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Amid weekend of protests, 'world is watching' Ferguson

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Amid weekend of protests, 'world is watching' Ferguson

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October 2014

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/11/ferguson-weekend-protests/17093627/

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FERGUSON, Mo. - Hundreds of demonstrators peacefully kicked off a holiday weekend of protests dubbed "Ferguson October."

Late Friday, people marched outside the office of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, confronted officers at the Ferguson police station and gathered nearby the scenes where two 18-year-olds, Michael Brown and Vonderrit Myers Jr., were fatally shot by police nearly two months apart.

Protesters from all over the country joined locals in what they said was an effort to show the national impact of both teens' deaths. Throughout the day, emotions ran high but violence, rioting and looting were avoided.

"This is the turning point," said Keith Jackson, 50, of Ferguson. "Day after day, there is a police shooting. It's like the new lynching."

Protesters organized four days of activities in Ferguson and surrounding areas over the Columbus Day weekend. Starting Friday, they expected as many as 6,000 people to take part in marches, rallies and a yet-to-be-detailed act of civil disobedience.

But Friday night a modest 200 protesters marched peacefully outside McCulloch's office in Clayton, Mo., for two hours in the rain, many shivering and huddling under umbrellas. Jackson, who was among them, said it was important to physically come to the office because such gatherings bring attention to the prosecutor and show solidarity among protesters.

Protesters march with an inverted American flag during a protest near the Ferguson, Mo., police headquarters on Oct. 10, 2014, in Ferguson. (Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP)

His feelings were echoed by Joshua Williams, 18, of Ferguson. Williams came to Clayton after spending Thursday night protesting in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis nearby where Myers was killed Wednesday. For him, coming to the prosecutor's office represented getting to the heart of the matter.

"He's the one who can make the order and change," said Williams, a dog trainer. "We need to keep putting pressure on him. He might change his mind because he might get tired of seeing us."

Protesters have been calling for McCulloch to step down from handling Brown's case. They want him to allow a special prosecutor to handle prosecuting Darren Wilson, the white police officer who killed Brown, who was black.

Myers Jr. was killed by an off-duty white police officer. Police said the 18-year-old had shot at the officer, but his family and friends insist he did not have a gun.

Friday's protesters included an increasingly diverse crowd. Jenny Koons, a film director, and some friends drove 15 hours from New York City to be in Missouri for this weekend's protests.

"It's not a black issue, it¹s not a Missouri issue, it's a national issue," Koons, 34, of Queens, said. "The only way things are going to change systematically is if everyone comes together. So it's important for people around the country who were so outraged in August to show up and say I was outraged from afar, I tweeted about it and now it's time for me to be here."

Koons and her friends started Artists 4 Change NYC weeks after Brown was killed. The group brings together artists, activists and community leaders in an effort to change social ills that concern them.

Jonathan Paz is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania studying philosophy, politics, and economics. He and nine other students raised $600 to rent a van to drive 17 hours to Missouri. The students are staying at a local church.

"We are demonstrating that the world is listening and the world is watching," Paz, 21, said.

Protests are planned across the St. Louis area on a weekend when several major sporting events are scheduled, including a postseason NLCS showdown between the St. Louis Cardinals the San Francisco Giants.

"The entire department is in uniform - every detective, desk person - so they're available to go out into the field," St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said. Officers will be working 12-hour shifts, Dotson said, and the department has more resources to deploy if necessary.

On Friday night in Ferguson, a candlelight vigil was held in memory of Brown, Myers and other people who died in ways that protesters felt were racist, said Elizabeth Vega, an artist who organized the event. Protesters carried a glass casket and marched to the Ferguson police station.

Young women attend a candlelight vigil for victims of gun violence Oct. 10, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. (Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP)

There, protesters faced off with police. At times, the scene was tense as several protesters approached officers and yelled at police from just inches away. Maurice Brown, who is not related to Michael Brown, walked up to a line of police officers and screamed for several minutes.

"I want them to know exactly what they have been doing," he said. "They have been doing our people wrong for decades, and they have no remorse."

On Friday afternoon, Michael Brown's parents, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., put out a statement about this weekend's events.

"While we respect every citizen's right to free expression, it is our hope that those coming to Ferguson to protest the shooting of our son this weekend do so peacefully and lawfully," the statement said. "We understand firsthand the powerless frustration felt by people of all walks of life regarding their interactions with law enforcement. And for that reason, as Michael Brown's parents, we ask that those coming to show support for our son do so within the law."
Contributing: Jennifer Meckles, KSDK-TV, St. Louis
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1xBmrLz

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Amid weekend of protests, 'world is watching' Ferguson

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CLOSE FERGUSON, Mo. - Hundreds of demonstrators peacefully kicked off a holiday weekend of protests dubbed "Ferguson October." Late Friday, people marched outside the office of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, confronted officers at the Ferguson police station and gathered nearby the scenes where two 18-year-olds, Michael Brown and Vonderrit Myers Jr., were fatally shot by police nearly two months apart.

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Police use tear gas as 'Occupy' comes to Hong Kong

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Police use tear gas as 'Occupy' comes to Hong Kong

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September 2014

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/29/news/hong-kong-occupy-democracy/

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Key traffic arteries in Hong Kong remained blocked Monday after a forceful crackdown by police failed to dislodge pro-democracy protesters from the streets of the financial capital.

Police fired volley after volley of tear gas at protesters on Sunday, an unusually heavy-handed response that appeared only to galvanize public support and draw thousands of additional demonstrators into the streets.

The protesters want free and open elections in the Chinese territory, while Beijing has proposed a process that would allow it to screen candidates for the city's top office.

The most visible pro-democracy group -- Occupy Central With Love and Peace -- had planned to launch a campaign of civil disobedience actions designed to snarl traffic and disrupt operations in the city's business district starting Wednesday.

But the group was jolted to a start after student demonstrations gained momentum over the weekend. At the protest's peak, tens of thousands of protesters jammed the streets around city government headquarters.

The protesters, many of them students, donned homemade masks of goggles and plastic wrap in an effort to protect against pepper spray and tear gas.

The movement has been dubbed the "Umbrella Revolution" on social media after protesters used umbrellas to shield themselves.

Many protestors are upset that city officials haven't done more to recognize the movement or safeguard the rights of Hong Kong people.

"My biggest concern is that the [Hong Kong] government is not there to fight for us," said Kristy Lee, a 16-year-old student. Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung "is just working for the government of China -- he doesn't really listen to us, even though we fight for so long. That's why we are here -- we have to speak for ourselves."

Some university professors have canceled lectures in order to join students. Many primary and secondary schools were also closed, along with some banks. On the streets, supporters worked to distribute donated food and drinks to the protesters.

"We uphold democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly," said university student Aaron Koo, 20. "By all means, [the protests] will be good for the reputation of Hong Kong. Who should be ashamed? The government of Hong Kong, but not the Hong Kong people."

Others say they're also protesting to bring attention to social inequality. "We cannot afford [an apartment], we could not have a shelter [even though] we work all the time," said Kaley Lau, 25, who works as a nurse.

Lau said she asked for time off in advance prior to this week in order to participate in the protests.

"Inequality has become bigger and bigger -- that's why we all have to stand out and tell the government how we feel," said Ken Tsui, a 36-year-old movie director. "All the policies [are] leaning to the top tier of the rich -- this is not healthy, and they will keep doing this, so we have to stop it right now."

Supporters said they feel it's necessary to speak out now. "I have to do something right now to protect my [future] sons, my grandsons, my family, my future," said hospital worker Nickel Lau, 25. "Because maybe if I don't do it now, later I cannot do anything."

While protests are common in Hong Kong, the deployment of riot police and the use of tear gas is unusual. Police said they had arrested 78 people.

"Hong Kong people [have] quite good self-control -- they clean, they help each other, they clean the rubbish," said Tobey Tang, 30. "They try to just sit here, don't fight with the police."

Protesters continued to crowd several key points across the city on Monday morning, even occupying a stretch of Nathan Road, one of the busiest streets in Kowloon. "We try to make some noise so the whole world can know our situation," said Kaley Lau.

"This issue will affect the economy," Kaley Lau said. "If the government turns so bad, Hong Kong will lose its attractiveness -- it's the system which attracts foreigners to invest with us."

While Hong Kong's exchange was functioning normally on Monday, the benchmark Hang Seng Index was trading sharply lower, giving up close to 2%. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said it was prepared to provide additional liquidity as needed.

"I don't mean that we hate China," said Tang. "We [are] still both Chinese; we [are] still family, but we need policy to make life in Hong Kong more easy."

CNNMoney (Hong Kong) First published September 29, 2014: 2:19 AM ET

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Police use tear gas as 'Occupy' comes to Hong Kong

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Police fired volley after volley of tear gas at protesters on Sunday, an unusually heavy-handed response that appeared only to galvanize public support and draw thousands of additional demonstrators into the streets. The protesters want free and open elections in the Chinese territory, while Beijing has proposed a process that would allow it to screen candidates for the city's top office.

