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সার্চ ইঞ্জিন অপটিমাইজেশন - অন পেজ এসইও

79 killed as Syrian forces pound protest hubs

KAL PORUSH:

The Syrian regime’s rocket and shell bombardment of protest hubs has left another 79 civilians dead, activists said, as Washington closed its Damascus embassy and Britain recalled its ambassador.The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said the regime was surrounding Homs with tanks on Monday ahead of “a major offensive” and warned of a “genocide” in the central Syrian city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 42 civilians were killed in Homs alone in another day of blood-letting, and warned the death toll was likely to rise with many of the dozens of wounded in critical condition.State media reported the deaths of three soldiers and said a “terrorist group” blew up an oil pipeline in Homs.The army also launched an assault on the Zabadani area near Damascus with heavy tank shelling, killing at least ten people, according to the Britain-based Observatory.It also reported civilian deaths in Rastan, Hula and Qusair, all towns in Homs province, as well at Sarghaya, near Damascus, in the northern city of Aleppo and in Idlib, northwest Syria.A resident of Homs told AFP the latest assault began with unprecedented barrages of rockets, mortar rounds and artillery shells.“What is happening is horrible, it’s beyond belief,” said activist Omar Shaker, reached by telephone as loud detonations were heard in the background.“There is nowhere to take shelter, nowhere to hide,” he said. “We are running short of medical supplies and we are only able to provide basic treatment to the injured.”One video posted on YouTube apparently showed a field hospital hit by shelling in the Baba Amro district and wounded patients lying on stretchers on the floor amid pools of blood and shattered glass.Footage shot by a BBC undercover team in Homs showed buildings ablaze in rebel neighborhoods as they were pounded with heavy weapons.Damascus blamed the bloodshed in Homs on “terrorist gangs” using mortars.The violence comes as Western powers seek new ways to punish Damascus amid growing outrage over Saturday’s veto by Russia and China of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its near 11-month crackdown on dissent.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the veto a “travesty.”White House spokesman Jay Carney warned Syria’s allies that backing President Bashar al-Assad was a “losing bet.”The State Department said it had closed the American embassy in Syria and withdrawn remaining staff after Damascus refused to address security concerns.Senior State Department officials told CNN that two embassy employees left by air last week and 15 others, including Ambassador Robert Ford, left overland through Jordan on Monday morning.The Polish government is to provide emergency consular services to any American citizens remaining in Syria.U.S. President Barack Obama shied away from talk of military intervention and vowed to pursue diplomatic means.“It is important to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention and I think that’s possible,” he said in an NBC television interview.Britain recalled its ambassador to Syria “for consultations,” Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament.“We will use our remaining channels to the Syrian regime to make clear our abhorrence at the violence that is utterly unacceptable to the civilized world,” Hague said.Belgium also recalled its ambassador from Damascus.French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that he would call Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss the international response to the crisis.Neither France nor Germany, he said, would accept the “blocking” of action on Syria.Russia and China both defended their vetoes, with Moscow condemning as “hysterical” the West’s angry reaction.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov are due in Damascus on Tuesday, as news reports said the mission could try to persuade Assad to quit.China called on both sides of the conflict to halt the violence that has claimed the lives of at least 6,000 people since March, according to opposition activists.The Syrian National Council said the “genocide” in Homs showed the regime was “increasing the pace of its crimes and repression.”Saudi Arabia called for “critical measures” on Syria and warned of an impending “humanitarian disaster” after the failure of the UN resolution.The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Riyadh is the leading member, is to meet on Saturday on Syria, on the eve of an Arab League ministerial meeting at the organization’s Cairo headquarters.EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Brazilian foreign minister Antonio Patriota on Monday underscored their support for the Arab League effort to end violence in Syria.Referring to Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, Ashton at a meeting in Brasilia said she and Patriota discussed “how much we support him on the Arab League’s initiative and the importance of seeing that leadership (being) able to support the people of Syria into a future free of bloodshed.”Meanwhile the British-born wife of Syria’s president has spoken in support of her husband for the first time since the uprising began, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.“The president is the president of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the first lady supports him in that role,” The Times quoted Asma al-Assad as saying in an email sent via an intermediary from her office.

