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Che Guevara

U.S. Protests, Teacher Walkouts Mount in Wisconsin. Milwaukee Schools Closed

protest
The movement of Wisconsin workers and youth against budget-cutting and attacks on government workers continued to spread on Friday, with tens of thousands more teachers and students walking out of their classrooms, while the major demonstration in Madison continued unabated.

Demonstrations that began on Monday with an unexpectedly large march of 1,200 University of Wisconsin graduate and undergraduate students have since drawn hundreds of thousands more into struggle. The crowd surrounding the capitol building on Tuesday grew to between 13,000 and 20,000, and demonstrations have been estimated at between 20,000 and 30,000 on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. A major demonstration is also expected today.

Friday may have been the largest demonstration yet. Buses brought an estimated 11,000 students and university workers to Madison from the University of Wisconsin campuses at Milwaukee, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Superior, River Falls, Green Bay, and Stout, while teachers and government workers continued to arrive in large numbers.

Heart - Black

Update: Libya death toll tops 173, says Human Rights Watch

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Human Rights Watch said Sunday that the countrywide death toll in Libya had reached 173.

Local residents told Al Jazeera that 200 people had died in Benghazi alone.


Tripoli - The death toll has topped 100 from an iron-fisted crackdown on protests in east Libya, Human Rights Watch said, as demonstrators on Sunday again braved the streets of the restive city of Benghazi.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera television on a patchy telephone line, a Benghazi resident warned that the flashpoint city was turning into a scene of "out of sight massacres".

"It feels like an open warzone between protesters and security forces," said Fathi Terbeel, a protest organiser in Benghazi. "Our numbers show that more than 200 people have been killed ... God have mercy on them."

Vader

Shock video: Bahrain's army deliberately murders peaceful protesters with automatic weapons

Bahrain protesters gunned down in streets.


Wolf

'Scumbag!': Judge behind 'cash for kids' scheme gets an earful

In the trials of those behind the "kids for cash" scheme discussed in Michael Moore's film Capitalism: A Love Story, one recently convicted judge, who sentenced countless innocent children to a private juvenile detention center, recently got an earful from a furious mother whose son committed suicide.

This video is from CNN, broadcast Feb. 19, 2011.


Pharoah

Dictators are "Disposable": The Rise and Fall of America's Military Henchmen

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History Repeats Itself? From the "King of Java" to the Pharaoh of Egypt

From Suharto to Mubarak: History Repeats Itself?

President Suharto of Indonesia was deposed following mass protests in May 1998.

The Western media in chorus pointed to "democratization": the "King of Java" had been deposed by mass protests, much in the same way as Hosni Mubarak, described by today's media as "The Pharaoh of Egypt".

The 1997 Asian Crisis

The 1997 Asia financial crisis which served to impoverish millions of people was instigated by institutional speculators. It was a process of deliberate market manipulation. It consisted in destabilizing national currencies, through "short selling".

The Indonesian rupiah was destabilized, food prices skyrocketed, real wages collapsed by more than fifty percent. Nike workers in export manufacturing were receiving $45 a month before the crisis. In the wake of the devaluation of the rupiah, their wages plummeted to less than $20 a month.

Stormtrooper

Libyan revolt death toll put at 200

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Nearly 200 Libyan demonstrators are feared dead following government crackdown on protesters in five days of pro-democracy revolt against the 42-year rule of Libya's Moammar Gaddafi.

UK's Independent newspaper reported Sunday that government crushing of the protests in the eastern Libyan port city of Benghazi has left up to 200 people dead.

Earlier reports put the death toll from the anti-government uprising at 100 people.

Libya's crackdown on massive demonstrations turned bloodier as government forces opened fire on protesters in Benghazi on Saturday, leaving at least 15 people dead.

Medics said snipers opened fire on thousands of people on Saturday as protesters gathered to mourn the 35 protesters killed by security forces on Friday, Associated Press reported.

In addition to the 15 killed, scores more were reported wounded during the Saturday violence. Moreover, many of the victims in the incident are reported to have been hit in the head.

Che Guevara

Images: Revolutionary fever inflames the Muslim world

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© Hassan Ammar/AP
Bahraini riot police chase protesters in central Manama

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© Hasan Jamali/AP
Bahraini protesters remove barbed wire near the Pearl monument in the city centre

Che Guevara

Bahrain's uprising enters eighth day

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Protesters celebrate after reaching Pearl Square in the Bahraini capital of Manama.
Bahrain's pro-democracy uprising has entered its eighth day, as thousands of protesters camped out at Pearl square in the capital city, Manama.

Inspired by popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Bahraini demonstrators say they will stay in the square until the regime collapses, Press TV correspondents reported.

Bahrain's opposition movement led by Shia ex-lawmakers is expected to hold talks with Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa to put demonstrators' demands before the heir to Bahrain's king.

The army withdrew from the square on Saturday following an order by Crown Prince Salman, who is leading a national dialogue after days of a massive uprising that has left six portesters dead and hundreds wounded.

Tension is running high in the streets of Manama despite the crackdown and heavy police presence.

The government has violently cracked down on demonstrators demanding an end to the monarchy.

Stormtrooper

Moroccan forces on high alert as protesters gather

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Moroccan security forces have been on high alert in the capital Rabat and other main cities of the country ahead of a planned nationwide demonstration to demand broad political reforms.

Thousands of Moroccans are expected to join nationwide protests Sunday to demand that King Mohammed hand some of his powers to a newly elected government and make the justice system more independent, DPA reported.

A coalition of Moroccan youth groups called "The February 20 Movement" has called for mass peaceful protests in cities across Morocco on Sunday to demand the amendment of the constitution, dissolution of the government and parliament, recognition of the Amazigh (Berber) language as an official language and the release of political prisoners, among other things.

The February 20 movement also wants to force the 47-year-old monarch to dismiss the current government and dissolve parliament.

Light Sabers

John Boehner squares up to Obama as House votes for $61bn in cuts (just don't mention the war machine)

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© Alex Wong/Getty Images
John Boehner, Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, pushed through a massive package of cuts by 235 votes to 192, declaring: 'We will not stop here.'
House of Representatives provokes threat of veto from Barack Obama - and raises prospect of a government shutdown

Republicans pushed through a draconian series of budget cuts worth tens of billions of dollars on Saturday, raising the prospect of a showdown with President Barack Obama.

Emboldened by their 2010 midterm election victory and swelled by Tea Party-backed newcomers, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives signed off on federal spending cuts worth $61bn. The axe will fall on federal money for public broadcasting, environmental programmes, Obama's healthcare reforms and the family planning organisation Planned Parenthood.

Even Obama's own staff face $120m of cuts. Personnel would be withdrawn from key areas including the reform of Wall Street. Some government agencies face budget cuts as high as 40%; the largest reduction in federal government spending since the second world war.