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Fast Food Strike September 2014: Workers Seek $15 Minimum Wage, Right To Unionize

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Fast Food Strike September 2014: Workers Seek $15 Minimum Wage, Right To Unionize

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September 2014

http://www.ibtimes.com/fast-food-strike-september-2014-workers-seek-15-minimum-wage-right-unionize-1678354

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Photo: Reuters

Thousands of fast-food workers are planning to strike and take to the streets in 150 cities Thursday to protest income inequality and demand higher wages. The fast-food employees, some of whom work for as little as $7.25 an hour, want their pay bumped up to $15 an hour so they can make ends meet.

Hours before a rally was scheduled to start Thursday in New York City, about 25 protesters were arrested for blocking traffic while demonstrating outside a McDonald's in Times Square, NYC Fox affiliate WNYW reported.

McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD) said in a statement that it supports a minimum wage increase, but didn't say whether it agress with workers who want $15 an hour.

"At McDonald's we respect everyone's rights to peacefully protest. The topic of minimum wage goes well beyond McDonald's; it affects our country's entire workforce. McDonald's and our independent franchisees support paying our valued employees fair wages aligned with a competitive marketplace," the company said, according to CBS Los Angeles.

Thursday's protests are part of a two-year campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the fast-food worker, the latest having taken place in May. While the demonstrations haven't led to an increase in the federal minimum wage, some states and localities have upped the minimum wage. Seattle raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour and Massachusetts residents will soon see an $11-an-hour minimum wage, according to NBC News. McDonald's Corp. is on record saying it supports a federal minimum wage increase, but not to $15 an hour, as demanded by its workers.

President Barack Obama has acknowledged the protests and referenced the fast-food worker movement during an address on Labor Day in Milwaukee, saying they deserved higher pay and the right to unionize. Earlier this year, Obama took executive action to institute a minimum wage increase from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour for employees working under new federal contracts.

"All across the country right now, there's a national movement going on made up of fast-food workers, organizing to lift wages so they can provide for their families with pride and dignity," he said. "There is no denying a simple truth: America deserves a raise."

Fast-food workers from a number of major cities are set to strike. Protests are planned in Detroit, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and dozens of other cities.

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Fast Food Strike September 2014: Workers Seek $15 Minimum Wage, Right To Unionize

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Thousands of fast-food workers are planning to strike and take to the streets in 150 cities Thursday to protest income inequality and demand higher wages. The fast-food employees, some of whom work for as little as $7.25 an hour, want their pay bumped up to $15 an hour so they can make ends meet.

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On Staten Island, Thousands Protest Police Tactics

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On Staten Island, Thousands Protest Police Tactics

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August 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/nyregion/on-staten-island-thousands-protest-police-tactics.html

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They came by ferry from Manhattan, in caravans from Brooklyn and New Jersey or on foot from the gritty neighborhood in northeast Staten Island where an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, died last month after an encounter with the police.

Thousands converged on an overcast Saturday at the site of the encounter, the start of a protest march linking Mr. Garner's death to lethal police actions past and present, from New York City to Ferguson, Mo., where a white officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager on Aug. 9.

Signs and slogans touched on details of the deaths as well as broad policies that protesters argued encouraged bad behavior by officers.

" 'Broken Windows' Kills," a sign read, a reference to the aggressive policing of minor offenses like selling untaxed cigarettes, the crime Mr. Garner had been accused of committing.

Chants of "I can't breathe" - Mr. Garner's words as he struggled with officers - mixed with those borrowed from Ferguson: "Hands up, don't shoot."

For days, march organizers and Mayor Bill de Blasio emphasized that the demonstration on Staten Island would not devolve into the sort of violent confrontation with police officers that had plagued the protests over the death of the Ferguson teenager, Michael Brown. By late afternoon, the march had ended and the crowds were heading home. The police said all had been quiet and there had been no arrests.

Indeed, for both police officials and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who led the march, the demonstration served as a kind of protest by example for how to respond forcefully but peacefully amid accusations of police misconduct.

"We are not here to cause riots; we are here because violence was caused," Mr. Sharpton said at a rally after the march. But, he said, "we are not against the police."

Mr. Garner, who was 43 and more than 300 pounds, died after the encounter with the police on July 17. A video of the episode shows an officer, Daniel Pantaleo, holding onto Mr. Garner's neck as other officers piled on to restrain him. The city's medical examiner ruled that his death was caused by the chokehold and a compression of the chest.

"We will not stop until somebody goes to jail," David A. Paterson, the former governor of New York, told the crowd on Saturday.

The Staten Island district attorney, Daniel M. Donovan Jr., has said he would impanel a special grand jury, set to begin next month, that could bring criminal charges against Officer Pantaleo or others. Federal authorities have said they are monitoring the case but have not begun their own investigation.

Lyndell Jones, 46, an administrative assistant from the Bronx who marched on Saturday, said she had been unable to sleep for a week after watching the video of Mr. Garner's death. "My boyfriend is big like Eric Garner - I thought of him," she said.

The Police Department had planned for crowds of 15,000 or more, officials said, though organizers said they had expected between 3,000 to 5,000. The actual total on Saturday appeared to be within the organizers' estimate. The police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said the department worked closely with Mr. Sharpton and other organizers to ensure the march went smoothly.

Mr. de Blasio, who did not attend the march, said on Saturday that "after any incident like this, it's very important that people express their concerns." But he also defended the "broken windows" approach to policing, which is associated with Mr. Bratton and has come under intensifying criticism after Mr. Garner's death.

"It's about addressing problems at the grass roots consistently and energetically, and we'll continue to do that," the mayor said.

During the demonstration, community affairs officers in royal-blue shirts and baseball hats offered a stark contrast to the militarized posture of police officers in the aftermath of Mr. Brown's death. Uniformed patrol officers controlled crowds at the ferry terminal and appeared interested to keep a respectful distance from the marchers along the route.

"Be police, be professional, take control," a captain told a half-dozen huddled officers on a street corner in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, as protesters boarded the buses that would take them to Staten Island. "They're looking to show the world that New York City knows how to protest," the captain said.

At a Staten Island precinct station house on Thursday night, a few hundred people held a vigil for officers killed in the line of duty, in protest of the impending march.

"It's ridiculous; there's no reason for a march," said Thomas Kosnik, 44, a retired police detective. "Police should be given the benefit of the doubt."

At the rally, the demonstrators said their protest was not against the Police Department in general. Signs handed out by Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union read: "Support N.Y.P.D. Stop Police Brutality."

Among the marchers were members of unions that threw support behind the protests, and elected officials, including the City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito. A cousin of Mr. Brown's also attended, a spokeswoman for Mr. Sharpton said.

Many invoked the names of black New Yorkers killed by the police in recent years: Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and Ramarley Graham. Mr. Diallo's mother. Kadi Diallo, was among the speakers at the rally. "We have to stop this, there is too much pain," she said. "Too many tears."

Several of Mr. Garner's relatives marched together in matching T-shirts bearing his name and the words he spoke just before his arrest: "It stops today."

After the march, a demonstrator shook the hand of Mr. Garner's father, Ben Carr, and told him he wanted justice. "I just want to make sure it's nonviolent," Mr. Carr said. "We don't have that much here. Ain't no sense in tearing it up."

Colin Moynihan, Benjamin Mueller and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: On Staten Island, Thousands Protest Police Tactics. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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On Staten Island, Thousands Protest Police Tactics

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They came by ferry from Manhattan, in caravans from Brooklyn and New Jersey or on foot from the gritty neighborhood in northeast Staten Island where an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, died last month after an encounter with the police.

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Thousands rally across US in solidarity with Ferguson

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Thousands rally across US in solidarity with Ferguson

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August 2014

http://nypost.com/2014/08/14/protesters-rally-in-times-square-in-solidarity-with-ferguson/

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Thousands of people across the country on Thursday attended protest vigils for an unarmed black Missouri teenager fatally shot by a white police officer and other victims who organizers say died as a result of police brutality.

The vigils, observed in more than 90 cities as part of a National Moment of Silence, came days after the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the death of a New York man caused by a police officer's chokehold.

In downtown St. Louis, in a tiny park near the Gateway Arch, several hundred people, seemingly equal numbers of whites and blacks, gathered in Brown's memory.

The site is a short drive from suburban Ferguson, where Brown's killing has stoked racial unrest. In Ferguson, two-thirds of the 21,000 residents are black and all but three of the 53 police officers are white.

The St. Louis gathering was peaceful, in contrast with a night of looting and clashes between demonstrators and police in Ferguson earlier in the week.

The attendees included Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, who didn't address the crowd but waved, drawing applause as she wiped away tears.

The observance was among many staged nationwide, each with a minute of silence for Brown and others who died at the hands of police.

Bishop Elliott Coleman, of St. Louis' El Bethel Temple Church, said in opening the observance there that people were coming together "for this reason of healing."

"Realize there are tears in every city, tears in homes, tears in the eyes of young people, tears in the eyes of old people," Coleman said. "The tears need to be wiped away, and the hearts need to be healed."

In New York, about 1,000 people peacefully marched in Manhattan's Union Square, at times invoking the rallying cries "Hands up, don't shoot" and "I can't breathe," alluding to the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, who was arrested on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes and was placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer.

Garner, who had asthma, can be heard on tape shouting "I can't breathe!" and died a short time later.