Maldives president quits amid protest

 

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Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed announced his resignation Tuesday following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge.Nasheed presented his resignation in a nationally televised address Tuesday afternoon after police joined the protesters and then clashed with soldiers in the streets."I don't want to hurt any Maldivian. I feel my staying on in power will only increase the problems, and it will hurt our citizens," Nasheed said. "So the best option available to me is to step down."Nasheed was expected to hand over power to Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan.The resignation came after weeks of protests in this Indian Ocean island nation known more for its lavish beach resorts than political turmoil.It marked a stunning crash for Nasheed, a former human rights campaigner who defeated the nation's longtime ruler in the country's first multiparty election. Nasheed was also an environmental celebrity, traveling the world to persuade government's to combat the climate change that could send sea levels rising and inundate his archipelago nation.Nasheed fell out of public favor after he ordered the military to arrest Abdulla Mohamed, the chief judge of the Criminal Court.The arrest came after the judge ordered the release of a government critic, calling his arrest illegal.The vice president, Supreme Court, Human Rights Commission, Judicial Services Commission and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have all called for Mohamed to be released.The government accused the judge of political bias and corruption. It said that the country's judicial system had failed and called on the U.N to help solve the crisis.After weeks of protests, the crisis came to a head Tuesday when hundreds of police started demonstrating in the capital, Male, after officials ordered them to withdraw protection for government and opposition supporters protesting close to each other. The withdrawal resulted in a clash that injured at least three people.Later, troops fired rubber bullets and clashed with the police. When Nasheed visited the police and urged them to end the protest, they refused and instead chanted for his resignation.The Maldives, an archipelago nation of 300,000 people, is a fresh democracy, with 30 years of autocratic rule ending when Nasheed was elected in 2008. Nasheed is a former pro-democracy political prisoner.Hassan, the vice president, has previously worked for the United Nations, including as the head of its children's fund in Afghanistan.

 

Maldives protest today

Maldives protests boil over, police join against government

 

KAL PORUSH:

Opposition-led protests in the Maldives boiled over on Tuesday with some police officers defying orders to break them up and instead joining in an assault on the military headquarters in the capital Male.

A Reuters witness on Tuesday saw soldiers launch tear gas grenades at a crowd of about 500 people, including several dozen police officers in uniform, who were trying to smash their way into the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) headquarters.The violence on the archipelago best-known as a luxury beach getaway destination is the worst out of more than three weeks of protests.They started after President Mohamed Nasheed ordered the military to arrest the top criminal court judge, whom he accuses of being in the pocket of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.That set off a constitutional crisis that has Nasheed, widely credited with ushering in full democracy to the Indian Ocean archipelago with his election victory in 2008, in the unaccustomed position of defending himself of acting like a dictator. Gayoom's 30-year rule was widely seen as autocratic.Gayoom's opposition Progressive Party of the Maldives accused the military of firing rubber bullets at protesters and spokesman Mohamed Hussain "Mundhu" Shareef said "loads of people" were injured. He gave no specifics.Presidential spokesman Paul Roberts denied the government had used rubber bullets, but confirmed that around three dozen police officers defied orders overnight and smashed up the main rallying point of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party."This follows Gayoom's party calling for the overthrow of the Maldives' first democratically elected government and for citizens to launch jihad against the president," Roberts said.The protests, and the scramble for position ahead of next year's presidential election, have seen parties adopting hardline Islamist rhetoric and accusing Nasheed of being anti-Islamic.It has also shown the longstanding rivalry between Gayoom and Nasheed, who was jailed for a combined six years after being arrested 27 times by Gayoom's government while agitating for democracy.(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal in Male Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Ed Lane)

Anti-Putin protest

Anti-Putin protesters show staying power in Russia

 

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Vladimir Putin's opponents vowed on Sunday to press on with demonstrations against his 12-year domination of Russia after tens of thousands attended a march which kept up the momentum of their protest movement."We'll be back," the organizers said on a social network site, one day after demonstrators defied the cold to stage the third mass rally since anger mounted over alleged fraud in a parliamentary election won by Putin's party on December 4.Waving flags and banners, protesters marched within sight of the red-brick Kremlin walls and towers on Saturday, chanting "Russia without Putin!" and "Give us back the elections!"Although Putin's supporters also held a big rally in Moscow on Saturday, warning against the threat of instability, the size of the opposition march suggested Putin faces a protracted challenge as he prepares to return to the presidency in March 4.Such protests were unthinkable six months ago and were sparked by demands for fair elections, but they have grown into one of the biggest political threats to the former KGB spy since he was first elected president in 2000.Putin is all but certain to win a six-year term as head of state in March, but his authority has been damaged and a pause in protests over the long New Year holiday has not deterred people who protested in large numbers on December 10 and 24.The longer the protests continue, the bigger the threat they pose to Putin's legitimacy, even though the opposition is only loosely united and contains groups as diverse as nationalists, leftists, liberals and non-affiliated environmentalists."When I saw the thermometer was at minus 22 C (-7.6 F) in the morning, I thought no more than 10,000-15,000 people would turn up. Thank God, I was very wrong. Muscovites turned out to be more determined, stronger and persistent than I thought," opposition politician Boris Nemtsov wrote in a blog."We face a protracted hard struggle against cynical, ruthless rogues and thieves. It's a marathon which we have to win," wrote Nemtsov, a cabinet minister in the 1990s, before Putin rose to power.The next big protest is expected to be on February 26, the week before the presidential election, or soon after it, the organizers say.

