Violent Clashes as Thousands Protest in Cities Across Syria

Security forces fired on protesters in Homs, one of Syria’s most restive locales, and the police and protesters fought in Deir al-Zour, a large city in the east. But thousands were permitted to demonstrate in Kiswa, a town south of Damascus, where demonstrators carried banners that read, “Leave!” and “The people want the fall of the regime.”

Some opposition figures had speculated that the government might try to bring down a death toll that surged past 100 on one Friday in anticipation of Mr. Assad’s speech, which may come as early as Sunday. Syrian officials have portrayed the address as significant, though many in the opposition said their expectations were low.

As the day wore on, the toll approached 22, the number killed last Friday.

“We want freedom and dignity but not under President Bashar,” said a 30-year-old farmer in Kiswa who gave his name as Abdel-Rahman. “He keeps promising for three months on reforms but all we see is more killing and suffering.”

The government’s crackdown has forced nearly 10,000 refugees across the northern border with Turkey and, on Friday, its repercussions spilled into Lebanon, where rival groups clashed after a protest against Mr. Assad in the northern city of Tripoli.

Three people were killed there, including an off-duty soldier, the police said. The clash erupted in a part of Tripoli that has often witnessed trouble between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, a minority heterodox sect that serves as the backbone of Mr. Assad’s rule.

The crackdown has brought international condemnation of a leadership that has ruled Syria for more than four decades. Diplomats have spoken of growing pressure on Mr. Assad, who has taken steps that have so far proved largely superficial, and Syrian officials have suggested that a more serious dialogue may ensue with opposition figures.

On Thursday, in a symbolic but humiliating episode, the country’s richest businessman, Rami Makhlouf, a reviled cousin of Mr. Assad, was forced to announce that he would devote himself to charity and avoid any new deals that brought him profit.

“You can’t do charity with the millions you stole from us,” read a banner carried by hundreds of demonstrators on Friday in Zabadani, a town on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital.

Since the start of the uprising in mid-March, the government and opposition have cast it in a different light. At times, government officials have acknowledged some of the protesters’ demands as legitimate, while insisting that armed groups have hijacked the movement. The opposition says the government is exaggerating the threat posed by armed groups and contends that the demonstrations are overwhelmingly peaceful.

Syrian state television said a policeman was killed and more than 20 were wounded when armed groups opened fire on them. It said six police officers were also wounded when gunmen attacked a police station in Deir al-Zour. Nawaf al-Bashir, an opposition figure in the city, said security forces killed two civilians there and wounded nine people.

The government has barred most foreign journalists from reporting in Syria, and it was almost impossible to reconcile the typically contradictory accounts.

Activists said the worst violence on Friday occurred in Homs, Syria’s third largest city and a center of the uprising, and the province of Idlib, a conservative Sunni Muslim region in the north that military forces have sought to return to the government’s control.

Activists said protests also occurred at the university in Aleppo and in other parts of the city, Syria’s second largest and a linchpin for the government’s durability. So far, the city has remained relatively quiescent, but activists said one protester had been killed there.

On the Turkish border, 200 refugees living in a makeshift tent city staged their own protest against the government, raising a banner that read “We hate you: Get away” and chanting “The people want the fall of the regime,” a cry voiced across the Arab world. Scores of children participated, waving branches plucked from the trees.

There were conflicting reports about the posture of the Syrian military, which has deployed to town after restive town. Some activists said that, in contrast to past weeks, the military did not participate in the crackdown on Friday, leaving the task to security forces and paramilitaries. Mr. Bashir said they had withdrawn from Deir al-Zour, where they had deployed just last week. Other activists said that they remained there and that additional military forces had begun an assault on the town of Dael, in southern Syria.

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, and Liam Stack from Guvecci, Turkey.

View the original article here

In a Scattered Protest, Saudi Women Take the Wheel

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

From its inception in April, the protest against the longstanding ban was far smaller than initially anticipated, but it was not meant to be a mass driving effort. Rather, women with legal driver’s licenses from other countries were urged to run mundane errands — going to the grocery store, perhaps — in order to underscore the fact that it should be normal for women to drive.

Maha al-Qahtani, an information technology specialist for the government, drove around the capital, Riyadh, for 45 minutes with her husband, Mohamed, a human rights activist, in the car. She braced for a siren after passing each of about five police cars, she said, but they ignored her.

“I woke up today believing with every part of me that this is my right, I woke up believing this is my duty, and I was no longer afraid,” said Mrs. Qahtani, adding that she had brought a change of clothes and a prayer rug with her in case she was detained.

Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old single mother, started the call for the June 17 protest in April with a Facebook page. But after posting videos of herself driving around Al Khobar in the Eastern Province, she was arrested in late May and jailed for nine days — a punishment that was stricter than expected. Many supporters were disappointed, feeling that she had jumped the gun and jeopardized them all by taking a confrontational approach.

Women driving remains a sensitive issue in Saudi Arabia. For religious conservatives, it is a kind of Alamo, with the ban a sign that the kingdom still holds to its traditions and has not caved to Western pressure.

The ruling family has been especially dependent on this base of supporters in recent months as protests erupted across the region and has been mute as the mufti, the highest religious figure in the kingdom, rolled out a fatwa banning protests.

Many Saudi activists considered the treatment meted out to Ms. Sharif a warning from the monarchy against trying to organize any kind of movement via social media. The initiative for women to drive was the strongest effort so far in the kingdom inspired by the regional climate.