The police commissioner of New York has said officers will be retrained on the use of force. Police in Ferguson have said Brown was shot after an officer encountered him and another man on the street and one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car and physically assaulted him.

Antonia Moe, who attended the Union Square vigil with her 12-year-old son, said incidents like Brown's death have changed the way she talks to her son about being black.

"When things like this happen, you kind of have to remember to remind him that some of the rules that apply to others don't necessarily apply to you," she said.

In Orlando, Florida, about 15 miles outside the Sanford suburb where unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman in 2012, a multicultural crowd of about 100 people gathered in front of a park amphitheater.

One woman carried a sign that read: "No Justice, No Peace. We Stand With Ferguson." Another man's sign said: "Hands up. Don't Shoot! RIP Mike Brown."

In Nevada, about 40 people gathered outside the federal courthouse in Reno, and dozens gathered in Seattle, holding up signs that read "Unite Against Racism" and "Solidarity With Ferguson."

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Thousands rally across US in solidarity with Ferguson

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Thousands of people across the country on Thursday attended protest vigils for an unarmed black Missouri teenager fatally shot by a white police officer and other victims who organizers say died as a result of police brutality.

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Looting in Paris as Europeans protest against Gaza conflict

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Looting in Paris as Europeans protest against Gaza conflict

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July 2014

http://news.yahoo.com/looting-paris-europeans-protest-against-gaza-conflict-201348479.html

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Sarcelles (France) (AFP) - A French rally against the deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza once again descended into chaos Sunday as protesters looted shops and riot police lobbed tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds.

The demonstration in the northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles is the third to have deteriorated in the space of eight days in a country that counts the largest Muslim population in western Europe and a huge Jewish community.

A decision by authorities to ban protests in areas deemed too sensitive has also garnered controversy as they took place anyway and turned violent, while authorised ones elsewhere in the country -- as well as in other cities across Europe -- were peaceful.

From Vienna to Stockholm and on to Amsterdam, thousands rallied on Sunday to oppose Israel's offensive, which has left more than 400 Palestinians and 20 Israelis dead.

Though patrolled by police, few incidents were reported in those demonstrations.

"We're not anti-Semites, we're here for the people. We call on Europeans and Americans to finally do something," organisers of the 11,000-strong march in Vienna said.

But in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles -- sometimes nicknamed "little Jerusalem" for its large community of Sephardic Jews -- a banned but orderly demonstration of several hundred descended into chaos when dozens of youth -- some of them masked -- set fire to bins and lit firecrackers and smoke bombs.

Looters then began raiding shops, wrecking a funeral home and destroying its front window as several protesters shouted: "Fuck Israel!".

- Access to synagogue blocked -

Others raided a drugstore which caught fire. Young girls grabbed baby milk inside.

"We're going to get the cash register," one person shouted, his voice drowned by the noise of a police helicopter overhead and the alarm of a nearby pizzeria.

Security forces then fired rubber bullets in the direction of the looters.

Not far away, riot police blocked access to the local synagogue, where a group of young men stood armed with clubs and iron bars -- one of them flying an Israeli flag.

The deadly bombing of Gaza has brought to light deep divides within French society -- a Jewish community increasingly concerned over anti-Semitism, a growing radical Islamic fringe, and far-left activists whose opposition to Israeli policies sometimes verges on anti-Semitism.

The violence in Sarcelles closely mirrored that of a rally Saturday in a northern district of Paris, when a protest that began peacefully spiralled out of control, leading to clashes with riot police and dozens of arrests.

Both rallies had been banned out of fear of unrest and amid concern that the Jewish community would be targeted after protesters last weekend tried to storm two synagogues in the French capital.

Some commentators in France, and the left-wing party which helped organise Saturday's march, railed against the ban, particularly as other protests in France and Europe took place without incident.

On Saturday, parts of central London were brought to a standstill as thousands marched against the Israeli offensive.

London saw both pro- and anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, but police kept demonstrators at a distance and no arrests were made.

Some 11,000 marched in central Vienna on Sunday to protest "the murder and oppression in Palestine".

"We're not anti-Semites, we're here for the people. We call on Europeans and Americans to finally do something," the organisers said at the start of the march.

Smaller protests of 500 to 600 people were also held in the Austrian cities of Graz and Linz.

In Amsterdam, they were some 3,000 marchers carrying signs including "Stop the war" and "Israel war criminals," an AFP correspondent said.

"It just has to stop. Children are being killed and they are innocent," said Ekrem Kara, 32, wearing a traditional Palestinian black and white keffiyeh scarf.

In Stockholm about 1,000 people protested.

- Another Paris rally -

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls defended the decision to stop the Paris protest, saying the violence that unfolded "justifies all the more the brave choice by the interior ministry to ban a demonstration."

Speaking as he commemorated the anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup -- a mass arrest of Jews in Paris on July 16 and 17, 1942 -- Valls warned of "a new form of anti-Semitism".

He said it was spreading "on the Internet, on networks, in working class areas, among young people who are often aimless, who have no awareness of history, who hide their 'hatred of the Jews' behind the facade of anti-Zionism and behind hatred of the Israeli state."

President Francois Hollande also hit out at anti-Semitism and racism Sunday, saying it would not be tolerated.

"The Republic is about being able to live together, to look at our history and at the same time to always be ready to defend democratic values, not to be influenced by arguments that are too far away from here to be imported, not to be swept away by global shock waves," he said.

Meanwhile, former French prime minister and leading right-wing politician Alain Juppe criticised the Israeli offensive, which he said was seeking to destroy Hamas but "mostly what we see is terrorised families caught in the trap of the Tsahal's bombardments".

On his blog, Juppe said he "does not understand the Israeli government's strategy", and called for an immediate truce.

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Looting in Paris as Europeans protest against Gaza conflict

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A French rally against the deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza once again descended into chaos Sunday as protesters looted shops and riot police lobbed tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds. The demonstration in the northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles is the third to have deteriorated in the space

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Protesters in California Delay Transfer of Migrants

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Protesters in California Delay Transfer of Migrants

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July 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/us/protesters-in-california-delay-transfer-of-migrants.html

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LOS ANGELES - Three buses carrying migrant families caught illegally crossing the Texas border with Mexico were turned away from a Southern California Border Patrol station on Tuesday afternoon when dozens of angry protesters met them with American flags and signs reading, "Illegals out."

The approximately 140 immigrant detainees had been flown from overcrowded facilities in Texas into San Diego early Tuesday and were scheduled to be moved to other Border Patrol stations in the region.

But a crowd of screaming protesters in Murrieta stood in front of the buses as they arrived in the small city about an hour's drive north of San Diego, shouting, "Go home," and chanting, "U.S.A." After several minutes, the buses turned around without dropping off any of the migrants.

The federal authorities rerouted the vehicles to a freeway and then to a Customs and Border Protection center in San Diego within view of the Mexican border, The Associated Press reported. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said the buses had turned back because of safety concerns for the Border Patrol agents and the migrants on board.

The protest came after Murrieta's mayor, Alan Long, told residents that they should make known their displeasure with the federal government's decision to move the immigrants to their city. "Clearly, this is a failed system that is spreading the cost and needed resources to handle these situations on the backs of local communities," Mr. Long said Monday.

Local officials had raised concerns for weeks about plans to send migrants to the city's Border Patrol center, which has no showers or long-term housing, for processing. Mr. Long had said he expected migrants to arrive in the city on Tuesday, the first of a wave of arrivals he said would occur every three days for several weeks. The detainees were expected to be processed in Murrieta before being placed under supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the immigration agency, said that the immigrants were to be placed in a transition center run by a faith-based organization in Riverside County. That organization, which asked the federal government not to identify it publicly, would then help the migrants reach relatives living in the United States, Ms. Kice said.

In the last year, there has been a surge of illegal immigration at the Texas border, including more than 52,000 minors caught without their parents since October. President Obama has called the influx of Central American immigrants a humanitarian crisis and last month ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate an effort to maintain detention centers and help children reunite with relatives living in the United States.

The migrants are also expected to be sent to Border Patrol facilities in El Centro, Calif., as well as other cities in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Protesters in California Delay Transfer of Migrants. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Protesters in California Delay Transfer of Migrants

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LOS ANGELES - Three buses carrying migrant families caught illegally crossing the Texas border with Mexico were turned away from a Southern California Border Patrol station on Tuesday afternoon when dozens of angry protesters met them with American flags and signs reading, "Illegals out."

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Protesters Pepper-Sprayed, Arrested During Seattle May Day March

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Protesters Pepper-Sprayed, Arrested During Seattle May Day March

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May 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/02/seattle-may-day_n_5253707.html

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Brazil protesters in Rio clashes over dancer's death

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Brazil protesters in Rio clashes over dancer's death

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April 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27121677

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Deadly protests have broken out in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro following the death of a young man allegedly beaten by police.

A man was shot dead during the violence on Tuesday night in the Pavao-Pavaozinho neighbourhood.

Demonstrators from the favela set barricades of tyres alight, leading to the closure of streets in the nearby tourist area of Copacabana.

The violence comes weeks before Brazil hosts the football World Cup.