Bahrain protest 06 02 2012

Bahrain opposition launches week-long rally

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Bahraini opposition parties, launching a week-long ‘sit-in’ for political reforms at a mass rally, swore Sunday to take their campaign to the center of last year’s democracy protest in the capital Manama.“This is a dress rehearsal for the return. We will return! We will return! Soon our sit-in will not be here but at the Pearl Roundabout,” said poet Ayat al-Qormozi, who became a face of the Arab Spring movement after she was jailed for reading out a poem criticizing the king at Pearl Roundabout. She was addressing a crowd of over 10,000 at a rally in Manama, where anti-government protests last year were crushed by Bahraini forces and troops from neighboring Saudi Arabia.Pearl Roundabout, a large traffic junction in Manama where the protesters camped out and rallied for a month, has since been closed off by security forces who monitor the area closely.Bahrain, a key U.S. and Saudi ally in their stand-off with Iran across the Gulf, has been in turmoil since the uprising broke out last year, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt.The opposition are trying to sustain pressure on the government, dominated by the Sunni Muslim Al-Khalifa family, ahead of the Feb. 14 anniversary of the uprising. The reforms they want include an elected government - the first in the Gulf – and reduced powers for the Al-Khalifa family.Sheikh Ali Salman, leader of the largest opposition party Al-Wefaq, called on activists to keep the protests peaceful, but warned that intelligence agencies and pro-government militias would act as agent provocateurs in coming weeks.He called on activists to use only Bahraini flags during the sit-in and to avoid using party or sectarian symbols.Opposition groups draw wide support from Bahrain’s majority Shiite population, which accuses the ruling elite of political and economic marginalization. The government says Shiites have a sectarian agenda coordinated with Iran – which they deny.Salman said the protest movement would continue after Feb. 14 and the country would not return to normal until the ruling elite ended its monopoly on power and the 14 prominent figures convicted for leading the protests – who are on hunger strike this week – were released.“This people will not calm down and there will be no calm or stability while they are behind bars,” he said.“These symbolic figures did not call for violence or use violence. They expressed views that you can agree with or not, but that’s part of freedom of expression. The verdicts were based on confessions under torture. The verdicts are void.”Opposition parties have tried to set themselves apart from youth activists who clash regularly with police by arranging marches and rallies in advance with the authorities. Many youths, angered by what they say is continued harsh policing, say this approach is not bringing results.Activists say the ongoing violence has taken the total dead over the past year to more than 60, some from tear gas inhalation or from being hit by cars in pursuit of youths. The government disputes the causes of death.

 

wall street protest pic

KAL PORUSH

syria proteat 04 02 2012

KAL PORUSH
“[Arab states] should expel Syrian ambassadors and sever diplomatic relations and economic dealings [with Syria] until the regime complies with the demands of the Syrian people,” Ali al-Salem al-Dekbas, head of the 88-member committee, said in a statement.  
Arab states have turned decisively against Assad in recent months over a crackdown on opponents of Assad that the United Nations says has killed at least 5 000 people in 11 months.
Assad’s government says it is fighting foreign-backed insurgents, and most deaths have been among its troops.  
Western and Arab nations are trying to overcome Russian resistance to a UN Security Council resolution backing an Arab League call for Assad to give up power. The diplomacy has taken on new urgency since activists said overnight that Assad’s forces had killed more than 200 people in the city of Homs.  
Tunisia started a procedure on Saturday for withdrawing its recognition of Assad’s government.  
Dekbas said Arab states should confront the Russian delegate to the United Nations, whose delay in taking action “allows for a continuation of....killing of the Syrian people”.  
He condemned what he said was “the international community standing and watching” violence in Syria, which he described as “crimes against humanity”.   