“Women in Saudi Arabia see other women in the Middle East making revolutions, women in Yemen and Egypt at the forefront of revolutions, being so bold, toppling entire governments,” said Waleed Abu Alkhair, whose wife drove around Jidda. “The women of Saudi Arabia looked at themselves and they realized, ‘Wow! We can’t even drive!’?”

Mr. Abu Alkhair said he knew about many women who drove, and aside from one being questioned by the police for two hours, none were bothered. Once the campaign had been announced there were frequent threats by opponents to punish female drivers either by beating them or by smashing their cars.

“We want women to keep fighting this fight and to be free,” he said. “It will help to liberate the entire society.”

In the weeks after Ms. Sharif’s arrest, a debate erupted between conservative clerics and their followers and the kingdom’s increasingly outspoken women. Opponents largely argued that Saudi society was not ready, that a woman should not be thrown into the wilds of Saudi driving habits or be held responsible for any accidents.

Worse, opponents argued, it would lead to the public mingling of the sexes. Supporters mocked the clerics for putting everything in a sexual context and asked why it was O.K. for Saudi women to be driven around by an army of some 800,000 male drivers imported from Southeast Asia.

Although the arrest of Ms. Sharif discouraged women from driving, the fact that it enlivened the debate was in contrast to the first (and last) such protest in November 1990. Clerics branded the 47 women amoral and the royal family confiscated their passports, firing those working for the government. Many went into isolation for their own safety.

In addition to religious opposition there is widespread suspicion in the country that those who control the visa process — and in Saudi Arabia that means the princes of the ruling family — have made a business out of controlling the black market in visas for drivers, which can cost more than $3,000 apiece.

Many young married women decry the fact that they cannot afford that, not to mention the driver’s salary, about $600 a month.

The more liberal princes support allowing women to drive.

Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, 79 years old and long among the most outspoken members of the royal family, argues that such reforms lag because the leading members of the family have failed to yield any power or influence to younger generations.

“Bravo to the women!” the prince said in an interview. “Why should women drive in the countryside and not in the cities?” (Women have long driven in rural areas.)

King Abdullah and other royals have said in interviews with foreign reporters that they expected Saudi women to drive one day soon but have done little lately.

“Saudi Arabian women are going to have to fight for our rights, men are not going to just hand them over to us,” said Amira Kashgary, a professor who drove through Jidda on Friday for 45 minutes with her 21-year-old daughter. Women are tired of being stranded or missing appointments because their drivers disappear for the day, Professor Kashgary said. “We want to drive today, tomorrow, and every day — it’s not a one-day show. We want to make it a norm.”

View the original article here

After Raid, Indian Guru’s Protest Stirs a Firestorm

 

“The government wanted to kill me,” he said on national television hours after the hunger strikers in New Delhi were scattered by police officers spraying tear gas. “My hunger strike is not broken. I will continue. My agitation will continue.”

Swami Ramdev, a yoga guru with a large following in India, had organized the mass hunger strike that began Saturday in New Delhi. But less than 14 hours later, amid the tumult of the raid, he was detained by officers and flown to the state of Uttaranchal, where he was taken to his ashram near the city of Haridwar.

Appearing on national television, he described how he had tried in vain to escape the police raid by dressing as a woman and covering his flowing black beard with white cloth.

The police raid quickly transformed what had been a quirky mixture of yoga sit-in and political protest into a political firestorm. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., the country’s main opposition party, assailed the Congress Party as having mishandled the hunger strike and described the police action as “a shameful chapter in the democracy of this country.”

But Congress Party leaders were hardly apologetic and instead accused Swami Ramdev of trying to deliberately stir up trouble as a proxy for the Bharatiya Janata Party and right-wing Hindu groups. “You cannot allow people like Ramdev to run riot in the capital,” said Digvijay Singh, a powerful Congress Party leader who has been outspoken in his criticism of the swami. “He was trying to incite people. Therefore, the action of the police is justified.”

Other Congress Party leaders said Swami Ramdev had deliberately violated a secret agreement to cancel his hunger strike on Saturday afternoon. The swami had focused his protest on the issue of “black money,” the untold billions of misappropriated dollars stashed in foreign banks.

Last week, ministers met with him several times to explain government initiatives on the issue as part of their effort to head off the hunger strike, and on Saturday he announced that the government had met his demands. But after the government announced publicly that there had been an agreement and that Swami Ramdev had promised to end the strike, he angrily vowed that the strike would go on.

On Sunday morning, the police moved in to break up the protest.

Kapil Sibal, the Congress Party’s point man on the issue, said the government delegation actually struck a deal with the swami on Friday. In it the government pledged to take certain actions on black money, he said, while Swami Ramdev agreed that he would strike on Saturday morning but call it off by the afternoon.

But when Swami Ramdev continued with his fast into Saturday evening, Mr. Sibal appeared before reporters with a written copy of the secret agreement and accused the yoga guru of breaking their deal.

The Delhi police said Sunday that they had broken up the demonstration because Swami Ramdev had a permit to conduct a yoga meditation session with 5,000 people but that the crowd had surpassed 50,000 and he was imploring more people to come to New Delhi to join the strike.

Rajan Bhagat, a police spokesman, denied that the police had instigated the confrontation. He said some protesters began pelting officers with bricks after the police ordered everyone to go home. Officers then used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Mr. Bhagat said that 23 police officers and 39 civilians were slightly injured in the ensuing scuffle.