'Smoke everywhere'

The unrest started after the discovery in Pavao-Pavaozinho of the body of Douglas Rafael da Silva Pereira, a 26-year-old professional dancer.

Angry residents marched to a local police station accusing the officers of beating Mr Pereira to death.

Witnesses said cars were set ablaze, the local police station was attacked and gunfire could be heard from the favela.

"There was smoke everywhere, shots in the street and people racing for their homes," one resident living nearby told AFP news agency.

Pavao-Pavaozinho is one of the poor neighbourhoods of Rio that has been part of the recent "pacification" programme, in which police move into an area in an effort to wrest control from the drug traffickers who run it.

It is an attempt by the city authorities to drive the heavily armed gangs away from the communities and restore police authority ahead of the football World Cup in June and July.

But the programme is controversial as Brazilian police have been accused of using excessive force, at times killing residents not connected to any gangs.

Amnesty International says some 2,000 people die every year in Brazil as a result of police violence.

"This effort to pacify the favelas is a failure; the police violence is only replacing what the drug gangs carried out before," resident Johanas Mesquita told the Associated Press news agency.

Dancer's death

Mr Pereira's body was discovered in a local day-care centre covered in wounds.

Unfortunately, innocent people are having to pay for this war between the police and drug traffickers
Tony Teizeira , Copacabana Residents' Association

According to some residents, he had been trying to flee from a shoot-out between police and drug dealers and had climbed over a wall to hide in the day-care centre.

They said he had then been discovered by the officers, who, believing he was a drug dealer, had beaten him to death.

The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation, AFP news agency quoted police as saying.

"An on-site report indicates Douglas's injuries are compatible with a death caused by a fall," the police statement said.

But his mother said he was covered in boot marks, suggesting he had been kicked to death.

Firefight

Large crowds, demanding an explanation for the death, gathered near the entrance to the favela, which is just a few streets away from the city's famous beaches and tourist hot-spots, reports the BBC's Wyre Davies from Rio.

The clashes began at 17:30 local time (20:30 GMT) causing panic among residents returning from work. Hundreds had to mill around in nearby streets waiting for the violence to stop to return to their homes.

Riot police and firefighters were sent to the area and an hour later witnesses reported hearing "an intense firefight".

Officials said a 27-year-old man was killed by a bullet to the head. It is not yet clear who fired the shot.

Riot police said they had "rescued" a group of 10 officers who had been surrounded by protesters inside the favela.

Police said the violence had been orchestrated by a powerful criminal gang.

Tony Teizeira of the Copacabana Residents' Association said the clashes came at a time when many tourists were in the area on Easter holidays.

"Unfortunately, innocent people are having to pay for this war between the police and drug traffickers," he said.

Thousands of visitors are expected to visit Rio for the World Cup which starts in Sao Paulo on 12 June and will end with the final in Rio's famous Maracana stadium on 13 July.

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Deadly protests have broken out in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro following the death of a young man allegedly beaten by police. A man was shot dead during the violence on Tuesday night in the Pavao-Pavaozinho neighbourhood. Demonstrators from the favela set barricades of tyres alight, leading to the closure of streets in the nearby tourist area of Copacabana.

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Egyptian Activists to Stand Trial for Protesting Ban on Protests

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Egyptian Activists to Stand Trial for Protesting Ban on Protests

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June 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/world/middleeast/egyptian-activists-to-stand-trial-for-protesting-ban-on-protests.html

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A prosecutor in Cairo plans to charge 23 opposition activists with violating a new law banning unsanctioned protests for attending a rally last Saturday against the ban.

The defendants were detained after their peaceful march was attacked by a group of men in civilian clothes who seemed to arrive with the police and hurled rocks and bottles at the protesters. They were also accused of "stirring chaos," vandalism, resisting arrest and possessing "arms," or fireworks, according to Aswat Masriya, an Egyptian news site sponsored by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Seven of the detainees are women, including "20-year-old activist Sanaa Seif, whose brother Alaa Abd El Fattah is serving a 15-year sentence for similar charges, and human rights researcher Yara Sallam," the independent Cairene news site Mada Masr reported.

The authorities "interrogated Sallam extensively about the work of the organization" for which she works, Human Rights Watch said in a statement deploring the arrests. "The detention of Yara Sallam," said Joe Stork, a regional director for Human Rights Watch, "raises concerns that authorities want to intimidate and silence Egyptian rights activists who have bravely criticized this law and other rights violations that have become routine since the military takeover last July."

Ms. Seif comes from a family of prominent activists. Her brother, known to his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers as simply @Alaa, was sentenced in absentia this month for attending a protest last year. Her sister, Mona Seif, founded the group No Military Trials for Civilians. Their father, Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamed, once ran the Cairo-based Hisham Mubarak Law Center and spent five years in jail in the 1980s for his opposition to Egypt's autocratic government. And their mother, Laila Soueif, is a professor at Cairo University who has a long history of activism.

Members of that family and other supporters of the detainees staged a small sit-in outside a courthouse in Heliopolis from Tuesday night until Wednesday, documented on Twitter by the activist blogger Kareem Farid and Ms. Seif's cousin, Omar Robert Hamilton.

Mr. Hamilton also shared a photograph of his cousin's bedroom door to give a sense of how many causes she has supported in the three years since Egypt's young revolutionaries forced former President Hosni Mubarak from power.

The detainees are expected to appear in court on Sunday, Aswat Masriya reported.

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Egyptian Activists to Stand Trial for Protesting Ban on Protests

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A prosecutor in Cairo plans to charge 23 opposition activists with violating a new law banning unsanctioned protests for attending a rally last Saturday against the ban. The defendants were detained after their peaceful march was attacked by a group of men in civilian clothes who seemed to arrive with the police and hurled rocks and bottles at the protesters.

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Brazil World Cup: Clashes at Sao Paulo and Rio protests

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Brazil World Cup: Clashes at Sao Paulo and Rio protests

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June 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27811657

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Police clashed with protesters in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and several other host cities on Thursday as the World Cup got under way in Brazil.

Officers used tear gas on crowds in Sao Paulo hours before Brazil's team beat Croatia 3-1 in the opening match.

Several people were also injured after scuffles broke out in Rio de Janeiro.

Protesters are angry at how much the government has spent on preparations for the World Cup and the Olympics, which Rio will host in 2016.

Earlier, striking airport workers in Rio de Janeiro blocked a road outside the airport, demanding a wage increase and a World Cup bonus.

The strike was to have lasted for 24 hours but union leaders called it off early for legal reasons.

Striking teachers also staged a rally in Rio city centre, further disrupting traffic.

Chanting

BBC correspondents in Sao Paulo said police charged protesters with batons and riot shields and fired rubber bullets and tear gas near a metro station on the route to the Arena Corinthians.

Police moved in after the demonstrators, chanting "there won't be a Cup", tried to block the road.

US news channel CNN said Barbara Arvanitidis, one of its journalists, was among those injured in Sao Paulo, suffering a suspected broken arm.

A photographer working for the AP news agency was also injured after a stun grenade exploded near him.

The violence happened about 13km (8 miles) from the stadium where Brazil later beat Croatia, thanks to two goals from Neymar.

There were also clashes in Rio, the capital Brasilia, and two other World Cup host cities - Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre.

In Belo Horizonte, where England will play Costa Rica on 24 June, about 200 people took part in a demonstration against the tournament.

Protesters in the southeastern city overturned a police car and smashed the windows of banks and shops. At least one hotel shut its doors and asked guests not to venture outside.

"I'm totally against the Cup," one protester in Sao Paulo told AP. "We're in a country where the money doesn't go to the community, and meanwhile we see all these millions spent on stadiums."

Further protests are planned across Brazil over the course of the tournament.

Last year, more than a million people joined protests across the country to demand better public services and highlight corruption and the high cost of staging the World Cup.

Since then, other smaller anti-World Cup protests have been staged in Brazil, with some descending into violence.

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Police clashed with protesters in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and several other host cities on Thursday as the World Cup got under way in Brazil. Officers used tear gas on crowds in Sao Paulo hours before Brazil's team beat Croatia 3-1 in the opening match.

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May 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/16/anti-world-cup-protests-across-brazil

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Anti-World Cup protests in 12 cities have marked the worst day in another awful week for Brazil as the government struggles with strikes, crime and public unease less than a month before the tournament kicks off.

Co-ordinated demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and elsewhere coincided with a military police strike - and spate of murders - in another World Cup host city, Recife, to add to the organisers' headaches as hundreds of thousands of players, fans and officials prepare to fly into the country.

The events follow industrial action in Rio earlier in the week by teachers, bus drivers, museum employees and geologists, and underline longer term concerns about public safety and transport infrastructure.

The protest of about a thousand people in Rio was far smaller than the huge demonstrations seen last year but adds to an unusual muted and emotionally complicated atmosphere in Brazil as it prepares to host its first World Cup since 1950.

Carrying banners declaring "Na Copa vai ter luta" (The Cup will have protests), appeals for a general strike and claims that the cost of refurbishing the Maracanã stadium could pay for 200 schools, the demonstrators rallied with striking workers in the broadest show of dissent in several months.