Bahrain protest

Bahrain player sentenced for protesting

 

Bahrain's main opposition party says one of the detained national team players has been convicted of participating in anti-government protests and sentenced to two years in prison. Al Wefaq party says in a statement that Mohammed Hubail was convicted and sentenced on Thursday during closed-door proceedings in Bahrain's special security court. The court was set up under martial law imposed in March to quell Shiite-led demonstrations against a Sunni monarchy. At least two of his teammates, including Hubail's brother and Bahrain soccer star Alaa, have been in custody since the crackdown began.

 

 

Syria violence

Syria violence And U.N

 

The new bloodshed came as activists reported a grim milestone in the 8-month-old revolt: November was the deadliest month of the uprising, with at least 950 people killed in gunbattles, raids and other violence as protesters demand the ouster of President Bashar Assad.The U.N. estimates more than 4,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in the middle of March, inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions sweeping the Middle East."In light of the manifest failure of the Syrian authorities to protect their citizens, the international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people," Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Pillay on Thursday characterized the conflict in Syria as a civil war.International intervention, such as the NATO action in Libya that helped topple Moammar Gadhafi, is all but out of the question in Syria. But the European Union, the Arab League, Turkey and others have piled on sanctions aimed at crippling the regime once and for all.The EU's latest sanctions, which were announced Thursday, target 12 people and 11 companies with travel bans and asset freezes. They add to a long list of regime figures previously sanctioned by the EU, including Assad himself and high-ranking security officials.The identities of those on the new list were made public Friday in the EU's official journal. They include the ministers of finance and the economy, as well as army officers.Also on the list are the pro-government Cham Press TV and Al-Watan newspaper, as well as a research center that the EU says provides support to the Syrian military in acquiring equipment for the surveillance of demonstrators. Three oil companies, which the EU statement said provide financial support to the regime, were also listed. They include the Syria Trading Oil Company, which is responsible for Syria's oil exports.Royal Dutch Shell PLC also said Friday it will halt its operations in Syria to comply with the penalties.The economic sanctions will limit the regime's access to cash at a time when Assad is relying more than ever on the support of the business classes.Assad has spent years shifting the country away from the socialism espoused by his father, which helped boost a new and vibrant merchant class that transformed Syria's economic landscape — even as the regime's political trappings remained unchanged.So far, the monied classes have clung to the sidelines, but if the economic squeeze reaches them, it could be a game-changer for the regime.Despite Friday's diplomatic squeeze, violence continued.The most serious violence appears to have occurred in the Syrian town of Talkalakh, where witnesses reported more than six hours of explosions and gunfire starting at 3 a.m."We were hearing strong explosions and the crack of heavy machine-gun fire," Ahmad al-Fahel, who lives on the Lebanese side of the border, told the Associated Press by telephone. "It sounded as if they were destroying the city."The town is within walking distance from Lebanon, and at least two people were struck by bullets on the Lebanese side. They included an 11-year-old girl and a 40-year-old man, Lebanese security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.There was no immediate word on casualties in Talkalakh. But deadly violence was reported elsewhere in Syria, in Homs and Idlib provinces. At least nine people were killed nationwide, according to the Local Coordination Committees, which is a coalition of Syrian activists groups.The reports of violence, and the activist groups' death toll for November, could not be independently confirmed. The regime has sealed the country off from foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting.Assad is depending on the strong support of Russia and China to withstand the sanctions and growing worldwide isolation.Russia and China have vetoed a Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the bloodshed in Syria, arguing that NATO misused a previous U.N. mandate authorizing use of force in Libya.On Friday, Russia's Ambassador Valery Loshchinin, whose nation has sold arms to Syria, said opposition groups are being armed and organized from abroad.He echoed the Syrian government's argument that foreign powers looking to destabilize Syria are behind the unrest — not true protesters seeking more freedom and the end to dictatorship."Now, we hear, unfortunately, that the conflict in Syria continues to be fueled by outside forces who are interested in further destabilizing the situation," Loshchinin told the emergency meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council."Armed terrorist and extremist groups are being armed and organized, supplied with weapons and money from abroad," he said. "The situation in Syria must be resolved in strict observance of international law and the provisions of the United Nations Charter."But U.S. Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe accused the regime itself of stoking the conflict "with propaganda about foreign conspiracies and domestic terrorism.""The propaganda is fooling no one," Donahoe said. "The regime is driving the cycle of violence and sectarianism."The 47-nation rights council passed a resolution backed by 37 African, European, Asian, Arab and American members chiding Syria for "gross and systematic violations of human rights."Russia and China were among four countries to vote against the motion.The resolution also established the post of a special human rights investigator to investigate abuses in Syria.