View the original article here

The Lede: Video of the 'Nakba Day' Protest in Lebanon

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

On Friday, a senior official who traveled to Washington with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told Yediot Aharonot, an Israeli newspaper, that it was important for the White House to understand the seriousness of last Sunday’s protests along Israel’s frontiers with Lebanon and Syria. “People are waging war along the fences,” the official said, “and it’s not an exaggeration.”

Earlier this week, when The Lede posted a series of YouTube videos showing some of the protests by Palestinians in those places, and in the West Bank and Gaza, it was hard to find much footage of the protest at the Lebanese border. But now we’ve come across an extended observational video that shows protesters charging to the border fence in Lebanon, and then being forced back by Lebanese troops.

The video, embedded at the top of this post, was shot and posted online by Andrew Bossone, an American journalist based in Beirut. It shows Palestinian protesters rallying at the border near the Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras to mark the anniversary of what they call the “nakba” or the “catastrophe” of Israel’s founding.

View the original article here

Shalit protest on Israeli holiday

 10 May 2011 Last updated at 08:57 ET By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem  Yoel Shalit wants politicians to remember his brother who has been held in Gaza for five years Israel's main Independence Day celebration was interrupted by a protest by the brother of the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

The televised service on Monday night traditionally involves the lighting of a dozen torches on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Yoel Shalit and his girlfriend carried signs calling for Gilad Shalit to be remembered.

Police moved them on after they appeared in front of top politicians.

Gilad Shalit, was captured by militants from Gaza in a cross-border raid near Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing in June 2006.

He has since been held at an unknown location by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that governs the Gaza Strip.

His family and other supporters have worked hard to keep his case in the public eye, even setting up a large demonstration tent close to the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem.

The Israeli soldier, who had the rank of corporal when he was seized, has since been promoted to staff sergeant. He is now 24.

Stalled talks

In a television interview on Monday, the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, said that negotiations to free Gilad Shalit, in exchange for the release of about 1,400 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, had stalled.

He blamed the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel is opposed to a reconciliation pact signed by rival Palestinian factions

Meanwhile, at an official Memorial Day ceremony, Mr Netanyahu stressed his government's commitment to bringing the soldier home.

Reports said he also referred to Hamas after its recent signing of a reconciliation deal with the rival Fatah faction headed by the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, saying, "we will not be tempted to believe that the leopard has changed its spots."

Israel views Hamas as a terrorist organisation. It opposed the pact that should lead to the setting up of an interim Palestinian unity government tasked with preparing for new elections.

Different narratives

Memorial ceremonies, to recall Israel's wartime losses, take place at cemeteries, including Mount Herzl, immediately before Independence Day each year. They are sombre events in contrast with the joyful celebrations that follow when Israelis hold barbecues, parties and hike outdoors.

The Jewish state was founded on May 14, 1948, and anniversaries are calculated in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.

On 15 May, Palestinians, mark the creation of Israel with a day of mourning, called al-Naqba, Arabic for 'catastrophe'.

They remember the hundreds of thousands of refugees and land and property that was lost.

In a routine step, the Israeli authorities prevent most Palestinians from entering Israel from the occupied West Bank during Independence Day celebrations. They say this is a necessary security precaution.

Trying to Stir Up a Popular Protest in China, From a Bedroom in Manhattan

Two months after calls shot across the Web for a Tunisian- and Egyptian-style “Jasmine Revolution” in China, he is among the few online dissidents still trying to promote a popular protest movement inside the country. The effort has failed to provoke any major street demonstrations, but it has led to a fierce crackdown by the authorities.

Yet despite the widespread arrests of activists, including the well-known artist Ai Weiwei, many of those who began the grass-roots push for change remain active. They guard their anonymity closely, especially inside China, where they communicate using Gmail and Skype and broadcast messages to supporters beyond the country’s so-called Great Firewall of censorship.

“Our group is expanding,” said the uptown blogger, who studied the classics and graduated from Columbia University. He asked to be called Gaius Gracchus, in honor of the ancient Roman reformer, but also uses the pseudonym Hua Ge, or “Flower Brother,” online.

He spoke confidently of the power of his group of 25 young Internet-savvy activists inside and outside of China — in Paris, Seoul, Hong Kong, Australia and Taiwan — to influence China’s top leaders. With a partner in China, he was among the first to publish the times and places for protesters to gather, and he remains one of the strongest voices calling for a revolution modeled on those in the Middle East, online activists said.

“The Jasmine Revolution is like a flag,” he said. “It’s out there to be taken up by whoever wants it.”

That is the hope of the dissidents, and it appears to be a concern of the Chinese authorities. For both, the thousands of isolated protests each year over an array of issues — including environmental grievances, land seizures and corruption — have the potential to become a national movement.

“The government seems to fear how easy it is to make the small protests meaningful,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director.

But that online bravado has not succeeded in rallying disparate interest groups under a single banner for political change. In two recent large-scale protests — the truck drivers who protested rising prices by blocking a dockyard in Shanghai, and the Nanjing residents who delayed the destruction of the city’s iconic French plane trees — the organizers neither sought to connect their efforts to a Jasmine movement nor displayed any indication that they were even aware of it.

Some activists question the value of such efforts, saying that the calls for widespread protests have accomplished little except to provoke the government into arresting dozens of activists since February.

