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Posts Tagged ‘protests’

China Blocks Web Searches in an Attempt to Halt Protests

June 16, 2011 Comments off

dailytech

China has blocked internet searches after riots and unrest struck its southern province of Guangdong, home to many impoverished migrant workers.  (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Despite rampant censorship, the hacker collective Anonymous is yet to target the Chinese government as it did governments in the Middle East.

Anonymous remains silent on Chinese censorship

In China the long dreaded “Jasmine Revolution” might be starting to finally materialize.  Outraged and impoverished, migrant workers in Zengcheng, a city in the country’s sea-facing southern Guangdong province, have taken to the streets in protest, clashing with police.  The protests and riots began last week when police told two migrant workers to stop selling goods in the street, and then proceeded to knock down one of the migrants who was pregnant.  Video of the incident went viral and Read more…

Categories: China, Protests Tags: , , , , , , ,

Greece Chaos: 20,000 protest in Athens, cops fight masked rioters

June 15, 2011 Comments off
Categories: Greece, Protests Tags: , , , , , , ,

Chinese riots enter third day

June 14, 2011 Comments off

guardian

Chinese riots enter third day

Chinese protesters reach a standoff with riot police in Guangzhou province. The clashes highlight the authorities’ struggle to control social frustrations. Photograph: Reuters

Rioters burned police and fire vehicles in a third day of unrest in southern China‘s manufacturing heartlands, witnesses have reported.

Hong Kong broadcasters reported that armed police fired teargas as they sought to disperse the crowd and detained at least a dozen demonstrators.

The clashes, which began on Friday after a fracas between security officers and a pregnant street vendor in Xintang, Guangdong province, highlight Chinese authorities’ struggle to control social frustrations. It is thought that most protesters were migrant workers like the vendor.

Last week hundreds of migrant workers clashed with police in Chaozhou, also in Guangdong, following a dispute over unpaid wages. In Lichuan, Hubei, as many as 2,000 protesters attacked government headquarters last Thursday after a local politician who had complained about Read more…

Categories: China Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Hopes for democracy fade as civil wars grip the Arab world

June 13, 2011 Comments off

independent

A Syrian soldier on a military bus near Jisr al-Shughour, where authorities said 120 soldiers and police were killedA Syrian soldier on a military bus near Jisr al-Shughour, where authorities said 120 soldiers and police were killed

The Arab awakening is turning into the Arab nightmare. Instead of ushering in democracy, the uprisings in at least three Arab states are fast becoming vicious civil wars. In the past 10 days, crucial developments in Syria, Libya and Yemen have set these countries spiralling into violent and intractable struggles for power.

In Syria, thousands of troops are assaulting the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour where the government claims 120 of its soldiers and police were killed last week. Leaving aside exactly how they died, the government in Damascus is making it lethally clear that in future its opponents, peaceful opponents or not, will be treated as if they were armed gunmen. An extraordinary aspect of the Syrian uprisings is that people go on Read more…

Categories: Middle East Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tribal fighters take over major city in Yemen, eyewitnesses say

June 7, 2011 Comments off

cnn.com

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh (pictured in 2008) was injured Friday from an attack at his presidential compound.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh (pictured in 2008) was injured Friday from an attack at his presidential compound.

(CNN) — Tribal fighters took control of a top Yemeni city on Tuesday, a setback for an embattled government whose injured president is confined to a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

More than 400 tribal gunmen took over Taiz in southwest Yemen, eyewitnesses there said.

The gunmen had been clashing with Yemeni security forces near the city’s Republican Palace and eyewitnesses said they are now in control of the city. The palace is not far from the city’s Freedom Square — a focal point of anti-government protests.

Government forces have been regrouping in an effort to re-enter the city. Yemen’s government has faced international criticism for excessive Read more…

Categories: Yemen Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Who will lead Yemen now?

