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Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Greek workers were holding a one-day strike Wednesday to protest government efforts to stave off a financial crisis.Thousands of public-sector workers and their supporters began the 24-hour walkout at 9 a.m. (2 a.m. ET), though local media said workers at Athens' main international airport began their strike at midnight.Government offices, courts and schools were closed, though public transportation largely continued to operate.The umbrella civil servants trade union ADEDY, which called the strike, said most of its 500,000 workers were on strike, though that number could not be confirmed. When strikes are called in Greece, non-union members often will join those on the picket lines.

Ahead of a planned opposition rally on Monday, Iran tightened security and arrested over 20 mothers who were mourning children killed in the unrest that has broken out since the disputed June 12 elections.The mothers took part in an antigovernment protest in Leleh Park in central Tehran every Saturday since the death in June of Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, whose shooting became a symbol of the government’s violent repression. The rally had been attacked by the police before, but Saturday was the first time the mothers were arrested. An opposition Web site reported that the protest was broken up by the police and many demonstrators were taken away. The BBC Persian service quoted a witness who said 29 women were arrested, some of whom were later released. But at least 21 remained in jail, the BBC said.

TEHRAN -- Iranian security forces and paramilitary groups broke up anti-government demonstrations in central Tehran on Monday, using clubs, tear gas and electric batons to disperse crowds outside the University of Tehran, witnesses said. Authorities blocked main roads into the city center and arrested dozens of demonstrators who sought to turn Iran's annual "Student Day" rallies into the latest in a series of protests against the government that began about six months ago. Officials had declared such demonstrations illegal and threatened to meet them with force. Despite the warnings, thousands of demonstrators tried to join students at sealed-off campuses of Tehran's main universities. Deployed to head them off were hundreds of riot police, Revolutionary Guard Corps troops and members of the Basij, a pro-government militia.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian security forces fired warning shots in Tehran on Monday and beat opposition protesters among thousands seeking to renew their challenge to the government six months after a disputed election, witnesses said.The security forces fired shots into the air as they clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi at a state rally marking the killing of three students under the former Shah, the reformist website Mowjcamp said."Security forces are beating demonstrators, men and women. Some of them are injured and bleeding," said one witness in Tehran's central Haft-e Tir square.The June 12 presidential election, which secured President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, sparked Iran's worst unrest since the Islamic revolution three decades ago and exposed deep divisions in the establishment. Authorities deny allegations of vote-rigging.

Iranians are marking University Student Day, traditionally an anti-US event that commemorates the killing of three students in 1953. Opposition supporters are expected to try to hijack official protests by chanting their own anti-government slogans.Olivia Cornes navigates some of the opposition chants heard in Iran since June's disputed presidential elections, with the help of BBCPersian.com and protesters themselves.The waves of street chanting among anti-regime protesters are spontaneous but many are not new. Slogans that Iranians used 30 years ago to call for an end to the Shah's regime are now thrown back at the Islamic regime which replaced it.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters held a major rally on Friday evening in Tirana, seeking a partial recount of the ballots cast during the 28 June parliamentary elections.The rally, which was organised by the Socialists headed by Tirana's mayor Edi Rama was also supported by smaller opposition parties from the left and right, which accuse the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha of electoral fraud.The rally. which was extended into a three day marathon by a few hundred opposition supporters and deputies who camped out in front of Berisha's office, closed on Sunday afternoon.Speaking at the closing rally opposition leader Edi Rama described the protest as the birth of a new political movement, while giving the government an ultimatum to accept his party's request for a partial recount.

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Shouts of "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," a sign of continuing protest in Iran, could be heard Tuesday night in north and west Tehran, along with shouts of "death to dictator."In addition, pictures and videos were posted online of a reported protest at the University of Kashan, south of the capital city.The shouts were heard and reports came a day after the Islamic republic warned reformists against taking to the streets in protest, as the 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis approaches.

On the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, two hundred internationals traveled from the US, UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Belgium to join the weekly peaceful demonstration in Bil'in.Each Friday, Palestinians from the village of Bil'in are joined by hundreds of internationals and Israelis protesting the apartheid wall which annexes Palestinian land.Iyad Bornat, Head of the Popular Committee, said "the twelve metre polystyrene wall", which was made and carried by the residents of Bil'in, "was carried from the mosque in the centre of the village and placed on the other side of the fence, with the hope that the Israeli soldiers would remove it."

Reporting from Cairo - He doesn't seem a radical or a troublemaker, but to the Egyptian government, Abdel Fattah Rizk, a surgeon with a graying mustache and hands pink from scrubbing, is a man to be watched.He belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, the most potent opposition group in the country. Hundreds of its members are in prison and many more are lying low. But even as security forces scour the nation for dissent, the Brotherhood is everywhere, from the shacks of handymen to the estates of millionaires and the halls of parliament.The government of President Hosni Mubarak paints the Brotherhood as an extremist organization with terrorist ties determined to impose strict Islamic law across Egypt. The group says it renounced violence decades ago, and its real threat to the ruling party is its appeal to the educated and middle class, who view the regime as corrupt and too beholden to the West. Although there are radicals among its members, the Brotherhood espouses a moderate Islam to reshape Middle East politics.

