More International News In Brief

Perez: Fast-food strikes show need for wage hike

WASHINGTON (AP):The recent spate of fast-food worker strikes is another sign of the need to raise the minimum wage for all workers, Labour Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview with The Associated Press. The latest protests were yesterday in cities including New York, Chicago and Detroit. Perez's comments came in a wide-ranging interview, his first since taking the helm of the agency a little over a month ago following a contentious confirmation process.

Farmers say oil, gas industry luring workers

GREELEY, Colorado (AP):Farmers and dairymen nationwide are struggling to find enough workers, but some northern Colorado producers say they're facing an additional labour challenge: the area's booming oil and gas industry is taking away even more help. In recent years, many in agriculture have said worker shortages are an increasing problem, and studies and reports have backed up such claims. Fewer locals are willing to do the work, producers say, and there's not enough access to migrant workers from other countries, statements that have been a focal point of national immigration-reform talks.

NYPD designates mosques as terrorism organisations

NEW YORK (AP):The New York Police Department has secretly labelled entire mosques as terrorist organisations, a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Designating an entire mosque as a terrorism enterprise means that anyone who attends prayer services there is a potential subject of an investigation and fair game for surveillance.