The New ganamichila

New ganamichila of Bangladesh

The Government has announced the reinstatement of the overthrow of the government of the opposition Grand Alliance ganaabhyutthane leader Khaleda Zia. In the speech, he announced the news on Monday ganamichilera. Do not demand the reinstatement of the program he led.
The party's new paltane dupurera Monday after over half an hour before the start of the rally, criticized the government said, "There is still time, on the day of the caretaker government. Mass revolt or else you (the government) fall ghatabe. Preventing the public will not get a chance. "Successful over the next 1 to March mahasamabesa desabasike Dhaka-fashion fashion - The fashion-slogane Video calling to the BNP chairperson," 1 March abasa Most people, not events. The program to do the most important of its life. "The assembly of three augur gathering to announce a new government to be said," It is still time, the power of your destination, he decides to keep. "1 In March, Dhaka-dip 'program by adding a call said, "The Awami League in the country for those who love them I am coming to this program call to apply on More info. Countries to protect you, bamcabena themselves. "Large number of leaders - worker participation at the polls in procession soya 4. Kakaraila, sani - city, malibaga, sweep the top 5 on the march Professional caurasa - aya reached. However, there is achieved here at 6 p.m. paune. The car was a mid march.
The bar and laksmipura and Chandpur ganamichile government responsible for the deaths of four people protested on Tuesday meeting of protest in the district and upazila BNP. Mosque Mosque mahaphila blessings will remember the 3 pheburayari victims, he said. Government faced the BNP chairperson said, "These programs will be blocked when a good outcome. Do not be so difficult for our program. Yetuku time we (the government), and the democratic process continues suusthubhabe day, to keep talking. "
With the military coup against the BNP government was involved here, "said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said lie. The government's deadline did not mean that I would never fall. They do not believe in ship dedalainera politics. Instead of our government paryana hatate May 1 - the deadline for the declaration gave trampakardera. He was trampakardati mainuddina - phakharuddinera illegal for the government to bring to power. "" We are not a country with all the military coup, was involved in ligai. Politics is not a military abhyutthane, the ability to change ganaabhyutthane true, "he said. Military sasanajari 1975, 1983, President Abdus sattarake removed, and 007 in 1996, with abhyutthanacesta abasa 'claim that the child was behind the Awami League, BNP chairperson. Public fear of him - mind - the Related bya said, "They plunder the country for three years, people did not have a job. So now people fear him. That is why they are on all the runs. "The photos on the movement of people - bdha or can not be in power. Erasadake ask your alter ego, seo power could stay. "Ganamichile ২টা from 1pm to take part in the BNP leader - Workers of the world have gathered to march in New paltane. Kakaraila from the Motijheel paryana - car traffic off the roadway. BNP leader - Workers banner - phestuna hand to take part in a row michile. Many of the color - green undervest beranera hat and go. Many in the hands of Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman's big picture. Moratorium movement against the government by the opposition leader said rajapathe strip, now I can not get one, will tell us. People wake up. Agamite the power of the new series' commitment to the practices of politics, he said, "We will conduct a consultation over the country. Karmasansa for a new generation of 'anera Opportunity, the world is going to break relations with the rapprochement initiatives. You can not even get tabedara country. "

Arrests in Oakland protests rise to more than 400

 

More than 400 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested in Oakland during a night of skirmishes in which police fired tear gas and bean bag projectiles, the city said on Sunday, marking one of the biggest mass arrests since nationwide economic protests began last year.Earlier on Sunday, authorities had said that the arrest figure was between 200 and 300. But the Oakland emergency operations center said in a statement that revised that up to more than 400, and said that Oakland Police were expected to announce a more precise number later on Sunday.Riot police on Saturday night fought running skirmishes with protesters, injuring three officers and at least one demonstrator.The scuffles erupted in the afternoon as activists sought to take over a shuttered downtown convention center, sparking cat-and-mouse battles that lasted well into the night in a city that has seen tensions between police and protesters boil over repeatedly. Oakland has become an unlikely flashpoint of the national "Occupy" protests against economic inequality that began last year in New York's financial district and have spread to dozens of cities across the country.