“It’s an admirable attempt at free expression, but we have not seen any sudden change come of it,” said Pu Zhiqiang, a leading human rights lawyer and advocate of democratic reform in China. “Instead, we’ve mainly seen the Chinese Communist Party frighten itself over it. So it’s hard to see the significance of it in the short term.”

The very first call for a Jasmine movement was broadcast from a Twitter account using the name mimisecret0, which was quickly overwhelmed by suspect messages and subsequently shut down, dissidents overseas said. The call was taken up by Boxun, a Chinese-language site run out of North Carolina, before that site too suffered a massive cyberattack in late February. Those attacks continue to cripple the site, said its editor, who is known by the pseudonyms Wei Shi or Watson Meng.

After the Boxun site was attacked, the New York blogger who calls himself Gaius Gracchus connected with activists in China to publish molihuaxingdong.blogspot.com, or Jasmine Movement, a simple blog on Google’s blogger platform, to keep the momentum going online. His role was first reported by The Associated Press.

The blog has registered more than 600,000 visitors, more than half of them from within China, and his group’s e-mail list includes more than 3,000 names.

Sitting at a spare black desk in his girlfriend’s Morningside Heights apartment, where he lives, Gracchus said that his group protects itself against malicious viruses by using Linux-based operating systems and by opening e-mail attachments using iPads, both of which are less susceptible to them. To secure his communications, he employs a Google application that sends a unique code, which changes every minute, to his mobile phone so he can log into his e-mail.

Such commercially available security precautions are not the stuff of cloak-and-dagger cyberwarfare, and Gracchus readily admits putting his faith in Google. “If Google falls, we would worry about our safety, but we believe that Google has better engineers than the Chinese government,” he said.

Despite his work, the revolution remains notional. No protesters have gathered in Chinese streets under the banner of the Jasmine movement since late February. Only the police heed the calls for protest each Sunday, blanketing areas in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities in an attempt to snuff out coordinated gatherings.

Mark McDonald contributed reporting from Seoul.

 

Pakistanis End Strike to Protest US Drone Attacks

。 VOA News ?April 24, 2011

Supporters of a Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e- Islami arrive to join a rally against the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistani tribal areas, in Peshawar, April 23, 2011

Thousands of Pakistanis opposed to U.S. drone strikes on militants in the country's northwest have ended their two-day blockade of a key supply route for U.S.-led NATO troops fighting Taliban insurgents in neighboring Afghanistan.

The call for the blockade, which began Saturday on the outskirts of Peshawar, came from the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party led by former cricket star Imran Khan. ?

Khan demanded Sunday that the attacks end or there would be more demonstrations in various parts of the country aimed at blocking NATO supplies, including in the capital, Islamabad.

NATO ships much of its non-lethal supplies through Pakistan, but local militants often attack the convoys.

U.S. drone strikes against militants based in Pakistan's tribal belt have been a source of friction between the two countries. U.S. officials do not acknowledge the missile strikes, which are deeply unpopular among the local population.

The Pakistani government publicly condemns the drone strikes as undermining its sovereignty, but regional experts say Islamabad privately coordinates with the U.S. government on selecting targets.

24-04-2011 whiteraven (USA)

Yes, end all drone attacks and the production and use of drones on this planet for death and destruction. All these high tech weapons of destruction should be banned. How many useful things could be done with all the money wasted on these? And for what? The monopolies of the filthy greedy world trade banking system...these are the guys that call the shots that Obama sucks up to.

24-04-2011 whiteraven (USA)

Yes, end all drone attacks and the production and use of drones on this planet for death and destruction. All these high tech weapons of destruction should be banned. How many useful things could be done with all the money wasted on these? And for what? The monopolies of the filthy greedy world trade banking system...these are the guys that call the shots that Obama sucks up to.

25-04-2011 joel (usa)

its about time to get new ways or route in supplying the NATO troops, you cannot be :hostage" to those insane pakistanis, they had always been that way, India knows better about them!

25-04-2011 amar (pakistan)

it is impossbile to win war by killing innocent tribal citizens living in remote and rural areas.as much money america is spending for killing these people,if these funds have been used for prosperity of that people,amrican would have been loved and respected everywhere rather than being cursed.

* Required By using this form you agree to the following: All comments will be reviewed before posting. Be aware - not all submissions will be posted. VOA has the right to use your comments worldwide in any VOA produced media. Terms & Conditions

 

Shanghai Truckers’ Protest Ebbs With Concessions Won on Fees

It remained unclear whether the concessions would end the demonstrations, which had turned violent on Wednesday when about 2,000 angry truckers blockaded some cargo facilities and tried to overturn police cars.

The city’s Municipal Transport and Port Authority said Saturday that it would repeal a fuel surcharge that had been imposed on trucks serving the port and reduce others, including a 50-renminbi ($7.70) surcharge on shipping containers that was cut to 20 renminbi ($3.08).

The drivers had demanded that that fee be repealed as well, news agencies reported, and negotiations between the two sides on Saturday produced no immediate agreement. But the port, parts of which had been rocked by blockades and protests earlier in the week, was calm.

The truckers’ protest has drawn widespread attention in part because it underscores rising concern among ordinary citizens and their government over inflation and its potential to stir public unrest. The cost-of-living index grew by 5.4 percent in March compared with a year earlier, the sharpest increase in 32 months, and food costs rose at more than twice that rate.

