunger strike of his own behind bars.