World IN BRIEF : BRAZIL : Oil Refineries Seized in Bid to Break Strike

Soldiers occupied four state-owned oil refineries in a government attempt to break a 22-day strike by petroleum workers. Under orders from President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, hundreds of soldiers in tanks and other vehicles moved in before dawn at refineries in the states of Sao Paulo and Parana in southern Brazil, the region hardest hit by the strike. An army spokesman said there was no violence. Most of the 50,000 employees of Petrobras, the state oil monopoly, went on strike May 3 to demand a 24% raise and an end to the government’s plan to privatize state-run companies.