Many of those present cited the proximity of the tournament and the global media attention it brings as a driver for their actions.

"The world is looking to Brazil and we are showing that the World Cup doesn't represent us," said Felipe Mesquita, a history student at the Fluminense Federal University. "I like football. I like the national team but we also have to think about what the World Cup means. We shouldn't accept all the bad things that go with it such as forced relocations and the limits on rights to protest and strike."

In São Paulo police used tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators. In Belo Horizonte about 2,000 people took to the streets. In Brasilia protesters carried banners decrying the deaths of stadium workers in the rush to finish before the tournament.

Brazil has also been hit by a wave of strikes in recent weeks. Teachers in Rio have halted classes for several days to call for better pay and working conditions. They were joined on Thursday by bus drivers, who had refused to work on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"The World Cup gives us more visibility," said one striking teacher, Jorge Luiz Monteiro. "We'd like to take advantage of it to find others who will unite with us to fight for better conditions."

Of greater concern was a continuing strike by military police in Recife - one of Brazil's most violent cities - which prompted many to take the day off and stay at home. Their security concerns appear to have been at least partly justified, according to reports of a spate of robberies, looting and more than two dozen killings in a day. To allay their fears the local authorities dispatched tanks and armoured personnel carriers through the streets and cancelled two football matches scheduled for the weekend.

"They are obviously using the proximity of the World Cup to pressure us to give into their demands," Pernambuco state press officer Manoel Guimaraes told reporters.

While many Brazilians are looking forward to the tournament and eager to see the home team - one of the favourites - take on visiting nations, many observers say the mood is more muted than at the same stage before previous World Cups.

In past years many neighbourhoods joined in competitions to produce street art in support of the national team. But relatively few communities have painted the roads green and yellow or festooned the streets with bunting.

There is still time for this to happen but the low-key response so far has been blamed on the concerns of over-spending, corruption and elitism that are reflected in the protests.

Zico, one of Brazil's greatest former players, summed up the mood in a column for the Guardian:

While previously World Cup fever would be there for all to see, the atmosphere now is much more subdued. I haven't seen the bunting and painted streets that you might expect to be part of preparations here. To me, it looks like the protests might have put some fans on the back foot, but with a month to go before the tournament starts I wish I could see a bit more joy among the people.

His observations were echoed by the former captain of the Seleção, Carlos Alberto, but he was optimistic that the national mood would change. "There exists a sort of anti-World Cup sentiment and because of this I think people aren't decorating the streets and wearing the national team shirts as in the past," he told the Guardian. "But closer to the tournament I think people will come around and they'll start to get excited. Many Brazilians are currently against the cup, but when the event actually starts all the happiness that comes with Brazilian football will reveal itself and the mood will change."

The demonstrators had a very different view. "Who would have ever imagined that so many people in Brazil would protests this close to the World Cup," said Tomas Ramos of Ocupa Copa (Occupy the Cup) movement. "When the World Cup was held in other countries Brazilians traditionally painted the street in green and yellow. But this is not happening any more. Now we want people to paint the street critically. So far the protests have not been very big but we expect them to get huge."
Topics

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Anti-World Cup protests in 12 cities have marked the worst day in another awful week for Brazil as the government struggles with strikes, crime and public unease less than a month before the tournament kicks off.

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Kiev Protesters Set Square Ablaze to Thwart Police

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Kiev Protesters Set Square Ablaze to Thwart Police

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February 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/world/europe/ukraine.html

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Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. telephoned Mr. Yanukovych to "express grave concern regarding the crisis on the streets" of Kiev, and urged him "to pull back government forces and to exercise maximum restraint," the vice president's office said in a statement.

Mr. Yanukovych had repeatedly pledged not to use force to disperse protesters, but after meeting President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, he had clearly changed his mind. The fighting also broke out a day after Russia threw a new financial lifeline to Mr. Yanukovych's government by buying $2 billion in Ukrainian government bonds.

The Russian aid appeared to signal confidence that important votes in Parliament expected this week, to amend the Constitution and form a new cabinet, will go in Russia's favor.

The fateful shift in Mr. Yanukovych's thinking and tactics will silence what had been chants night and day from Independence Square for him to resign, but will by no means guarantee his future grip on power in a country that, despite its deep divisions rooted in language, culture and huge disparities of wealth, prides itself on avoiding violence.

Even one of the president's most stalwart supporters, the billionaire businessman Rihat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man, seemed distressed by the president's decision, warning in a statement on Tuesday that "there are no situations whatsoever that vindicate the use of force against a peaceful population."

With opposition politicians and other protest leaders vowing defiance late into the night from a stage at the center of their crumbling encampment, it was unclear how long even the greatly feared and detested antiriot police, known as Berkut, could hang on to Independence Square in the event that residents poured into the area once morning broke.

The authorities shut down the subway system on Tuesday to prevent people from reaching the area and said they would restrict traffic into the city starting at midnight.

Activists in the west of the country, a bastion of support for the antigovernment cause, had earlier vowed to send buses with reinforcements to Kiev.

The attack on Independence Square began shortly before 8 p.m., when police officers tried to drive two armored personnel carriers through stone-reinforced barriers outside the Khreshchatyk Hotel on the road to the square. The vehicles became bogged down and, set upon by protesters wielding rocks and fireworks, burst into flames, trapping the security officers inside one of them and prompting desperate rescue efforts to save those caught in the second vehicle, which managed to pull back from the protesters' barricade.

A phalanx of riot police officers, backed by a water cannon, had more success in a separate thrust, pushing through protesters' barricades near the Ukraina Hotel and firing tear gas as they advanced toward the center of the square. People covered in blood staggered to the protesters' medical center.

Volodomyr Pogorily, a doctor at the center, said he had removed five bullets from wounded protesters. Many of the injuries were from percussion grenades, which create a deafening noise but are not meant to be lethal or cause serious injury. But a nurse said the wounds she had treated during the day suggested that the grenades had been wrapped in tape with nails and stones to make them more dangerous. Other victims had been hit by birdshot from shotguns.

Yevgeny Avramchuk, a protester who was treated at the center, said doctors had removed a pebble from a hole in his calf. Another person was evacuated in an ambulance with a puncture wound to the chest. Throughout the evening, doctors rushed along a corridor lined with a filthy carpet and littered with bloody bandages, removing projectiles from people slumped in the hallway.

In the late evening, the police finally overcame resistance from barricades near the Khreshchatyk Hotel and joined colleagues in a pincer operation to try to secure the flame-encircled center of Independence Square, known as Maidan. As they advanced, protesters started singing the Ukrainian national anthem.

Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, a prominent opposition leader who had just returned from a meeting on Monday with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, delivered what could be his final speech from the stage in Independence Square, at least for some time.

Map: Satellite Images of the Protests in Kiev

"We see that this regime started shooting at people again. They want to drown Ukraine in blood," he shouted. "We won't react on a single one of their provocations. But we won't make any single step back from here, from this Maidan."

Protesters caught three police officers who had apparently tried to run through what the protesters were calling the "perimeter of fire." One was bloodied and semiconscious. As he was being dragged through the crowd, people kicked and cursed at him. Others yelled to stop beating the officer. "We are not beasts, brothers and sisters, stop," one man said. Protest leaders stepped in to make sure the officers received medical treatment.

By early Wednesday, the speeches from the stage had given way to mournful prayers and chants by priests from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Some protesters acknowledged that they had contributed to the violent spiral of events by attacking police officers during street battles early in the day near the Ukrainian Parliament, which the opposition had hoped would approve constitutional amendments curbing President Yanukovych's powers.

"We have no other way," said Lena Melniko, a 33-year-old accountant who joined a team of protesters digging up paving stones and passing them on to fighters to throw at the police, "We have been protesting for three months but are stuck in dead end."

Throughout the day, opposition leaders urged protesters to stand firm in a series of defiant speeches. "We will come out of Maidan either free or slaves. But we don't want to be slaves," said Serhiy Sobolev, a member of Parliament.

Older women clustered on the sidewalk and heckled the police, yelling, "Killers!" and "Shoot us! Just shoot us, kill us, kill us, you bastards!"

Petro Poroshenko, a wealthy opposition member of Parliament whose television station has been broadcasting the protests, called for discipline and defiance. "We are here not simply protecting Maidan, we are here protecting Ukraine," Mr. Poroshenko said, urging residents to converge on the square. "We are not simply staying here for the future of Kiev. We are standing for the unity of Ukraine."

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Kiev Protesters Set Square Ablaze to Thwart Police

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Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. telephoned Mr. Yanukovych to "express grave concern regarding the crisis on the streets" of Kiev, and urged him "to pull back government forces and to exercise maximum restraint," the vice president's office said in a statement.

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Amid Protests, Taiwan to Halt Work on Nuclear Plant

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Amid Protests, Taiwan to Halt Work on Nuclear Plant

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April 2014

http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/amid-protests-taiwan-to-halt-work-on-nuclear-plant/

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Taiwan will halt the construction of a nuclear power plant that had met with public opposition and raised concerns about safety, the governing party has announced.

The decision followed several large protests in Taipei and a hunger strike by a former leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

The move was announced on Sunday after a meeting of county and city officials from the governing party, the Kuomintang, which is headed by President Ma Ying-jeou.

