Tag: Thousands

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON - The escalating revolt in Libya on Friday emboldened protesters across the Arab world, where tens of thousands flooded streets from Tunisia to Yemen to demand better lives and greater freedom.
Government forces shot dead at least two protesters in Tripoli, television stations reported. Moamer Gaddafi appeared on the central Green Square to make an impassioned speech of defiance, after witnesses described swirling clashes on streets all around the city between

BRUSSELS - European Union governments will meet on Wednesday to discuss imposing sanctions against Muammar Gaddafi's government, while evacuating thousands of their citizens from Libya, EU officials said. France and Germany have pushed for the 27-member EU to move quickly on measures against Libya, following a crackdown on protests against Gaddafi's 41-year rule that has killed, by some estimates, as many as 1,000 people.
The leader of Ireland's main opposition Fine Gael party

BANGKOK - Thousands of Thai "Red Shirts" gathered in Bangkok on Saturday to mark nine months since a bloody crackdown on their anti-government rally and to press for the release of detained leaders. Police estimated around 25,000 protesters massed in the city as part of a rally that crossed from Bangkok's retail heart to the Democracy Monument, both sites of bloodshed during demonstration in April and May of the last year.
Dressed in their trademark colour and waving banners,

SANAA - Thousands of students and lawyers demanding Yemen's president step down clashed on Monday with baton-wielding riot police and security forces who threw up razor wire to force them out of the centre of the capital Sanaa. An AFP journalist said more than 3,000 protesters marched from Sanaa University towards Al-Tahrir square calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
City streets around the square echoed to chants of "After Mubarak, Ali," referring to the

ROME - Thousands of women took to the streets of Italian cities Sunday calling for "dignity" and greater rights after a series of lurid prostitution scandals involving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. "We are defending the dignity of women," read a placard held up at one of the rallies in Palermo, where thousands of women marched through the city. Thousands more rallied in Bari, Trieste and Venice -- with men also joining.
Solidarity protests by women abroad were also expected,

LAHORE - There are thousands of Raymond Davis roaming across the country and the army is killing its own people instead of getting rid of them, Jamaat e Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan said while addressing a grand Tribal Jirga at Mansoora on Sunday, he said the failure of the law enforcement agencies to arrest Raymond Davis's four accomplices and seize their armed vehicle clearly showed their utter helplessness and incompetence.
The Jirga, attended by around two thousand tribal

SANAA - Tens of thousands of protesters massed on Thursday at Sanaa University for a "day of rage" calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, while a similar number of government loyalists flooded a central square.
"We are here to bring down a corrupt and tyrannical regime," Najib Ghanem, a lawmaker from the Islamist Al-Islah party that is part of the Common Forum alliance of opposition parties, told the sea of anti-Saleh protesters. "The revolt for justice began in

LAHORE - Thousands of demonstrators responded to a call by the Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-(TNS) Risalat (SAW) to rally from Nasir Bagh to Faisal Chowk on The Mall on Sunday to protest against government's plans to amend blasphemy laws.
Demonstrators from the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) held banners in support of Mumtaz Qadri - the police commando who shot dead former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer. Leaders

CAIRO - Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of Sanaa on Thursday to demand a change of government, inspired by the unrest that has ousted Tunisia's leader and spread to Egypt this week. Reuters witnesses estimated that around 16,000 Yemenis demonstrated in four parts of Sanaa in the largest rally since a wave of protests rocked Yemen last week, and protesters vowed to escalate the unrest unless their demands were met.
Meanwhile, Egyptian police fought protesters in two

Thousands of art lovers queued for hours in freezing temperatures over the weekend for a final look at a major Claude Monet retrospective in Paris. The Grand Palais opened round the clock to cope with the demand to see nearly 200 works by the 19th century French Impressionist. Film star Jodie Foster was among those to visit the exhibition before it closes on Monday evening. It is the biggest retrospective on Monet in decades.
"I came all the way here [to Paris] to work and then

TUNIS - Thousands of protesters rallied in the main government quarter in Tunis on Monday calling for Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi to resign after the fall of veteran leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The security forces fired tear gas and sealed off the area with barbed wire as some protesters threw stones, charged police lines and smashed up a police car at the start of a make-or-break week for Tunisia's new transition government.
"Resign scum!" the protesters chanted

TUNIS - Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied outside Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi's offices on Sunday, calling for him to quit after the downfall of the north African state's 23-year regime.
"The people have come to bring down the government," around 5,000 protesters chanted as they brandished pictures of some of the dozens of people killed by security forces during the uprising against president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. They broke through security

PESHAWAR - Over 10,000 people held an anti-US protest in Peshawar on Sunday, calling for an immediate stop to American drone attacks in the Tribal Areas. Activists from the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) blocked a main road and staged a six-hour sit-in outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly.
The demonstrators chanted anti-US slogans and carried banners and placards reading "Death for America", "Stop drone attacks in Pakistan" and "No to American interference in Pakistan". One

TUNIS - Thousands rallied in Tunisia on Saturday after the main trade union called for a new government of national salvation, as the prime minister promised the first democratic elections since independence.
Demonstrators in Tunis were joined by dozens of members of the police, discredited because of the bloody crackdown on protests against president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali that ultimately led to his ouster on January 14. Officers said they were on the side of the protestors and

TUNIS - Thousands of protesters put Tunisia's new government under pressure on Tuesday with activists rejecting the leadership just days after the ouster of the Arab state's former strongman.
Tunisia's largest trade union and other groups have refused to recognise a transitional government that contains eight ministers from the discredited regime of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Key Islamist leader Sadok Chourou, who was imprisoned for 20 years under the old regime, led one

TUNIS - Thousands of protesters demanded the immediate departure of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in marches across the country Friday, emboldened by his pledge to step down in 2014 after weeks of unrest.
"No to Ben Ali, the uprising continues," hundreds shouted in a march down the main boulevard in central Tunis, Avenue Bourguiba, while thousands more protesters took to the streets in other towns shouting "Ben Ali out". The crowd in the capital, which included lawyers in

BRISBANE - Thousands of people fled central Brisbane on Tuesday as the panicked city braced for its worst flooding in 120 years, after terrifying flash floods left 10 dead and 78 missing nearby.
Workers evacuated en masse after the Brisbane River burst its banks and officials said 6,500 properties and the downtown area would be hit in Australia's third largest city, which was facing its biggest floods since 1893. "This water is on its way," said Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell