- Hundreds of thousands of Syrians defied a violent government crackdown Friday, insisting they will not be terrified into submission through bullets, mass arrests and more than four months of attacks by security forces. At least five people were killed, activists said.
- Alpha Natural Resources Inc. halted blasting operations on Coal River Mountain for hours Wednesday as it searched for two mountaintop removal mining protesters with the group Radical Action for Mountain People’s Survival who erected platforms in trees 80 feet above ground within 300 feet of a blasting site. They are now on day three of the tree sit.
- Russian police beat and arrested activists trying to save Khimki Forest from being destroyed by the controversial Moscow-St.Petersburg Motorway project.
- 1,000 cyclists took part in a rally on Wednesday night in Toronto to protest the City’s decision to remove a number of bike lanes.
- Union workers at the world’s top copper mine, Chile’s Escondida, started a 24-hour strike on Thursday over a series of wage contract demands that if not met could lead to an indefinite work stoppage.
- Several hundred protesters are rallying in Cairo and other cities, keeping pressure on Egypt’s military rulers and government to uproot and try former regime officials.
- Twenty students in Chile are on a hunger strike to support demands for improvements to the country’s education system.
- About a thousand Turks and Kurds demonstrated in central Istanbul on Thursday, calling for peace and an end to Turkey’s longstanding Kurdish problem.
- Greek taxi drivers blocked ports and airports on the popular tourist islands of Crete and Corfu on Thursday, in a strike to protest government plans to open up their trade to competition.
- 34 people were arrested during a march to the statehouse in Nairobi on Tuesday, where demonstrators attempted to petition the President to sack corrupt senior government officials.
- Hundreds of union and nonunion workers protested in front of the Grand Hyatt hotel in San Francisco on Thursday to protest the abuse of workers and a clause in their contract that takes away their right to go on strike. 80 people were cited for civil disobedience.
