Tag: Thousands

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE - Thousands of cricket lovers on Wednesday assembled in front of big screens installed by Capital Development Authority (CDA) in various parts of the capital city to show the Pakistan-India semi-final match of World Cup 2011.
The screens were installed at F-9 Fatima Jinnah Park, in Blue area on Stock Exchange building and in Jinnah Super Market. The civic body has made elaborate arrangement to show the World Cup 2011 semi final between India and Pakistan to the

BRUSSELS - Thousands of marchers converged on Thursday on the venue for a summit of European Union leaders, protesting against austerity measures being introduced throughout the bloc. The demonstrators responded to union calls to challenge leaders' moves to commit governments to a new 'Euro Pact' to be announced that seeks to moderate wages in a bid to make Europe's economy more competitive against global rivals. The summit, starting 1600 GMT, gathers the EU's 27 heads of state and

DARAA - Thousands of Syrians marched in the southern town of Daraa on Monday after the funeral of a protester killed in the previous day's demonstration, a resident said. The resident said "a mass of demonstrators started to march from the cemetery towards Al-Omari mosque after the burial" of Raed Akrad, who was killed by security forces Sunday when they opened fire to disperse a protest.
"Just God, Syria and Freedom," and "Revolution, revolution" chanted the demonstrators,

BASRA - Thousands of Iraqis protested in the southern oil hub of Basra on Saturday against the presence of Saudi troops in Bahrain, which has highlighted Iraq's own sectarian divide after years of war. Anger has been mounting among Shias in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran over the movement of troops from Sunni Arab states to help Bahrain's Sunni royal family stifle pro-democracy demonstrations by majority Shias. Bahrain said on Friday more troops were coming from other Gulf states to help

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/KARACHI - Thousands of people took to the streets across the country on Friday to protest a US drone strike that killed 44 people this week and the release of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) contractor Raymond Davis, who had been held for murdering two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27.
Security was tight and the US embassy in Islamabad and its consulates in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar were closed in anticipation of public anger, but fears of violence proved

KUJI - Survivors searched for loved ones on Monday in emergency centres across the northeast coast of Japan, with thousands of people still missing after an earthquake and tsunami that probably killed more than 10,000. "I am looking for my parents and my older brother," a weeping Yuko Abe, 54, said at an emergency centre in Rikuzentakata, a nearly flattened town of 24,500 people in far-northern Iwate prefecture. "Seeing the way the area is, I think perhaps they did not make it. I also

BEIRUT - Tens of thousands of Lebanese opposition supporters on Sunday demanded Hezbollah be disarmed as they rallied to mark the sixth anniversary of a popular uprising against Syrian troops in the country. "The people want the fall of arms," the demonstrators chanted as they poured into to Martyrs' Square in central Beirut amid tight security, waving the national flag and the banners of pro-Western political parties.
"We are here to say yes to life and no to their arms," said

HYDERABAD - Police fired tear gas on Thursday at protesters demanding a separate state in southern India, a campaign that could potentially hurt the stability of the governing coalition already struggling with graft scandals. Businesses were shut in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state and where global firms including Microsoft and Google have their main India offices, as thousands of protesters, including lawmakers, students and local govt officials, took to the streets.

ALGIERS - Thousands of community policemen rallied in Algeria on Monday to demand a pay raise, breaking through heavy security to reach parliament in a rare mass show of dissent in the tightly controlled country. The protesters, estimated by organisers to number more than 10,000, braved a ban on demonstrations in the capital and pushed through several police cordons to move from Martyrs Square to the National Assembly.
They were quickly surrounded by regular police despatched to

MANAMA - Thousands of demonstrators massed Sunday at Manama's Al-Qudaibiya Palace, where Bahrain's cabinet meets, chanting slogans against the tiny but strategic Gulf state's government. White-helmeted police with riot shields stood behind one gate, looking on as the flag-waving demonstrators chanted "Down Hamad! Down Hamad!", in reference to Bahrain's King Hamad. "The people want to topple the regime!" the protesters roared, shaking their fists towards the light pink palace with its

HONG KONG - There were minor scuffles between police and protesters in Hong Kong on Sunday as up to 10,000 people demonstrated over the government's budget plan, with some calling it a "Bauhinia revolution". At least one protester and one policeman were slightly injured in confrontations between the two sides, an AFP photographer said.
The demonstration came days after a U-turn by Financial Secretary John Tsang on the budget, with protesters demanding he use more of a huge

DHAKA - Thousands of employees and customers of Grameen Bank protested in Bangladesh on Saturday over the sacking of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as head of the microfinance institution he pioneered. The 70-year-old economist was dismissed as managing director of Dhaka-based Grameen Bank by Bangladesh's central bank last Wednesday in what his supporters said was the culmination of a vendetta against him. Grameen Bank workers and customers formed peaceful human chains across the

KHUSHPUR/ISLAMABAD - Shouting 'death for killers', thousands of people on Friday buried the country's only Christian government minister who was killed for seeking a review of the country's blasphemy laws. Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, an outspoken campaigner against the blasphemy law, died in a hail of bullets as he left his mother's home in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday.
Wailing women in his ancestral mainly Christian village Khushpur, 290km south of Islamabad in Faisalabad, beat

RAS JDIR - Over 10,000 Bangladeshis who fled revolt-hit Libya were still stranded in Tunisia on Friday after planeloads of Egyptians were airlifted home in a major international operation. Since Wednesday the evacuation involving an aircraft and ships from France, Britain and other countries has shifted thousands of migrants who fled across the border amid a violent crackdown on an uprising against Gaddafi.
But concerns were growing for destitute Bangladeshi labourers who had

BAGHDAD - Thousands of protesters massed on Friday in cities and towns across Iraq after streaming in on foot in defiance of vehicle bans for rallies over corruption, unemployment and poor public services. The demonstrations come after nationwide protests in more than a dozen cities a week ago, which spurred Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to give his cabinet 100 days to shape up or face the sack. On Friday, a crowd of about 2,000 people had descended Baghdad's Tahrir Square by early

LAHORE - "No one has any idea how many people have died and how many others are still suffering because of a ban on kite flying," says Khalid, a thread manufacturer. "There have been suicides, deaths and several women and young girls have taken to prostitution, only because the Punjab government could not come up with a better strategy to handle Basant," he says.
The ban is not only restricted to Basant, but stretches out the entire year and stops anyone from kite flying, has

MANAMA - Thousands demonstrators marched in Manama on Saturday to demand the Sunni ruling regime stand down, upping pressure on the government one day after tens of thousands flooded the streets.
"Leave Hamad, leave Hamad" and "Down Hamad, down Hamad," chanted the flag-waving demonstrators as they poured out of Pearl Square, epicentre of the protests which began on February 14. "The people want to topple the regime," they roared as they formed a procession towards a major