June 6, 2011 Comments off

csmonitor

Yemen‘s main political opposition accepted a transfer of power to the country’s vice president after President Ali Abdullah Saleh traveled to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment following an attack on his compound Friday. But it’s unclear who will replace President Saleh more permanently if he doesn’t return, and whether Vice President Abdul Rabu Mansoor Hadi will be accepted by the other groups vying for Saleh’s ouster.

Saleh was injured Friday when opposition tribesmen shelled the presidential compound, targeting a mosque during Friday prayers. Saleh’s forces and Yemeni tribesmen, who have engaged in pitched battles for nearly two weeks in the capital, continued fighting this weekend, the Washington Post reports, despite a truce brokered by Saudi Arabia.

The capital erupted in fireworks after his departure, which some saw as permanent, given his injuries and increasingly weak political position. But the government rebuffed the political opposition’s call for the establishment of Read more…

Categories: Protests, Yemen Tags: , , , ,

Yemen’s President Saleh ‘wounded in palace attack’

June 3, 2011 Comments off

telegraph

Yemen's President Saleh 'wounded in palace attack'

 Four of his guards were killed and the speaker of the parliament was in a critical condition after shells hit a mosque in the compound. The prime minister was also reportedly injured in the attacks as street fighting between President Saleh’s forces and a tribal federation widened on Friday in the capital Sana’a.

Opposition television claimed President Saleh was killed after the attack but the reports appeared to be false. A Yemeni party official later said President Saleh was “fine”, and will hold a news conference later today.

The attack was blamed by the authoritites on dissident tribesmen loyal to Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, who have been Read more…

Categories: Protests, Yemen Tags: , , , , ,

European drought raises fears of food riots

June 2, 2011 Comments off

theaustralian

european droughts

The cracked river-bed near the village of Ancenis, in western France, where severe water restrictions have been impressed. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

BERNARD Maquis’s cattle would normally be grazing in the lush green pastures of the Limousin region, in central France, at this time of year.

Instead, they are eating hay intended for the winter after months of drought have turned the fields yellow.

He is wondering whether it might be better to sell his cows at a reduced price rather than find himself without fodder by the end of the autumn. “I’m starting to sleep badly,” he said.

Mr Maquis is not alone. With northern Europe facing its worst drought since 1976, politicians in the West are expecting protests Read more…

Categories: Droughts, Europe, Food Crisis Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Yemen slides into civil war

June 1, 2011 Comments off

csmonitor

Antigovernment protesters react as they block the road with rocks and burning tires during clashes with Yemeni security forces in Taiz, Yemen, on Wednesday, June 1.

After months of trying to tamp down unrest, Yemen‘s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his security forces have become embroiled in a conflict that meets all the classic definitions of a civil war.

He and his security forces are now fighting on three main fronts: In the capital of Sanaa, Saleh loyalists are engaged in a pitched battle with tribesmen under the direction of Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, leader of the powerful Hashid tribal confederation; Islamist militants have taken control of the southern province of Abyan; and in the southern city of Taiz, Saleh’s Republican Guard violently dispersed protesters. Yemeni government forces have reportedly killed more than 50 people since Sunday.

Saleh has Read more…

Categories: Protests, Yemen Tags: , , , , ,

‘Spy cameras’ are used to target student protesters

May 31, 2011 Comments off

independent.co.uk

Some fear the police are trying to ‘criminalise’ protesting by using CCTV

Police are using CCTV images taken on university and college campuses, sometimes with the collusion of university authorities, to “spy” on student demonstrators as young as 16, it was claimed yesterday.

University lecturers are demanding an independent investigation into the “over zealous” use of surveillance techniques against students during the policing of demonstrations against fees rises and public spending cuts.

A motion tabled for the University and College Union’s (UCU) conference this weekend condemns what it terms attempts to “criminalise protest” through “state surveillance of higher education and further education institutions for elicting intelligence regarding protest activities”.

Cases include the arrest of Read more…

Categories: Big Brother, Protests, United Kingdom Tags: , , , , ,