Groups representing impoverished Cape Town communities have lashed out at President Jacob Zuma's warning that the government will not tolerate violent service delivery protests, and the accompanying destruction of property.Representatives of the Joe Slovo task team, the Landless People's Movement and Abahlali baseMjondolo defended these protests, saying they were the only way to get the government to pay attention."So-called democratic grievance routes," failed to get answers, they said.Zuma's comments came yesterday during his address to most of South Africa's 283 mayors and all its premiers. He told them there was "no cause in a democratic and free society, however legitimate, that justifies the wanton destruction of property and violence" that had been witnessed in the country.

People living in a slum district of the Algerian capital have taken to the streets for a second day to protest against job and housing shortages.Residents of the Diar Echams area, frustrated over high unemployment and inadequate housing, clashed with police on Wednesday having started their protest on Monday night.The police said at least 11 officers were hurt, although no figure of civilian casualties was given.Protesters had used high ground above the suburb to throw bricks, stones and petrol bombs at police in riot gear as they attempted to enter the area late on Tuesday, sources aid.

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face @font-face /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal .MsoChpDefault @page Section1 div.Section1 --> TEHRAN, Iran — A hard-line cleric sought Friday to head off an attempt to reinvigorate Iran's anti-government movement, warning against a planned opposition rally next month that would coincide with annual state-sponsored demonstrations against the United States.Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, delivering the weekly Muslim prayer sermon in Tehran, also had an unusual warning for the security forces, telling them any soft treatment of those activists already in detention would be considered treason. "Nobody gives a flower to his murderer," he said.Iranian authorities executed a fierce crackdown on the hundreds of thousands of protesters who poured into the streets in response to allegations that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election in June through vote fraud.

On the third week of the new academic year in Iran, thousands of students from the main campus of Azad University in Tehran held several peaceful demonstrations protesting the coup government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the demonstrations that were attacked by Basiji and plain-clothes agents, students changed anti-government slogans protesting the conditions prevalent in the country and in the universities, while also insisting on their support of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi. Since the demonstrations, the streets leading up to the main campus were taken over by security agents and many students were denied entry into the main campus and its buildings.

Iran has shut down three daily newspapers critical of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, according to reports by state-run news agencies.While no reason was given, the newspapers had been considered sympathetic towards those protesting over Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June.The papers closed on Tuesday were Tahlil Rooz (Day's Analysis) in the southern city of Shiraz, and two of the most influential reformist newspapers Farhang Ashdi (Culture of Reconciliation) and Arman (Ideals) published in the capital, Tehran.

Students in Iran have demonstrated against the government at Tehran University on the first day of the new academic year.Footage posted on websites showed several hundred people chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Eyewitnesses said students were not allowed into an official ceremony attended by a government minister to mark the start of term.

Earlier this year, I was shown around Jayyous by Mohammad Othman, Youth Coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign, a nonviolent grassroots movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. His community, like many others, has been hit hard by Israel’s Separation Wall, their very livelihoods threatened by Israel’s drive to carry out a land grab under the claim of security.Yesterday, Othman was detained and arrested by Israeli soldiers as he attempted to cross back into the West Bank from Jordan, returning from a trip to Norway. He will apparently meet with his lawyer tomorrow, and there is a court appearance scheduled for Tuesday next week.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran security forces clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi and arrested at least 10 of them during annual anti-Israel rallies in central Tehran on Friday, a witness said."Security forces just arrested over 10 people," the witness said. "They are pushing protesters and beating them."Iranian authorities, including Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had warned the opposition against turning anti-Israel rallies to street protests against the clerical establishment.

The history of Non Governmental Organisations dates back for not more than four decades in Ethiopia. They were mainly engaged and their primary area of focus was in relief works and service delivery. It is only in the last 10 years or so that Organisations started to actively work on rights issues. Despite the number of limitations and some witnessed malpractices, NGO’s have been doing a commendable work in Ethiopia over the years. Restricted during the Derg regime, there were only few of them allowed to operate under tight government control. Freedom of association was de facto forbidden to independent professional associations, trade unions, the media, academia, the private business sector, and the like as they might be threats to authoritative ruling system. After the fall of the regime however, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia came into being and created conducive working environment for NGOs/CSOs to work under, adopting a constitution which allows for the freedom of association and other related rights after having ratified different international instruments which comprised of different civil, economic, political and cultural rights.

Seriously anxious at the prospects of the fundamentalists represented by fanatic President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhad loosing the next presidential elections, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i was again compelled to come down personally in the political arena, acting not as the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic who stands above political lines, but as the champion of a political party fighting for survival. On 7th December, Mr. Khameneh’i once again expressed his full support of Mr. Ahmadi Nezhad during a meeting with Mr. Raphael Correa, the leftist President of Ecuador by the Iranian President as “a young man who works relentlessly day and night with plenty of energy”.

There have been violent clashes on the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran, after a massive opposition rally in the city.One protester was shot dead and several others were injured when the crowd attacked a compound used by a religious militia linked to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard. The violence comes after a largely peaceful rally in the city, attended by hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters demanding the country's presidential election be overturned.