Street Protests

They used hypodermic syringes to spatter their blood on Mexico City's government buildings during protests. Two of them launched a hunger strike in a tent outside the National Human Rights Commission building, a protest that began Oct. 14 and now threatens to claim their lives.

Passions over international human rights issues have given rise to an unusual sight outside the Los Angeles Music Center: political protests. While protests are a sporadic element of life in Los Angeles, these demonstrations stand out because of their location -- in the heart of L.A.'s cultural center, where political dissent is usually channeled through works of art, not street protests.

MOSCOW - Stiff new penalties aimed at opposition protesters were given preliminary approval Tuesday by Russian lawmakers loyal to President Vladimir Putin, the target of mass rallies and demonstrations before his March election victory. The bill, which opposition parliament members termed draconian and protested by threatening to file out of a legislative session, calls for fines of up to $50,000 and up to 200 hours of community service for organizers of rallies and demonstrations that grow violent or exceed the approved number of participants.

Before the protests came the news conferences--four of them on Thursday alone, plus a minor demonstration as activists from Washington state to Wilshire Boulevard struggled to grab the media's attention before delegates and protesters sweep into town for the Democratic National Convention.

Street protests, airport-style X-ray machines and a blue sea of police uniforms greeted dignitaries as they arrived Thursday for the opening of the World Economic Forum. Security was so tight that even the guests--a who's who of the worlds of business, diplomacy, academia and media--had to go through metal detectors to enter the hotel. They were issued special interactive identification passes encoded with their photograph and pertinent data.

Tens of thousands of activists are expected to take to the streets in Washington this weekend in what organizers are calling an "extravaganza" of protests expected to culminate in the largest street demonstration here since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The causes are sweeping and eclectic, with groups rallying against the war on terrorism, in opposition to International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings, against U.S. policy in Colombia and for Palestinian solidarity.

Antiwar demonstrations at the Academy Awards that began in an orderly manner Sunday with movie stars flashing the peace sign from their limousines, dissolved into sporadic confrontations between protesters and police. After officers ordered the protesters to disperse, hundreds of people instead marched the streets of Hollywood for an hour. By the end, 12 people had been arrested. The evening's scene added to one of the oddest Oscar nights in history.

Syrian security forces appear to be shifting their strategy for crushing the popular uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad to a less bloody approach similar to that used effectively by its main ally, Iran, to end massive 2009 street protests. In recent days, Assad loyalists have curbed their use of live fire, which has left hundreds of Syrian civilians dead and many more friends, relatives and neighbors willing to avenge them. Instead, security forces are increasingly using nonlethal means such as tear gas, truncheons and waves of random and targeted arrests, just as Iranian authorities did to rein in the protests that followed the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

For almost three decades he wielded unquestioned power, a seemingly invincible figure ruling with a sense of privilege and ruthlessness that epitomized autocrats across the Middle East. Even when mass protests improbably forced him from power in February, it appeared highly unlikely that Hosni Mubarak, long a key U.S. ally in a volatile region, would ever be held to account for allegations of corruption and abuse of office. But that all changed Wednesday, when authorities here confirmed the detention of the former Egyptian president and his two sons, a move immediately hailed by many as a surprising but shrewd step by the ruling military council to calm protests in the world's most populous Arab nation.

PARIS - The French Parliament on Tuesday approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt, voting after months of often angry debate and sometimes violent protests in the streets. Members of the Socialist government chanted "Equality, equality" and stood up to applaud the results of the 331-225 vote in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The center-right opposition party immediately announced its intention to appeal the law. Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, a strong supporter of the bill, said she was "overcome with emotion.