But the protests are also notable because they have unfolded amid what many call the toughest crackdown on public criticism of the government in years, if not decades. The Shanghai truckers’ demonstration was suppressed by an overwhelming turnout of police officers after Wednesday’s violence, but the authorities have permitted more limited protests.

Until Saturday, the entire episode had gone unreported in China’s state-controlled news media, probably because the authorities feared that word of an inflation-related demonstration might inspire copycat protests elsewhere.

On Saturday, the government’s Xinhua news agency reported that fees had been lowered or abolished to address truckers’ concerns about rising fuel costs and transport fees.

The Shanghai port authority issued a statement saying that the fee changes were directed at “easing rising inflation and cost pressures on transport companies.” It made no mention of the protests.

 

Truckers Protest, Adding to Chinese Fears of Unrest

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a container-handling facility at the city’s Baoshan port, news reports stated, monitored by dozens of police officers. On Thursday, thousands of drivers staged a noisy protest at the huge Waigaoqiao port, smashing truck windows of drivers who had refused to join them, and officers arrested several drivers who tried to overturn a police car.

The protests threatened to snarl operations at the world’s busiest harbor, but analysts said that any impact was likely to be small. China’s state-controlled newspapers ignored the strike, and censors removed reports on the disturbance from Web sites.

Online reports quoted by the Chinese newspaper Economic Observer said that the truckers intended the blockage of the Shanghai ports to last three days.

The drivers were protesting low wages, increased fuel prices — the government recently raised diesel prices by five percent — and higher fees imposed by port operators. “The various fees they have to pay leave them no profit,” said Liu Cheng, a law professor and labor specialist at Shanghai Normal University. “This kind of conflict is hard to resolve because it’s the government that is collecting those fees.”

The complaints mirror general unhappiness with inflation here. Prices rose 5.4 percent last month compared with the preceding March, the largest increase since 2008, but a worrisome rise in month-to-month prices suggests to some analysts that the annual inflation rate could approach the double-digit range.

The increase in food prices — 11.7 percent in the first quarter of this year — is a crucial factor in a nation where food is the major expense in some household budgets.

Other protests so far have been scant. But the government, mindful that soaring inflation played a crucial role in the 1989 protests that climaxed in the bloody suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, has taken pains to show concern.

Premier Wen Jiabao has said that he checks prices of staples daily, and has frequently said that inflation and corruption are the greatest dangers to national stability.

But the government has other worries as well. For months, it has been vigorously squelching civil dissent by political activists, a campaign that has included the arrests and disappearances of prominent human rights lawyers and social critics like Ai Weiwei, the artist.

The government appears determined to crush even isolated protests lest they merge into a larger uprising that might threaten the Communist Party’s hold on power.

China was hit with a spate of worker protests last year, also fueled by complaints about low wages and high prices, which led to wage increases in some key industries. But inflation now appears to be eroding those gains.

On Friday, in what appeared to be a government bid to assuage some of the current economic unhappiness, Shanghai newspapers reported that the government would reduce the monthly fees that independent taxi drivers must pay the companies that employ them, to $1,260 from $1,305.

In 2008, China was hit with a wave of strikes by taxi and bus drivers unhappy with the erosion in their take-home pay.

Many experts say that China’s own monetary policies fuel inflation, and that the global rise in food and oil prices has only worsened the situation here.

 

Truckers Protest, Adding to Chinese Fears of Unrest

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a container-handling facility at the city’s Baoshan port, news reports stated, monitored by dozens of police officers. On Thursday, thousands of drivers staged a noisy protest at the huge Waigaoqiao port, smashing truck windows of drivers who had refused to join them, and officers arrested several drivers who tried to overturn a police car.

The protests threatened to snarl operations at the world’s busiest harbor, but analysts said that any impact was likely to be small. China’s state-controlled newspapers ignored the strike, and censors removed reports on the disturbance from Web sites.

Online reports quoted by the Chinese newspaper Economic Observer said that the truckers intended the blockage of the Shanghai ports to last three days.

The drivers were protesting low wages, increased fuel prices — the government recently raised diesel prices by five percent — and higher fees imposed by port operators. “The various fees they have to pay leave them no profit,” said Liu Cheng, a law professor and labor specialist at Shanghai Normal University. “This kind of conflict is hard to resolve because it’s the government that is collecting those fees.”

The complaints mirror general unhappiness with inflation here. Prices rose 5.4 percent last month compared with the preceding March, the largest increase since 2008, but a worrisome rise in month-to-month prices suggests to some analysts that the annual inflation rate could approach the double-digit range.

The increase in food prices — 11.7 percent in the first quarter of this year — is a crucial factor in a nation where food is the major expense in some household budgets.

Other protests so far have been scant. But the government, mindful that soaring inflation played a crucial role in the 1989 protests that climaxed in the bloody suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, has taken pains to show concern.

Premier Wen Jiabao has said that he checks prices of staples daily, and has frequently said that inflation and corruption are the greatest dangers to national stability.

But the government has other worries as well. For months, it has been vigorously squelching civil dissent by political activists, a campaign that has included the arrests and disappearances of prominent human rights lawyers and social critics like Ai Weiwei, the artist.

The government appears determined to crush even isolated protests lest they merge into a larger uprising that might threaten the Communist Party’s hold on power.