The protests in most cities have been peaceful and sparked a national debate over how much of the country's wealth is held by the richest 1 per cent of the population. President Barack Obama has sought to capitalize on the attention by calling for higher taxes on the richest Americans.

Protests focused on Oakland after a former Marine, Scott Olsen, was critically injured during a demonstration in October. Protesters said he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister but authorities have never said exactly how he was hurt.

The Occupy movement appeared to lose momentum late last year as police cleared protest camps in cities across the country.Violence erupted again in Oakland on Saturday when protesters attempted to take over the apparently empty downtown convention center to establish a new headquarters and draw attention to the problem of homelessness.Police in riot gear moved in, firing smoke grenades, tear gas and bean-bag projectiles to drive the crowd back."Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares," the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. "Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas."

Some activists, carrying shields made of plastic garbage cans and corrugated metal, tried to circumvent the police line, and surged toward police on another side of the building as more smoke canisters were fired.

Oakland city officials said "extremists" were fomenting the demonstrations and using the city as a playground for the movement. Protesters have accused the city of overreacting and using heavy-handed tactics.

Across the country in New York, police said four people were arrested on Saturday night after protesters clashed with police at what demonstrators had called an "OccuParty" inside an abandoned building in the borough of Brooklyn.
Protesters knocked over garbage pails and hurled objects at police, slightly injuring six officers, a police spokesman said. The four people were charged with a variety of crimes including inciting a riot.
Tension was rising in Washington as well, where the National Park Service has said it will bar Occupy protesters in the nation's capital from camping in two parks near the White House where they have been living since October.That order, if carried out as promised on Monday, could be a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement.

 

SPAIN PROTEST

 

Thousands of police, teachers and hospital staff staged a mass protest march in Barcelona on Saturday in growing anger at spending cuts hitting key services in Spain's Catalonia region.

"No to the Cuts," read a banner at the head of the crowd, which included prison guards, firefighters and nurses protesting at cuts that they warn are undermining security, education and health.

Thousands of participants joined in, with turnout estimates by various organisers, authorities and media varying from 15,000 to 125,000.

Spending cuts aimed at stabilising Spain's public finances are hitting its regions hard, adding to the pain of an unemployment rate that crept close to 23 percent at the end of 2011, with more than five million people out of work."There are more pupils per class with fewer resources and fewer teachers," said one demonstrator, schoolteacher Maite Sanchez, 29. "The quality of education is beginning to be seriously affected by the cuts."

Another, Rosalia Port, a 56-year-old nurse, insisted: "There are other kinds of cuts that can be made, such as fighting tax fraud and raising taxes for those who earn the most."

It was the latest in a series of mass protests against measures to resolve the crisis.

Tens of thousands of public sector workers in several towns in Valencia, Spain's most heavily indebted region, demonstrated on Thursday to protest cuts there.

Catalonia's regional parliament is currently debating the budget for 2012 which includes cuts of 625 million euros ($826 million) to rein in its deficit to 1.3 percent of gross domestic product this year.

Cuts to health, security and education budgets began last year, and at the end of 2011 the region also proposed to hike taxes and fees for services such as universities, public transport and water.

Saturday's march was marked by the participation of regional police officers, prison guards and firefighters who warned the budget cuts prompted by the financial crisis are undermining security.

"It's an explosive cocktail," said David Miquel, a spokesman for the Catalan police union SPC, ahead of the march."We lack equipment and vehicles. The situation is pathetic. In some cases there are no vehicles to carry out operations." Spain's central government said Friday it had approved a new budget law that bans the country's 17 powerful regions from sliding into deficit from 2020.

Saturday's march united civil servants from all the main sectors of Catalonia's public services, including prison guards who blocked the entrances to some prisons last weekend in protest at planned pay cuts.

"Sometimes there are just two guards for 500 inmates," a prison guards representative, Albert Anton, told AFP

Occupy Auckland protesters take to the streets

Occupy Auckland protesters marched up Queen St this afternoon expressing their anger about the eviction from the town square last week.It was not long however until the peaceful protest became heated and marchers stormed their way back into Aotea Square where they reoccupied the area they were forced to leave by police and security guards just three days ago.The Occupy movement members took to the city's main street this afternoon to protest against what they believe was an unlawful eviction. Traffic was halted for the protest, with almost 100 protesters clogging the streets, much to the dislike of motorists The march turned to a run, as the protesters raced to break down the fences.The Occupy Auckland group set up camp in Aotea Square 106 days ago to protest against corporate greed and corruption.A general meeting at the square is being held tonight to decide what the occupiers next move will  be.