Work on the Lungmen nuclear plant, which would be Taiwan's fourth, started more than a decade ago in the island's northeast, about 20 miles outside the capital, Taipei. It has been frequently delayed, and opposition to the project intensified following the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The government has argued that the plant, which is expected to supply about 10 percent of Taiwan's power, is needed to help meet growing demand for electricity. But Mr. Ma has seen his popularity fall to near all-time lows in recent months, and he has faced strong opposition on many policy fronts. An effort to push through legislative approval of a trade deal with China was thwarted after student-led protesters occupied the legislature for more than three weeks in March and April.

The Kuomintang announcement said that the first reactor on the Lungmen plant, which is near completion, would undergo safety testing and then be mothballed. Work will stop on the second reactor, and a referendum will then be held to determine whether the plant, also commonly known as No. 4, will be completed and go online, the announcement said.

Taipower, the state-run utility that is building the plant at a cost of more than $9 billion, says the first reactor is more than 95 percent finished and the second more than 90 percent. Taipower's chairman, Hwang Jung-chiou, told Taiwan's state-owned Central News Agency that stopping construction of the plant would force the company to declare bankruptcy.

Mr. Ma met last week with the opposition party chairman, Su Tseng-chang, to discuss a referendum, and while both sides agreed that a vote should be held, they differed on the timing and on what level of voter turnout should be required to validate any result. Mr. Su had argued that the vote should be held as soon as possible, with a lower threshold than the 50 percent turnout normally required.

On Sunday, Mr. Su called the Kuomintang announcement on the plant vague and said it should come from a government body. He called on Prime Minister Jiang Yi-huah to explain the decision as soon as possible.

Mr. Jiang confirmed the decision on Monday, saying that the move to halt construction was not the same as abandoning the project and that the government wanted to keep open the possibility of adding nuclear power capacity in the future.

Protesters had taken to the streets of Taipei over the weekend to demand that construction of the plant be stopped. On Sunday, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered near the Presidential Office Building, chanting "Stop Nuclear Plant No. 4, Return Power to the People." They festooned the barbed wire barricades surrounding Mr. Ma's office with yellow and black ribbons displaying their slogan. Organizers said about 50,000 protesters participated; the police estimated the crowd at 28,500 at its peak.

"Taiwan has lots of earthquakes, and we put these nuclear power plants next to the sea," said Lin Chin-lung, a 47-year-old who works in finance and first joined the antinuclear demonstrations last year. "The earthquake in Japan, that was important in making people pay attention to the risks we're talking about."

The protesters marched to a main street near the central train station on Sunday afternoon. The police used water cannons to disperse some of the demonstrators in the early hours of Monday morning.

The protesters say they were inspired in part by Lin Yi-hsiung, a former chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, who began a hunger strike against the nuclear plant on April 22. Mr. Lin, 72, was staging his hunger strike at Gikong Presbyterian Church, located in a house where Mr. Lin's mother and twin daughters were stabbed to death in 1980. Those killings, which have never been solved, occurred while Mr. Lin was in detention on sedition charges related to his pro-democracy activism.

Mr. Ma and Mr. Jiang both visited the church but were unable to meet with Mr. Lin.

"I respect what Lin Yi-hsiung is doing," said Huang Hui-chang, a 60-year-old retired construction worker who joined the antinuclear demonstration on Sunday. "But we are still waiting to see if it will have any effect on Ma Ying-jeou."

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Amid Protests, Taiwan to Halt Work on Nuclear Plant

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Taiwan will halt the construction of a nuclear power plant that had met with public opposition and raised concerns about safety, the governing party has announced. The decision followed several large protests in Taipei and a hunger strike by a former leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

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March 2014

http://rt.com/news/spain-protest-cuts-crisis-509/

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Protesters clashed with police in Madrid as thousands of people trekked across Spain to protest austerity which they claim is destroying their country. Under the banner "no more cuts!" the protesters called for an end to the government's "empty promises."

Police arrested at least 29 protesters following the clashes which took place after the march. According to emergency service, 101 people were injured - 67 of them police, El Mundo newspaper reports.

Protesters were seen throwing stones and firecrackers at police. According to witnesses, officers used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

Clashes broke out during a final speech at the demonstration when protesters tried to break through a police barrier. Riot police took charge by beating protesters with batons, AP reported.

"The mass rally was coming to an an end when reportedly a group of younger protesters, who had masks on their faces, started throwing rocks at the police. Police tried to push them away from the parameter that they organized around this area," RT's Egor Piskunov reported from the Spanish capital.
"They (police) tried to push them (protesters) away from these police fences and then we started seeing firecrackers being thrown at police and reportedly authorities started firing rubber bullets at the protesters. As a result, there are injuries on both sides and several people have been arrested as well."
"I can confirm that there is very heavy police presence in this whole district. Since it is the center of Madrid, there are lots of luxury hotels in this part of town and security here is very tight," he added.

Six "columns" of trains, cars and buses, as well as bands of pedestrians have travelled from Extremadura, Andalusia, Valencia, Murcia, Asturias, Galicia and Aragon, among other Spanish regions, to converge on Madrid in mass protest this Saturday. The demonstration itself has been dubbed 22-M, Marches for dignity.

La columna asturiana camina hacia eñ centro de Madrid #bloquejoven22M#22M#22MDignidad #22mMarchasPorLaDignidad pic.twitter.com/mzKPvfga4r

- JCAsturias (@JCAsturias) March 22, 2014

Eight groups of activists are expected to move into the Spanish capital at different points throughout the course of the day. As a precautionary measure, the Madrid authorities have closed roads in the center of the city and asked people to use public transport whenever possible on Saturday. In addition, the Spanish authorities have deployed 1,650 riot police to keep the situation under control in Madrid.

"Todxs somos migrantes" "Justicia #muertesCeuta" 'Fuera ley extrangeria'' consignas@PapersxTothom#22M via@iamwildd pic.twitter.com/VsM7tz9gbI

- ICV Migració (@plenaciutadania) March 22, 2014

The protest movement is demanding an end to the so-called Troika-style cuts in Spain, more jobs and affordable housing.

"Why am I here? I'm sick of this government. With all the promises they never fulfill. They said they were going to create more jobs and lower the taxes but it's a lie! Instead, unemployment rose from 4 to 6 million. This is the only way we can fight back," one of the protestors, who had been on the road since March 9, told RT correspondent Egor Piskunov.

Column of the Marches of Dignity coming from the West enters in #Madrid #MarchasDignidad22M#22m pic.twitter.com/MU6dMbSTtV

- 15MBcn_int (@15MBcn_int) March 22, 2014

A large proportion of the protesters who have made their way on foot to the Spanish capital are unemployed and plan to camp in Madrid until their demands are met.

"There are too many reasons: my sons have to work every day from 8 in the morning to five of the next morning only for 400 euros per month! Also I'm a teacher and I know what cuts in the public sector mean," said another activist. "All these evictions - this is insane. I'm marching to Madrid because I can't walk to Berlin or Brussels. We must stop them and the Troika!"

Hundreds of people are evicted from their homes every day in Spain. The General Council of the Judiciary reported that 49,984 forced evictions had been carried out across the country last year, which averages about 185 a day.

The number of evictions reached an all-time high in Spain in 2012 with over 500 a day, according to a report by the BBC. This combined with an unemployment rate of 26 percent, the second highest in Europe after Greece, has left many Spanish citizens with nowhere to turn. This is reflected in the growing number of suicides in the country, with the country's National Institute of Statistics estimating that at least 8 people take their lives every day in the country.
Pepe Caballero, one of the organizers of the protests said the Spanish government is trying to return Spain to the Franco era.

"What the government wants is to go back to the Franco years and keep the working class from demonstrating in the streets and saying what our main problems are. We won't allow that to happen and they know it," Caballero told RT, adding that the protest movement will change Spain from the "bottom to the top."

At the beginning of this month, the Spanish Minister of Employment Fatima Banez said that Spain had finally pulled itself out of the recession and registered economic growth. However, the Spanish Union of Workers dismissed Banez's announcements as "government propaganda."

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101 injured, 29 arrested in Madrid as anti-austerity march turns violent

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Protesters clashed with police in Madrid as thousands of people trekked across Spain to protest austerity which they claim is destroying their country. Under the banner "no more cuts!" the protesters called for an end to the government's "empty promises."

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January 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25771595

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Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has signed into law a bill aimed at curbing anti-government protests.

The bill was passed in parliament on Thursday with a quick show of hands by MPs loyal to the president, rather than the usual system of electronic voting.

The changes include a ban on unauthorised tents in public areas and criminal responsibility for slandering government officials.

The move has sparked uproar among the opposition, who say it is illegal.

They have accused the ruling party of a coup.

The US and several EU countries expressed deep concern over the new bills.

Further protests

As well as signing into law a series of bills, President Yanukovych also fired his long-time chief of staff, Sergiy Lyovochkin, on Friday.

Mr Lyovochkin was rumoured to have wanted to step down after riot police broke up a rally at the end of November - a move that brought tens of thousands of protesters on to the streets the following day.