China was hit with a spate of worker protests last year, also fueled by complaints about low wages and high prices, which led to wage increases in some key industries. But inflation now appears to be eroding those gains.

On Friday, in what appeared to be a government bid to assuage some of the current economic unhappiness, Shanghai newspapers reported that the government would reduce the monthly fees that independent taxi drivers must pay the companies that employ them, to $1,260 from $1,305.

In 2008, China was hit with a wave of strikes by taxi and bus drivers unhappy with the erosion in their take-home pay.

Many experts say that China’s own monetary policies fuel inflation, and that the global rise in food and oil prices has only worsened the situation here.

View the original article here

Opposition Leader Besigye Arrested in Uganda Protest

 

KAMPALA, Uganda — The leading opposition figure here was arrested on Monday and charged with inciting violence, as a third day of street demonstrations in the Ugandan capital ended in shrouds of tear gas and rubber bullets.

The “walk to work” protests are a campaign against spiraling fuel and food prices led by a former presidential candidate, Kizza Besigye.

Despite the meager size of the protests — rarely numbering more than a few hundred people in a country of more than 30 million — they have elicited a crushing response by government security forces, sending tear gas through crowds of bystanders and university dormitories. Demonstrators were beaten and fired upon, further raising political tensions.

Mr. Besigye was dragged onto the back of a pickup truck by several police officers on Monday, his right hand in a cast and sling after being shot by military police with a rubber bullet on Thursday, the second day of the walk to work demonstrations. Monday’s demonstration was the third, and comes as riots have broken out in a number of universities in Kampala.

A police spokeswoman, Judith Nabakooba, said the protests in Kampala had dissipated by the early afternoon and that 98 people, including major political figures, had been arrested.

“The situation has been contained,” Officer Nabakooba said. She also said there had been protests in the nearby city of Jinja, on the Nile River, but those too had been pacified.

Mr. Besigye, who won just over 20 percent of the vote in February, swore earlier this month that he would walk from his home on the outskirts of Kampala to the city center each Monday and Thursday to raise attention to skyrocketing commodity prices that he said are spurred on by government corruption.

Mr. Besigye cited an unexpected $250 million supplementary budget just before February’s election, the recent purchase of Russian fighter jets for about $750 million, as well as lucrative but secretive oil contracts signed by the government after major oil discoveries in the country’s west.

Mr. Besigye vowed on Monday that he would walk to work again on Thursday.

On Saturday, President Yoweri Museveni said that Ugandans should not complain about rising food prices, and that the government would crush any demonstration, including the walk to work movement.

 

50,000 Protest Government in Serbia

。 VOA News ?April 16, 2011

Serbia's Progressive Party leader Tomislav Nikolic attends a protest rally in Belgrade, Serbia, April 16, 2011

Tens of thousands of Serbians have gathered in the capital, Belgrade, to protest against the government and call for early elections.

Some 50,000 protesters Saturday shouted "thieves" and other sayings against President Boris Tadic and members of his administration.? And opposition leader, Toma Nikolic, told the crowd he was beginning a hunger strike until the government agreed to schedule elections.

Opposition against the government has been mounting as the economy suffers.? There have been a number of strikes calling for higher salaries and in February 70,000 people attended an anti-government rally.

Elections are not due until next year. And the government says it will not call elections sooner, because that could slow the process for Serbia's accession into the European Union.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

[All VOA blogs...]

Now You Know
Watch Todd Grosshan's report - "What is Radioactivity?"

 

Russians Protest Corruption, a Hot Election Year Issue

 Russians Protest Corruption, a Hot Election Year Issue | Europe | English/* Voice of America ?

A Trusted Source of News & Information since 1942

Inside VOA|Contact VOA News

April 17, 2011 Latest News: Select Your LanguageAfan OromoAlbanianAmharicArmenianAzerbaijaniAzeriBanglaBosnianBurmeseCantoneseChineseCreoleCroatianDariEnglish WorldwideFrenchGeorgianGreekHausaIndonesianKhmerKhmer (English)KinyarwandaKirundiKoreanKurdiKurdishLaoLearning EnglishMacedonianMandarinNdebelePashtoPashto - DeewaPersian PortugueseRussian SerbianShonaSomaliSpanishSwahiliThaiTibetanTibetan (English)TigrignaTurkishUkrainian UrduUzbekVietnameseZimbabwe - EnglishNewsProgramsVideoLearning EnglishLive Streams:Latest Newscast|Africa Live|Global LiveNews USA Africa Americas Asia Europe Middle East Arts and Entertainment EconomyMore TopicsEducationEnvironmentHealthNews AnalysisReligionScience and TechnologySports Web FeaturesSpecial ReportsPhoto GalleriesGoing Green Money In MotionNow You KnowOff the Beaten PathThe LinkInteractive YouTubeFacebookTwitter Web ServicesPodcastsRSSMobileNewsletterWebcastsLinks About the USEditorialsRFE/RLRFAPronunciation Guide News|EuropeEuropeRSS FeedRussians Protest Corruption, a Hot Election Year Issue James Brooke|Moscow?April 16, 2011

Photo: VOA - D. MarkosianA member of the opposition holds a banner at a protest near the Kremlin, April 16, 2011. The banner reads, "Thieves should go to jail" and displays images of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Share ThisFacebookYahoo! BuzzRelated ArticlesRussia’s Ruling Party Chief Favors Putin for President Putin Refuses to Rule Out Run for Russian PresidencyYoung Lawyer Leads Fight Against Corruption in Russia

Two anti-corruption rallies were held Saturday afternoon in Moscow.