 

libya protest 2012

Protests against the NEW GOV. in Libya, January 2012

AUSTRALIA protest

AUSTRALIA'S most powerful union leader has led an unprecedented public assault on the Rann Labor Government at Parliament House.

Calling on the Rann Government to come to the negotiating table, ACTU president Ged Kearney told the large crowd - which the Public Service Association says totalled 10,000 - the nation was watching their struggle. "You are under attack, make no mistake," she said. "What is at stake here is a basic principle ...that applies to every single worker in this country.'' Ms Kearney, who travelled to Adelaide for the rally, said Labor had broken its agreement with public sector workers.

 

AUSTRALIA In dramatic scenes, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard had to be dragged by riot police to safety after hundreds of protesters from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra descended on an event where Julia Gillard, was presiding over Australia Day celebrations. Regardless of how you feel about Ms Gillard of her government this was a disgusting display and has done nothing to advance the cause of the Aboriginal activists. In fact, in anything it has probably set things back 80 years.

WE R 99

Police, protesters clash in Bangladesh general strike

 Bangladesh police used tear-gas and batons to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters in the first general strike in over three years, which the opposition hopes can force early elections.

 

 

BRUTAL KILLING OF FELANI !!!??

In 2011 Indian forces shot teenage Bangladeshi girl dead while she was returning home and left her hanging in the barb wire for hours. Her cry for water and for her life brought tears even in the eyes of Indian villagers. But Indian soldiers made sure her death and proved what Indian state policy and Indian forces stood for medieval brutality.

