Search for bodies in Nepal village suspended due to avalanches
A girl spreading her arms asks soldiers for food near a makeshift shelter after the April 25 earthquake in Kathmandu May 9, 2015.
The search for missing trekkers, guides and residents feared buried in Nepal village by a massive landslide and avalanche triggered by last month's magnitude 7.8 earthquake has been suspended due to bad weather, officials said on Sunday.
The suspension of the search in Langtang underscores the challenging conditions facing rescuers, soldiers and aid workers two weeks after the April 25 quake struck, killing at least 7,913 people and injuring more than 17,800.
"Fresh avalanches are hitting the area continuously," Gautam Rimal, a district official, told Reuters. "Rescuers who were searching for bodies have now moved to safe places."
Twenty bodies were recovered on Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths in Langtang to 120. Two of the bodies, however, were almost immediately buried again in a new avalanche, Rimal said.
Large swaths of remote, hard-to-access locations such as Langtang, 60 km (35 miles) north of the capital Kathmandu, were devastated in the earthquake, and aid agencies say many places have yet to be reached to assess the damage or deliver relief supplies.
Officials remained unsure how many people were in Langtang village, in the heart of a popular trekking and climbing area, when the earthquake and landslide struck. Residents have said that as many as 180 people may still be buried under the snow.
Rimal said the search in Langtang would resume once the weather cleared and daily avalanches stop.
The bodies of nine foreigners killed in Langtang have been sent to Kathmandu, and bodies of residents have been handed over to relatives.
Airbus A400M military transporter crashes on test flight, killing four
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An Airbus (AIR.PA) A400M military transport plane crashed outside Seville on Saturday, killing four test crew and prompting Britain and Germany to ground Europe's new troop and cargo carrier.
The aircraft was due to be delivered to another NATO customer, Turkey, and was on its maiden test flight when it crashed in a field one mile (1.6 km) north of Seville's San Pablo airport. It was the first ever crash of an A400M.
Airbus said four Spanish employees had been killed and two surviving crew were in hospital in serious condition.
The newspaper El Pais said the crew had detected a fault and asked permission to land, but hit an electricity pylon while attempting an emergency landing.
Tracking data from the Flightradar24 website indicated the plane had wheeled to the left before coming down.
An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on possible causes. Airbus said it had sent a team to investigate.
The crash delivers a fresh blow to Europe's largest defense project, which is still struggling to overcome delays and cost overruns that led to a bailout by European governments in 2010.
Britain and Germany said they were suspending A400M flights while they awaited more information on what caused the crash.
A plume of black smoke rose from the site, where hardly anything was left of the plane amid black, scorched earth.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, speaking to journalists near the site, asked for maximum transparency from Airbus on the reasons for the crash.
"An incident like this is not the best for our industry ... It remains to be seen if it was purely circumstantial or if a mistake was made," he said, adding that the Spanish defense minister would meet his German and French counterparts on Sunday to discuss the incident.
The A400M Atlas was developed for Spain and six other European NATO nations - Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Turkey - at a cost of 20 billion euros ($22 billion), making it Europe's biggest single arms contract. It entered service in 2013 after a delay of more than three years.
Britain's Cameron won big by selling stability over fear
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha return to Number 10 Downing Street after meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in London, Britain May 8, 2015.
Prime Minister David Cameron sealed a surprise election win by persuading Britons to choose the security of modestly rising living standards over an implausible pretender many feared could become the puppet of Scottish nationalists.
Blending the promise of "the good life" fueled by a strong economic recovery with fear of resurgent Scottish separatists calling the shots in a country they want to break up, Cameron steamrolled the opposition Labour Party and won his party's first outright majority in 23 years.
"We've had a positive response to a positive campaign about safeguarding our economy," said Cameron, as if he had always expected to win so emphatically.
The truth was different.
Before it became clear he had won, some in his center-right Conservative Party feared he had run a dull campaign that failed to shift apparently tied opinion polls.
Others in the party, famous for ruthlessly junking predecessors such as triple election-winner Margaret Thatcher, thought his days were numbered even if he won because he was unlikely to win big.
He forgot the name of his football team at one point, was accused of dodging TV debates, and had sometimes struggled to hold his party together.
Seeking to lift his game, a gesticulating and shirt-sleeved Cameron vehemently described himself as "pumped up" at one campaign appearance widely derided by critics. But that had to be set against Labour leader Ed Miliband's much-ridiculed efforts to convince voters that "Hell yes, I'm tough enough".
Cameron, guided by his Australian campaign adviser Lynton Crosby, spent six weeks hammering home just two messages: Vote Conservative to secure economic recovery, and stop Labour coming to power backed by Scottish nationalists.