Russians turned out on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Moscow for two rival protests against corruption, the top issue on voters minds in this election year according to polls.

This tale of two protests speaks volumes about the state of democracy in Russia - 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The state threw its weight fully behind the official anti-corruption protest.

One day in advance Moscow? officials blocked off a one kilometer long avenue for the demonstration. The avenue was conveniently located between a 10-lane highway and transit center with two subway and three commuter rail stations.

Chartered buses brought in participants, who were issued flags, banners and crisp white "anti corruption" aprons. Numbering in the thousands, they then marched in groups into the protest zone. There, eight massive video screens and a powerful music system thumped out techno music and anti corruption messages.

Each unit chanted its place of origin, in this case Moscow.

The protest was organized by Nashi, widely seen as a youth wing of the ruling United Russia party.

To fight corruption, Nashi asked protest participants to videotape teachers, doctors, policemen, and other government employees asking for bribes. Then participants are to post the videos on a new "White Apron" website.

Daniel Semyonov, a lawyer, was directing young people to the protest from a subway station. He said that corruption is now everywhere in Russia.

He said that Nashi’s new anti-corruption campaign had nothing to do with parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections next March.

Four kilometers across town, leaders of Russia’s political opposition held their rally on Bolotnaya Ploshads, literally Swamp Square. They were allotted a small corner of a park, formed from reclaimed river land, a 20-minute walk from the nearest metro station.

In contrast to the official demonstration, the area was surrounded by prison buses and riot police.

Andrei Alatin, the director of an advertising agency, said he had not been to a demonstration in 15 years. But he and his wife came Saturday because they feel that corruption is rotting Russian society.

He said that 20 years ago, children wanted to become businessmen. Now they want to get rich by becoming government officials. He said the only solution for Russia would be a real dictatorship or real democracy - not the "Potemkin village" democracy of today.

No one interviewed at this rally believed that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev are interested in fighting graft in Russia. One man held a sign saying: "Russia rots from the Kremlin" - a play on the saying that a fish rots from the head.

A favorite chant was to call the ruling party, "the party of thieves and swindlers."

In this atmosphere, Boris Nemtsov, a rally leader, said the Kremlin had hastily organized the official anti corruption rally.? He drew a rare laugh when he ridiculed Prime Minister Putin.

He said, "Putin against corruption - is like alcoholics against vodka."

This rally ended peacefully, with policemen barking directions through megaphones to herd the estimated 1,000 attendees to the distant subway station.

At the end of the day, a convoy of 10 Nashi buses could be seen heading south from Moscow, lead by a police cruiser escort.

Listen? Email? Print? Listen: Brooke report
MP3Email This Article?Print This Article? Most-Viewed ArticlesClashes Reported in Several Libyan Cities Japan Still Struggling to Control Crippled Nuclear Plant Large Turnout for Nigeria's Presidential Poll Reports Positive from Nigerian Presidential VoteSuicide Bomber Strikes in Eastern Afghanistan, Killing 9 Most E-mailed ArticlesJapan Still Struggling to Control Crippled Nuclear Plant Large Turnout for Nigeria's Presidential Poll Curfew in Burkina Faso After President Dissolves GovernmentFirst of Japan Disaster Survivors Get Temporary HousesAfghan Taliban to Open Office in TurkeyVOANews:NewsProgramsVideoLearning EnglishArchiveWeb Services:PodcastsRSSMobileNewsletterWebcastsAbout VOANews.com:Terms of Use and Privacy NoticeBroadcasting Board of GovernorsInside VOAFAQsContact VOANewsJob Opportunities

 

Russians Protest Corruption, a Hot Election Year Issue

 Russians Protest Corruption, a Hot Election Year Issue | Europe | English/* Voice of America ?

A Trusted Source of News & Information since 1942

Inside VOA|Contact VOA News

April 17, 2011 Latest News: Select Your LanguageAfan OromoAlbanianAmharicArmenianAzerbaijaniAzeriBanglaBosnianBurmeseCantoneseChineseCreoleCroatianDariEnglish WorldwideFrenchGeorgianGreekHausaIndonesianKhmerKhmer (English)KinyarwandaKirundiKoreanKurdiKurdishLaoLearning EnglishMacedonianMandarinNdebelePashtoPashto - DeewaPersian PortugueseRussian SerbianShonaSomaliSpanishSwahiliThaiTibetanTibetan (English)TigrignaTurkishUkrainian UrduUzbekVietnameseZimbabwe - EnglishNewsProgramsVideoLearning EnglishLive Streams:Latest Newscast|Africa Live|Global LiveNews USA Africa Americas Asia Europe Middle East Arts and Entertainment EconomyMore TopicsEducationEnvironmentHealthNews AnalysisReligionScience and TechnologySports Web FeaturesSpecial ReportsPhoto GalleriesGoing Green Money In MotionNow You KnowOff the Beaten PathThe LinkInteractive YouTubeFacebookTwitter Web ServicesPodcastsRSSMobileNewsletterWebcastsLinks About the USEditorialsRFE/RLRFAPronunciation Guide News|EuropeEuropeRSS FeedRussians Protest Corruption, a Hot Election Year Issue James Brooke|Moscow?April 16, 2011

Photo: VOA - D. MarkosianA member of the opposition holds a banner at a protest near the Kremlin, April 16, 2011. The banner reads, "Thieves should go to jail" and displays images of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Share ThisFacebookYahoo! BuzzRelated ArticlesRussia’s Ruling Party Chief Favors Putin for President Putin Refuses to Rule Out Run for Russian PresidencyYoung Lawyer Leads Fight Against Corruption in Russia

Two anti-corruption rallies were held Saturday afternoon in Moscow.

