Tag: Protests

CAIRO - At least 73 people have been killed across Egypt and thousands injured in anti-government riots since Friday, according to medics. At least 62 people were killed on Friday and 11 on Saturday, and thousands injured in clashes between protesters and police, in unprecedented rallies demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Condemning the violence, President Mubarak sacked the cabinet but made clear he intended to stay in power. The president went into crisis talks

CAIRO/LONDON/WASHINGTON - Embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called out the army and declared a nationwide curfew on Friday, as tens of thousands of protesters rampaged through the streets of major cities demanding his ouster. A curfew in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez kicked in at 6pm and was supposed to run until 7am, state television reported but later it said the curfew had been extended to cover all 28 governorates in the country.
Mubarak "has asked the armed forces, in

LAHORE - The University of Education (UoE) administration on Friday decided to shutdown the varsity until February 4 in wake of prevailing tension on the campus. It is learnt the decision has been taken to avoid any further unpleasant situation in wake of strong agitation by university students.
Union activists and UoE students have been protesting ever since Acting VC Farhat Saleem terminated services of two faculty members on January 17. Many demonstrations staged by protesting

CAIRO - Egyptian activists called for a second day of street action on Wednesday as authorities vowed to prevent further protests following huge anti-government rallies in which four people died. The pro-democracy youth group April 6 Movement, the driving force behind Tuesday's protests - the largest and most significant in Egypt since bread riots in 1977 - urged people to head back to Cairo's main square Wednesday.
"Everyone needs to head down to Tahrir Square to take over the

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's top Muslim authority branded the act of setting oneself on fire, a protest started in Tunisia and copied in other Arab states, a "great sin," Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Friday. Islam "bans suicide even if living conditions are hard. To commit suicide by setting oneself on fire is a horrendous crime," said Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, quoted in the pan-Arab daily. "To immolate oneself and committing suicide are great sins," he said.

TUNIS - Tunisian authorities arrested 33 members of toppled leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's family as protesters rallied again on Thursday to demand the rooting out of the dictator's former ruling party.
The arrests were announced on state television, which showed footage of luxury watches, jewellery and credit cards seized in raids on homes of the former first family. Authorities had opened an investigation against them for plundering the nation's resources, it said. The mass

KABUL - Afghan fuel protesters targeted an Iranian diplomatic mission for a second day on Sunday, as the commerce minister said Tehran had not given any reason for an export clampdown that is choking Afghan oil supplies.
Around 300 people took to the streets in western Herat city, armed with stones and eggs, and marched to the Iranian consulate carrying banners with slogans including "Death to Iran". At a border crossing barely 100 km (62 miles) away nearly 2,000 fuel trunks are

LAHORE - The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) staged a protest on Tuesday at the Multan Road against Pope Benedict XVI's demands to repeal the blasphemy laws and the Holy Prophet's (PBUH) finality law. JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch, who led the rally, termed the pontiff's demand as insane and a plot to threaten the Christian minority's security in the country and to plunge Pakistan into chaos and disorder. Baloch noted that the Pope's bias attitude did not allow him to see Zionists'

LAHORE - Supporters of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) took to streets in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and other cities, burning tyres and blocking traffic in protest after the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, private TV channels reported on Tuesday.
The protests broke out in the provincial capital of Punjab and the home town of the late Taseer, who was assassinated in Islamabad in an attack officials said was carried out by one of his bodyguards. The protesters

LAHORE - The Hizbul Tahir staged a protest in front of the Lahore Press Club on Sunday against the possible military operation in North Waziristan. Protesters were holding placards, banners and chanting slogans against presence and involvement of US forces in South Asia.
The organisation's leader Agha Tahir said that Americans were facing a difficult situation in Afghanistan and pressurising the federal government to start a military operation, as Washington wanted to protect its

LAHORE - Gas pressure remained low while many areas of the city were without gas, prompting the residents to take the issue to the roads. There were also protests against fresh increase in petroleum prices on Saturday.
The protestors chanted slogans against the government for not providing gas and sharp increase in petroleum prices.
The protestors were holding banners and placards with slogans against the government and demanding a decrease in petroleum prices. The CNG

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/LAHORE/QUETTA - Violence flared on Friday as police and protesters clashed during a mass protest strike that closed businesses across the country over a bid to amend the blasphemy laws.
Markets remained closed and roads deserted in the otherwise bustling cities of Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Demonstrators said their goal was to defend the honour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Hundreds of protesters in Islamabad marched from Lal Masjid

Former "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul said that being perceived as stupid was one of the most annoying misperceptions people have about her. Abdul, 48, who returns to television next week with her own dance reality competition show, also insisted that she was naturally goofy and that her sometimes volatile public behavior was not the result of drugs or alcohol. "I AM intelligent, I AM,
" Abdul told Julie Chen in an interview to be broadcast on "CBS Sunday Morning.""But, people

KARACHI - The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) reiterated its resolve to go ahead with a 'peaceful countrywide shutter-down strike', backed by traders and transporters, on December 31 to protest any amendments in the blasphemy laws in a press conference on Wednesday.
"We will prove that Karachi is a city of 'Ghulaman-e-Mustafa' (lovers of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)," JUI-F Karachi Ameer Qari Muhammad Usman said.
Before leaving for Umrah the same day, party chief Fazlur Rehman

QUETTA - A number of activists of Baloch Students Organisation (BSO-Azad) on Saturday protested outside the Quetta Press Club against the abduction and extra-judicial killing of young people.
Participants carried placards and shouted slogans against the security forces and the government. Addressing the demonstration, BSO leader Banok Andleeb Baloch strongly condemned the extra-judicial arrest of Baloch youths, particularly those affiliated with BSO.
She alleged that

LAHORE - The Sunni Tehreek held protests against unemployment, inflation and vulgarity across Punjab on Sunday. Addressing the protests, Sunni Tehreek Lahore convener Mujahid Abdur Rasool said that the federal government should abstain from amending Section 295-C of blasphemy laws and the Punjab governor had surpassed Abu Jehal by saying that blasphemy laws were black laws.
He said that inflation, unemployment and vulgarity had played havoc with law and order in the country.

NEW DELHI: The Indian government made an official protest to Washington on Saturday over the security frisking of its envoy at a US airport and hinted it could lead to tit-for-tat action, a report said.
Donald Lu, deputy chief of the US embassy in New Delhi, was summoned to the Indian foreign ministry, the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted officials as saying.
Lu was told the airport check was "contrary to the normal diplomatic practice and inconsistent with the excellent