In a tweet on Thursday following the events in parliament, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said he was "profoundly concerned by new legislation limiting freedoms".

He said the move contradicted Ukraine's "European aspirations" and its commitments in the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which President Yanukovych abruptly refused to sign in November, amid Russian economic pressure.

The Ukrainian opposition warned the new measures would further inflame the protest movement, and called for a big gathering in the capital Kiev on Sunday.

Anti-government protesters have been camping out behind extensive barricades in Kiev's Independence Square - known as the Euromaidan - for nearly two months in the freezing cold.

The mass demonstrations were initially triggered by President Yanukovych's last-minute rejection of the EU partnership deal.

But the protesters' demands later widened to include the fight against what they said was widespread government corruption and abuse of power.

'Coup d'etat'

On Thursday, MPs from Mr Yanukovych's Party of the Regions, together with the communists and a number of independents, passed the laws amid scenes of chaos in parliament.

What we'll have is worse than Belarus
Iryna Bekeshkina, Director, Democratic Initiatives Foundation

Media: new laws a threat to democracy
The measures were pushed through in a matter of minutes when lawmakers simply raised their hands, despite the protests of opposition deputies who had earlier blocked the speaker's platform to try to disrupt the voting.

One of the laws bans any unauthorised installation of tents, stages or amplifiers in public places. Those who violate the law now face a hefty fine or detention.

Another bill provides a punishment of one year of corrective labour for slandering government officials.

Protests involving more than five vehicles in "Automaidan" motorcades were also banned. This followed such demonstrations outside government offices - including Mr Yanukovych's countryside residence - in recent days.

Party of the Regions MP Oleh Tsariov said the laws aimed to prevent further escalation of the ongoing political crisis.

But the three main opposition leaders described the move as "illegitimate", saying the pro-presidential MPs had decided to use voting by a show of hands after realising they did not have enough support.

Udar party leader Vitali Klitschko condemned it as a "coup d'etat", while Arseniy Yatsenyuk, one of the leaders of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, warned that Ukraine was now bracing for another "wave of protests".

In Washington, the US state department voiced its " deep concern" that the controversial measures had been passed.

"We believe deeply that the people of Ukraine want to affiliate and want to be associated with Europe and they want to turn in that direction," Secretary of State John Kerry said.

"And the steps that were taken yesterday are anti-democratic. They're wrong. They are taking from the people of Ukraine their choice and their opportunity for the future."

The new laws were also criticised by foreign ministers from Sweden and Poland.

The EU's ambassador to Ukraine, Jan Tombinsky, said "norms should be adopted through proper procedures, otherwise the credibility of democratic institutions and of the legal system is at stake".

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Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has signed into law a bill aimed at curbing anti-government protests. The bill was passed in parliament on Thursday with a quick show of hands by MPs loyal to the president, rather than the usual system of electronic voting.

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Hong Kong - Protest March To Condem Attack of Former Editor 

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Hong Kong - Protest March To Condem Attack of Former Editor 

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March 2014 http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/03/02/hongkong-media-idINDEEA2104B20140302

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters rallied outside the Hong Kong's government headquarters on Sunday to condemn a knife attack on a former newspaper editor and to voice support for press freedom amid growing concern over Beijing's influence in the media.

Kevin Lau Chun-to, who until recently had been chief editor of Ming Pao, a Chinese-language newspaper known for its investigative reports, was stabbed in the back and legs several times by a man in a helmet on Wednesday. The assailant rode off on a motorcycle with an accomplice. No one has been arrested in connection with the attack.

Dressed in black and wearing blue ribbons, symbolizing press freedom, protesters carried a large banner with the words "They can't kill us all". Other banners and placards read "Freedom from fear" and "Protect press freedom".

Police have not established a motive for Lau's stabbing although suspicions have spread that powerful individuals from mainland China or pro-Beijing allies opposed to the city's push for full democracy may have had a hand in the attack.

"We're not going to bow to the intimidation," said Shirley Yam, vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association, one of the organisers of the protest. "That's the strong message we want to send whoever it is that the Hong Kong media is going to stand firm and do whatever's best for press freedom and the right for our citizens to be informed."

Organisers put the number of demonstrators at 13,000, while police said there were 8,600 at the peak.

Lau left the intensive care unit of the hospital on Saturday, although his wife said his recovery would take time.

"The reality is the wounds he suffers are deep and serious. His road to recovery will be a long and winding one," his wife Vivien said in a statement.

A week earlier, some 6,000 people protested in the Asian financial centre demanding the city's leader uphold media freedoms.

In recent years, Hong Kong journalist and rights groups have warned of mainland Chinese propaganda officials influencing newsrooms, deepening ties between Hong Kong media bosses and Beijing, greater censorship, and the dismissal of influential liberal journalists.

Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is a freewheeling capitalist hub which enjoys a high degree of autonomy and freedom, but Beijing's Communist Party leaders have resisted public pressure for full democracy.

POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

Lau was recently replaced at Ming Pao by a Malaysian Chinese journalist with suspected pro-Beijing leanings, causing a revolt in the paper's newsroom where journalists suggested the publication's independence might be undermined.

The new editor, Chong Tien-siong, attended the protest on Sunday and was quoted in local media as saying he was impressed with the turnout and hoped police could find the culprits soon.

The United States and European Union have expressed concern over the assault on Lau and diplomats in Hong Kong said it underscored fears that the city's freedoms were being eroded, concerns echoed more broadly across the city.

"It seems there is more interference from the Hong Kong SAR government and the central government in Beijing. Political interference seems to be more serious nowadays," said Ip Kin-yuen, legislative councillor who represents the education sector.

The Hong Kong section of the U.S. Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which was released on Thursday, identified "limitations on freedom of the press, self-censorship and incidents of violence against the media" as areas of reported concern.

Media outlets have periodically been subject to attacks in Hong Kong. The offices of a small independent media outlet were recently ransacked and a car rammed the front gate of the home of Jimmy Lai, publisher of Hong Kong's popular anti-Beijing newspaper, the Apple Daily.

Asked by reporters about concerns China would seek to limit the scope of elections for Hong Kong's next leader in 2017, a senior Chinese government spokesman said Beijing and Hong Kong both wanted to see universal suffrage for that vote.

"We hope all sides in Hong Kong can rationally and pragmatically discuss this issue and form a consensus," said Lu Xinhua, spokesman for the largely ceremonial advisory body which advises parliament and whose annual session opens on Monday.

Beijing's top representative in Hong Kong in September ruled out open nominations for candidates to become its next leader.

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cyclical consumer goods and services (trbc)

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Thousands march in Hong Kong to condemn attack on ex-newspaper editor

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters rallied outside the Hong Kong's government headquarters on Sunday to condemn a knife attack on a former newspaper editor and to voice support for press freedom amid growing concern over Beijing's influence in the media.

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Feburary 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/world/americas/protests-swell-in-venezuela-as-places-to-rally-disappear.html?_r=0

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CARACAS, Venezuela - The only television station that relentlessly broadcast voices critical of the government was sold last year, and the new owners have softened its news coverage. Last week, President Nicolás Maduro banned a foreign cable news channel after it showed images of a young protester shot to death here.

Opposition legislators have been barred from debates and stripped of committee posts in the National Assembly. And when an opposition leader called for a protest this week, Mr. Maduro scheduled his own march to start at the same spot and dispatched the National Guard to try to block protesters from rallying elsewhere.

Venezuela is being convulsed by the biggest protests since the country's longtime president, the charismatic Hugo Chávez, died nearly a year ago.

And while the demonstrators condemn a wide range of perennial problems, including rampant crime, high inflation and shortages of basic goods like sugar and toilet paper, the intensity of the protests has been fueled by something more subtle and perhaps stronger - a sense that the spaces to voice disagreement with the government are shrinking and disappearing.

Image

Backers of Mr. López were hit by a police water cannon. Credit Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

"You have a government that increasingly, since the time of Chávez but even more with Maduro, has practically closed the channels of communication," said Margarita López Maya, a historian who studies protest movements. "If you have a society that has no institutional channels to raise its complaints, make demands, form policy, the tradition in Venezuela and in Latin America and I think throughout the world is to take to the streets."

Of the opposition she said, "They feel choked, penned in."

Since last week, four people have been shot to death in protests, dozens have been wounded and scores have been arrested. A local newspaper said some of the shots fired in one killing appeared to have come from a group that included uniformed security officers and men accompanying them in civilian clothes.

In the most recent death, a beauty queen, Génesis Carmona, 22, a student who was crowned Miss Tourism 2013 for the state of Carabobo, died Wednesday, a day after being shot in the head during a march in Valencia, the country's third-largest city. Protesters said attackers on motorcycles had fired on the march.

But the government has been quick to blame protesters for the worst violence, and on Thursday the interior minister, Miguel Rodríguez Torres, said that one of her fellow demonstrators fired the shot that killed Ms. Carmona. "This girl died from a bullet that came from her own ranks," he said.

Many protesters are calling for Mr. Maduro to resign, but beyond that, the rallies seem to be general expressions of outrage, often with few specific demands. Even some opposition activists admit to being bewildered about how to direct the anger into concrete political objectives.