Russians turned out on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Moscow for two rival protests against corruption, the top issue on voters minds in this election year according to polls.

This tale of two protests speaks volumes about the state of democracy in Russia - 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The state threw its weight fully behind the official anti-corruption protest.

One day in advance Moscow? officials blocked off a one kilometer long avenue for the demonstration. The avenue was conveniently located between a 10-lane highway and transit center with two subway and three commuter rail stations.

Chartered buses brought in participants, who were issued flags, banners and crisp white "anti corruption" aprons. Numbering in the thousands, they then marched in groups into the protest zone. There, eight massive video screens and a powerful music system thumped out techno music and anti corruption messages.

Each unit chanted its place of origin, in this case Moscow.

The protest was organized by Nashi, widely seen as a youth wing of the ruling United Russia party.

To fight corruption, Nashi asked protest participants to videotape teachers, doctors, policemen, and other government employees asking for bribes. Then participants are to post the videos on a new "White Apron" website.

Daniel Semyonov, a lawyer, was directing young people to the protest from a subway station. He said that corruption is now everywhere in Russia.

He said that Nashi’s new anti-corruption campaign had nothing to do with parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections next March.

Four kilometers across town, leaders of Russia’s political opposition held their rally on Bolotnaya Ploshads, literally Swamp Square. They were allotted a small corner of a park, formed from reclaimed river land, a 20-minute walk from the nearest metro station.

In contrast to the official demonstration, the area was surrounded by prison buses and riot police.

Andrei Alatin, the director of an advertising agency, said he had not been to a demonstration in 15 years. But he and his wife came Saturday because they feel that corruption is rotting Russian society.

He said that 20 years ago, children wanted to become businessmen. Now they want to get rich by becoming government officials. He said the only solution for Russia would be a real dictatorship or real democracy - not the "Potemkin village" democracy of today.

No one interviewed at this rally believed that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev are interested in fighting graft in Russia. One man held a sign saying: "Russia rots from the Kremlin" - a play on the saying that a fish rots from the head.

A favorite chant was to call the ruling party, "the party of thieves and swindlers."

In this atmosphere, Boris Nemtsov, a rally leader, said the Kremlin had hastily organized the official anti corruption rally.? He drew a rare laugh when he ridiculed Prime Minister Putin.

He said, "Putin against corruption - is like alcoholics against vodka."

This rally ended peacefully, with policemen barking directions through megaphones to herd the estimated 1,000 attendees to the distant subway station.

At the end of the day, a convoy of 10 Nashi buses could be seen heading south from Moscow, lead by a police cruiser escort.

Listen? Email? Print? Listen: Brooke report
MP3Email This Article?Print This Article? Most-Viewed ArticlesClashes Reported in Several Libyan Cities Japan Still Struggling to Control Crippled Nuclear Plant Large Turnout for Nigeria's Presidential Poll Reports Positive from Nigerian Presidential VoteSuicide Bomber Strikes in Eastern Afghanistan, Killing 9 Most E-mailed ArticlesJapan Still Struggling to Control Crippled Nuclear Plant Large Turnout for Nigeria's Presidential Poll Curfew in Burkina Faso After President Dissolves GovernmentFirst of Japan Disaster Survivors Get Temporary HousesAfghan Taliban to Open Office in TurkeyVOANews:NewsProgramsVideoLearning EnglishArchiveWeb Services:PodcastsRSSMobileNewsletterWebcastsAbout VOANews.com:Terms of Use and Privacy NoticeBroadcasting Board of GovernorsInside VOAFAQsContact VOANewsJob Opportunities

 

Besigye held over Uganda protest

 11 April 2011 Last updated at 08:24 ET Kizza Besigye has lost three elections to Yoweri Museveni Kizza Besigye and two other Ugandan opposition leaders have been arrested after calling for people to walk to work in protest at fuel price hikes.

A police spokeswoman said teargas was used to disperse a stone-throwing crowd which was blocking a road leading to the capital, Kampala.

A BBC reporter says dozens of people, including opposition MPs, were held.

Dr Besigye was defeated by President Yoweri Museveni in February's election but says the poll was rigged.

He has been defeated by Mr Museveni in three presidential elections, gaining 26% to the president's 68% in February.

The pair used to be allies - Dr Besigye was once Mr Museveni's personal physician.

The BBC's Joshua Mmali says Dr Besigye was arrested after he sat down in the road, when police told him the mass walk was illegal.

As he was arrested, he told KFM radio: "We condemn this blatant abuse of human rights and use of violence on innocent people," reports the Reuters news agency.

A police spokeswoman told the BBC that Mr Besigye would be charged with obstruction of traffic and defying lawful authority.

Democratic Party leader Norbert Mao was also arrested as he walked to work.

John Ken Lukyamuzi of the Conservative Party was picked up off the streets and placed under house arrest.

Before February's election, Dr Besigye had called for Egypt-style uprisings in case of fraud.

The police responded by banning public demonstrations.