When you read or hear a story or view a scene or a picture, a movie should evolve in your mind. You reflexively make a mental picture in your brain of what you view and hear. These are your own sensory images. None of us has ever seen the paradise or the hell we are told we will face in our afterlife; still, we form a mental picture of what the netherworld would be like. Your images for a particular view or a story are subtly different from anyone else's images. Your images blended with your unique feelings and emotions come flooding back when you come across the same view or the same story once again. Today, I am having a similar experience.
Last year in January, on a chilly Sunday night at my College Park residence in Maryland, I was reading the heart-breaking story of the violent and ruthless killing of Felani, a 15-year old Bangladeshi girl, by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) and was transfixed as I was viewing the eerie scene of her motionless body distressingly dangling on a barbed-wire fence along the Bangladesh-Indian border at Anantapur, which was possibly not far away from her village. After I had read the story, I fixed my sight at the gruesome picture of Felani's tangled dead body, still wearing a red frock and a pair of blue pajamas -- perhaps her choicest dresses.
Felani's father Nurul Islam had left his village at Naggeshwari Upazilla under the district of Kurigram in Bangladesh for Assam in India with his mother, after the death of his father and due to extreme poverty. Such migration, legal or illegal, is quite normal in this part of the world. There are also many Indians who, legally or illegally, are working in Bangladesh, especially in textiles and garments industries.
Nurul Islam was bringing his daughter Felani to their home in Bangladesh to get her married with a boy as arranged earlier by the guardians. On January 7, 2011, early in the morning, Nurul Islam and his daughter Felani were crossing into Bangladesh, by climbing over a barbed-wire fence using a bamboo ladder, through the Kitaber Kuthi Anantapur border. While they were crossing the fence, Felani's clothes got tangled in the barbed-wire, which frightened her and caused her to scream in panic. Hearing her scream, the Border Security Force (BSF) of India on patrol opened fire at her. Felani was shot and killed, but her father had managed to escape. Felani was asking for water until her death, about 30 minutes after the shooting, but nobody was there to fetch her a glass of water. It was a clear act of felony on innocent Felani.
The dead body of Felani was hung on the fence for five hours before the body was handed to the authorities concerned in Bangladesh. On January 09, at night, Felani's body was buried in the backyard of her home. Felani's father Nurul Islam complained that he had received her daughter's dead body but did not get back the gold ornaments she was wearing when she was killed.
The pall of gloom cast by the news of Felani's death did not quite capture the sense of disbelief and sorrow that engulfed first the village where Felani was buried and then the whole country after the news along with the wretched picture of her dead body hanging on the barbed-wire fence was published in most of the newspapers in Bangladesh.
A movie, based on my sensory images of Felani, was evolving in my mind as I was trying to empathise with the bereaved family members. I attempted to visualise about Felani's life -- her childhood, her expectations, her fears and her last moment when all her dreams were shattered. In my mental picture Felani had appeared as a Durga, the girl I found in my childhood in "Pather Panchali", the epochal 1955 Bengali drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray. Felani in her childhood, like Durga in Pather Panchali, perhaps shared with her friends simple joys of life. Like Durga, Felani may be spent a lot of time sitting quietly under a tree, running after the candy man who passed by, viewing pictures in a bioscope shown by a traveling vendor, watching a 'jatra' by a troupe of actors and running away from home to catch a glimpse of the train after hearing the whistle of a speeding train.
In a poor family in Bangladesh, like that of Nurul Islam, an old equation rules: educating a boy will bring financial returns, but not so in case of a girl. Earning no income, a daughter is usually married off as soon as possible and removed from the family balance sheet. That is why Nurul Islam probably decided to arrange his daughter Felani's marriage at her tender age of 15. Felani perhaps put on her choicest jewelries, dresses and facial make-ups, I was just imagining, as she was heading home -- lest she was found unkempt, in case she had bumped on her way home into the prospective boy she was arranged to get married with.
Everybody knows that any law enforcement agency usually does not fire shots at unarmed persons, no matter the person is in the international border area during a war or on a street during a curfew, unless a person attempts to do something which may endanger the life of the law enforcers. Before directly shooting on Felani, the Indian Border Security Force could easily give warnings first by misfiring and if Felani was found carrying arms or smuggling goods they could use the last option of shooting. After Felani's tragic death, there were protests all over Bangladesh against the killing spree of civilians by the Indian BSF. Human rights organisation Odhikar in a fact-finding report released in January 2011, said that India's Border Security Force had breached the border agreement between Bangladesh and India by killing innocent girl Felani Khatun. The report, which interviewed the victim's family members, villagers, Border Guards Bangladeshi soldiers, police personnel and physicians, recommended that the Bangladesh government should ask India to give compensation to the family. The battalion commander of the 27th Rifles, Lt Col. Abdur Razzak Tarafdar, according to the report, said: "Felani's killing by the BSF was not only a breach of international law but a gross violation of human rights and a display of barbaric inhumanity". The report recommended that the government should take steps to end such violations.
Even Manabadhikar Suraksa Manch (MSM), a human rights organisation in India, protested against the cruelty of BSF. MSM Chairman Kiriti Ray said: "There is no rule in India to kill people by shooting. But BSF soldiers are not obeying the rule. Almost every day BSF is killing Bangladeshi people. In every case, BSF shows the same reason that they had to shoot at Bangladeshi smugglers and the smugglers attacked BSF first". The MSM Chairman questioned: "Was Felani a smuggler? She was unarmed, she was tangled! How could she attack BSF?" Felani was not the only Bangladeshi victim killed by the BSF. According to the international human rights group Human Rights Watch, in the year 2010 BSF killed 74, injured 72 and kidnapped 43 Bangladeshis.
Felani in Bangla means 'a discard', an unwanted person or a thing that is thrown away. It should be anybody's wonder: "Why did her parents choose her name to be Felani? Was Felani an unwanted child?" No! The truth rather is quite to the contrary. Given the high infant mortality rate in rural Bangladesh, due to diseases, malnutrition and complicacies during childbirth, parents get frustrated when they lose one infant after another in succession. Parents, who are mostly illiterate and totally ignorant of modern medical science, put the blame of their babies' death on someone else's casting evil eyes on their newborns. In order to avert the evil gaze from their children and to make their children less attractive to the neighbours, frustrated parents, after the premature deaths of their earlier children, choose a weird name like "Felani" (a discard) or "Pocha" (rotten) for their newborn, hoping for his/her longer life.
So, Felani was a cherished baby to her parents. Her parents earnestly wished for her long life. But, BSF discarded Felani as an object to shoot at---perhaps as a part of their shooting practice. But we cannot afford to discard Felani, her story, her images from the album of our memory. Neither Nurul Islam nor his daughter Felani Khatun was aware of the rules and protocols of the border security arrangements. Felani was merely climbing a ladder in the hope of translating a dream of her happy marriage into reality. It is in no way expected of us to remain silent on January 07, the day Felani died for no fault of her own. Can't we declare January 07 as "Felani Day"? Shouldn't Felani's death fire zeal in us for strengthening our will to guard our dignity and sovereignty?