Banging pots in protest in Caracas as Leopoldo López, an opposition politician, passed by in a car after surrendering. Credit Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

So far, Mr. Maduro's response has been to crack down, but that has only fanned the flames. This week, he expelled three American diplomats, accusing them of recruiting students to take part in violent demonstrations. Then he arrested an opposition politician, Leopoldo López, saying that he had trained gangs of youths to sow violence in the country as part of a coup to overthrow the government.

Thousands of people turned out in Caracas on Tuesday to accompany Mr. López as he surrendered to the authorities. And on Wednesday night, as demonstrators in several cities clashed with the riot police, Mr. Maduro threatened to declare a form of martial law known as a "state of exception" in the western state of Táchira, on the border with Colombia, a traditional opposition stronghold where protests have been particularly intense.

"If I have to declare a state of exception in Táchira, I'm ready to declare it and send in the tanks, the troops, planes, all of the military force of the country," the president said. He also threatened to jail other opposition politicians and protest leaders.

Parts of the capital, Caracas, and some other cities have become battlegrounds. National guard soldiers on motorcycles patrol Caracas at night, using tear gas and rubber bullets to drive off protesters who block streets with barricades of burning trash.

On one night, a group of soldiers fired rubber bullets at apartment buildings where people were banging pots to protest the crackdown. During a melee after a rally in downtown Caracas on Feb. 12, the police, enraged that some of their vehicles were set on fire, beat and kicked protesters, news photographers and cameramen.

Génesis Carmona was taken away after being shot on Tuesday. She died the next day. Credit Mauricio Centeno/Diario Notitarde, via Associated Press

Mr. Maduro belittles the protesters and has largely ignored their complaints, trying to focus attention on smaller groups involved in violent clashes. "These aren't students. They're fascist vandals," he said on Thursday.

The United States has voiced concern.

"In Venezuela, rather than trying to distract from its own failings by making up false accusations against diplomats from the United States, the government ought to focus on addressing the legitimate grievances of the Venezuelan people," President Obama said on Wednesday during a meeting in Mexico. He called for Mr. Maduro's government to release jailed protesters and engage in dialogue.

The current round of protests began this month when students in Táchira and other cities demonstrated against violent crime. Several students were arrested and a march was called in Caracas to demand their release. After that march ended peacefully, a few hundred youths rioted, throwing rocks at the police and breaking windows in a government building. A protester and a government supporter were shot to death, and another protester was gunned down that night.

Venezuela became a bitterly divided country during the 14 years of Mr. Chávez's presidency, which ended with his death in March. He fostered a cult of personality and dominated all aspects of political life, pushing the country, which has the world's largest oil reserves, toward his vision of socialist revolution.

Mr. Chávez reviled and insulted the opposition, but since his death, there is a sense that there is even less room for criticism - despite Mr. Maduro's promises that he is open to dialogue.

A demonstrator blocking the highway outside La Carlota airport. Credit Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press

In a psychological blow to many in the opposition, a stridently antigovernment television station, Globovision, was sold last year to investors believed to be close to the government. Since then, the station has toned down its programming and ceased to be a counterweight to the relentlessly pro-government tone of several government-run television stations.

Last week Mr. Maduro ordered a Colombian news channel, NTN24, removed from cable because of its coverage of the demonstrations.

Now, there has been little live news coverage of the wave of protests, while government television has relentlessly vilified the demonstrators.

"There are very few outlets where the opposition can make itself heard," said Cedomir Mimia, 27, a lawyer at a recent protest, who said his top concern was "the information blackout."

Many protesters say they are simply fed up with the country's bitter divide. "I'm here because I'm tired of the crime, of the shortages, tired of having to stand on line to buy anything," said María Luchón, 21, at a recent rally. "I'm tired of the politicians of both sides."

Correction:

María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Protests Swell in Venezuela as Places to Rally Shrink. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Protests Swell in Venezuela as Places to Rally Disappear

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CARACAS, Venezuela - The only television station that relentlessly broadcast voices critical of the government was sold last year, and the new owners have softened its news coverage. Last week, President Nicolás Maduro banned a foreign cable news channel after it showed images of a young protester shot to death here.

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Ukraine Protests - Unrest as Tensions Rise 

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Ukraine Protests - Unrest as Tensions Rise 

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January 2014 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25876807

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Anti-government demonstrators in Ukraine are expanding their protests after talks between the opposition and President Viktor Yanukovych stalled.

In western Ukraine, activists seized the regional government office in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk and are storming another one in Chernivtsi.

Protests were reported in Lutsk, in the north-west, and Sumy, in the east.

Meanwhile, Mr Yanukovych vowed to use "all legal means" if a solution to the crisis is not found.

At a meeting with religious leaders, he also promised to amend anti-protests laws rushed through parliament last week and reshuffle the government at an urgent session of parliament due to begin on Tuesday.

And he said amnesty would be granted to those detained activists who had not committed "grave crimes".

In the capital, Kiev, new barricades were erected as the main protest camp expanded.

Analysis

The Lviv regional state administration office resembles something from protest-hit Kiev. All around the building there are barricades of snow bags, tyres and wooden sticks.

On Thursday, hundreds of anti-government protesters seized control here.

Inside, I met "commandant" Andriy, the man in charge here now and the head of the local trade union. Andriy told me that the protesters were motivated by anger at what was happening in Kiev.

They blame the authorities for the violence and for death of anti-government activist Yuri Verbytsky, who was from Lviv. He was found dead in a forest outside Kiev. "People," Andriy said, "have the right to rise up."

It's a similar picture in other parts of western Ukraine, where protesters have been picketing local government offices and, in some cases, taking control.

It's in this region that opposition to President Yanukovych has traditionally been strongest - and pro-Europe sentiment most keenly felt.
In pictures: Ukraine protests
Demonstrators braving freezing conditions in Kiev's Independence Square - widely known as the Maidan - also occupied a government building as a truce with riot police continued.

Meanwhile, the parliament of the Crimean Autonomous Republic - seen as a staunch supporter of Mr Yanukovych - urged the president to declare a state of emergency.

In other developments on Friday:

Germany and France are summoning Ukraine's ambassadors over recent deadly clashes in Kiev

The EU's enlargement commissioner, Stefan Fuele, has held talks in Kiev with Mr Yanukovych and is due to meet opposition leaders

Mr Yanukovych names Security and Defence Secretary Andriy Kluyev as new head of the presidential administration

The crisis escalated earlier this week when the first deaths in the unrest happened.

Two protesters were shot during rioting on Hrushevskyy Street near the Maidan. The opposition says they were killed by riot police or snipers - the government denies the claim.

An activist was also found dead in woods near Kiev after apparently being abducted, tortured and left to die in the snow.

The demonstrations were initially triggered by the government's last-minute decision to ditch a proposed association and free trade deal with the EU in November.

But protesters later widened their demand to include the fight against what activists say are widespread government corruption and abuse of power.

The authorities deny the allegations.

Maidan vote

In Ivano-Frankivsk, some 1,500 protesters occupied the regional administration and barricaded themselves in the building, according to the Ukrainska Pravda website.

The protesters are now demanding that the local governor should resign immediately.

In Chernivsti, crowds stormed the governor's office as police tried to protect the building. People shouted "Shame on you!" and "Resign!"

In Lutsk, a big demonstration is being held outside the local administration. Unrest was also seen in Sumy.

Regional offices are being blockaded in the western city of Uzhgorod.

Meanwhile in Lviv, protesters have built barricades around the governor's office that they seized on Thursday. There were also reports that some members of the special police, Berkut, were resigning.

In Kiev, masked activists stood guard around the newly-build defence barriers. Some activists were seen carrying riot shields captured from the police as trophies.

The barricades took shape on Hryshevskyy Street and also closer to the presidential administration building.

One group of protesters took control of the main agricultural ministry building, reportedly meeting no resistance.

"We need to keep people warm in the frost," protester Andriy Moiseenko was quoted as saying by the Associated Press, as temperatures dipped towards minus 16C.

Ministry workers were allowed to take their possessions but not permitted to go to work.

Former boxer Vitaly Klitschko, one of three opposition leaders who met Mr Yanukovych, came back on Thursday evening saying the president had made no real concessions.

"Hours of conversation were spent about nothing," he said.

People on the Maidan later voted to stop any talks with the president, and the decision was taken to expand the main protest camp.

The opposition had been calling for harsh new anti-protest laws to be repealed, a snap presidential election and the resignation of the government.

Appeal for restraint

Justice Minister Olena Lukash said on Thursday that further talks would take place, without saying when.

Mr Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and fellow opposition leader Oleh Tyahnybok had failed to condemn "extremist actions" at the talks, she added.

Interior Minister Vitali Zakharchenko issued a statement guaranteeing that police would not take action against the protest camp on Independence Square.

He urged police officers to "exercise restraint and not to react to petty provocations".

Earlier, his ministry apologised after video footage emerged showing police humiliating a protester, who was made to walk around naked in the snow.

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Anti-government demonstrators in Ukraine are expanding their protests after talks between the opposition and President Viktor Yanukovych stalled. In western Ukraine, activists seized the regional government office in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk and are storming another one in Chernivtsi. Protests were reported in Lutsk, in the north-west, and Sumy, in the east.