Internet restrictions passed last year are set to go into effect in Belarus, amid international criticism. The new law creates several tiers of limitations on use of the Internet, imposing penalties for visiting “blacklisted” sites.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the good ol’ Soviet-era KGB, applies pressure on Facebook and the VKontakte social networking site in a bid to snuff post-electoral protests against Vladimir Putin’s continued rule.
Strikes and protest occupations were reported across Europe this week, as thousands of workers walked off the job in Greece, Bulgaria, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. Teachers in the Czech Republic have also called a strike.
German police on battled thousands of anti-nuclear protestors—many chained to railroad tracks—who blocked the shipment of radioactive waste returning from a French treatment plant. The rails were blocked for 18 hours.
A 24-hour strike in Portugal against proposed austerity measures adopted in return for a $100 billion EU/IMF bail-out grounded flights and halted public transport, in what labor leaders called a “red card” for the government.
Despite the media line that Greece’s new “austerity” government is being staffed by non-ideological “technocrats,” the administration includes figures from the old-line Greek fascist right, spawn of the military junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974.
Riots broke out in Italy and Greece and thousands marched in Spanish cities as new governments announced austerity measures in response to a financial crisis that has become a “serious emergency” to the entire Eurozone.
The Basque armed group ETA issued a statement saying it is ending its 43-year armed campaign for independence and called on Spain and France “to open a process of a direct dialogue” to arrive at a resolution of the conflict.
The Greek parliament approved a new austerity package after a day of street fighting in Athens that saw the death of one protester. The 53-year-old construction worker may have died in clashes between communists and anarchists.
Demonstrators gathered in Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of a police massacre of Algerian anti-war protesters that has become one of the most shameful episodes of modern French history—still officially denied by the state.
Greek protesters clashed with police in central Athens after Prime Minister George Papandreou vowed to push through a further round of austerity measures. Some 70,000 converged on Syntagma at the start of a declared 48-hour general strike.
Thousands of protesters returned to Madrid’s central square, the Puerta del Sol, as students, parents and teachers joined in a massive march against education spending cuts by the Spanish capital’s provincial government.