Crosby's strategy was that "you can't fatten a pig on market day". That meant voters were bombarded with a message in the hope that relentless repetition would help it "take".
"The Lynton Crosby strategy came through in the end," one Conservative activist in Cameron's Oxfordshire constituency, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
As he addressed supporters on Friday, Cameron savored proving his doubters wrong.
"The pundits got it wrong, the pollsters got it wrong, the commentators got it wrong," he said. "This is the sweetest victory of them all."
SCOTTISH WRECKERS
Conservative staffers said they were surprised by the scale of their victory.
Many put it down to English horror at the prospect of Scottish nationalists wielding influence over swathes of the United Kingdom which they still want to leave despite losing an independence referendum last year.
"It’s got to be the Scottish National Party angle," one jubilant Conservative activist who declined to be named said. "More than any line in any election, that one has really cut through to people we meet on the doorstep."
The SNP didn't run on an independence ticket this time, drawing in voters who want to stay in the United Kingdom but want a stronger Scottish voice in British politics.
It was a strategy that won them a landslide, securing 56 of Scotland's 59 parliamentary seats.
It repeatedly offered to help Labour come to power "to lock out Cameron". Miliband ruled out deals with the SNP, but failed to dispel voters' doubts he would relent and make a pact with the nationalists.
For many in England that was a reason not to vote Labour.
Though it didn't initially appear to have the impact he had hoped for, Cameron's economic record gave him a lead over Miliband on economic competence.
The fact that real wage growth only picked up in the months before the election caused jitters in the Cameron camp. But he was able to deliver record low inflation, high employment and cheap mortgages.
And crucially, he told Britons they would feel the benefits of the recovery if they gave him another five years.
"This somehow actually had more traction (than people thought)," said Grants Shapps, Conservative party chairman.
Cameron's pledges to cut welfare spending sharply angered Labour supporters. But they went down well with many voters who resented claimants regularly portrayed as feckless parasites.
'RED ED'
But perhaps Cameron's best asset was Miliband, nicknamed "Red Ed" by his detractors.
He began the campaign cast by right-leaning newspapers as a socially awkward geek with neither gravitas nor policies. His party had left Britain with its biggest peacetime deficit when it left office in 2010.
Miliband tried to repair Labour's battered reputation for fiscal responsibility but refused to say it had borrowed too much, angering some voters. He forgot key passages of a speech on the economy and immigration at Labour's last conference before the election.
And in a move that dismayed some supporters, he commissioned a stone tablet engraved with his election promises which critics ironically compared to Moses' Ten Commandments.
During the campaign, Miliband was perceived to have outperformed low expectations and to have improved his ratings.
But it wasn't enough.
"His ratings improved but they are still much below David Cameron in terms of competence," said Ben Page, chief executive of pollster Ipsos MORI.
Perhaps most importantly, Miliband's big gamble didn't come off. One of his predecessors, Tony Blair, had led Labour to three election victories by anchoring the party in the center ground. But Miliband shifted to the left, promising to raise taxes and spending and to intervene in markets to right what he perceived as unfair imbalances.
"We failed to offer a compelling vision of the future," said Tristram Hunt, Labour's education spokesman.
Some blamed David Axelrod, the former Obama adviser, who helped coordinate Labour's campaign.
"To a certain extent he didn't succeed in creating a campaign that got to everybody across the country and that's what you're going to need to do if you're going to get into government again," said Jacqui Smith, a former Labour minister.
COALITION PARTNER WOES
Cameron was also boosted by a collapse in support for his coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats.
Opinion polls had suggested the centrist party, with whom Cameron had governed since 2010, had paid a heavy price for going into government with him.
Many supporters felt it had betrayed its principles by going into coalition with Cameron and could not forgive it for what they saw as a U-turn on student tuition fees.
It was expected to do badly, but not even its fiercest critics predicted it would win just eight seats, down from 57 in 2010.
The Conservatives won 27 seats from the Liberal Democrats, claiming the scalps of two of their senior cabinet ministers, Business Secretary Vince Cable and Energy Secretary Ed Davey.
Equally, a potential threat to Cameron from the anti-EU UK Independence Party never really materialized.
It had threatened to split the Conservative vote and it did win millions of votes, but Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system meant it won only one seat in the end.
But it was Labour's collapse in Scotland, a traditional stronghold, that lost Miliband the most seats. In 2010, Labour won 41 seats there. This time it won just one.
North Korea boasts of firing ballistic missile from submarine
North Korea said on Saturday it had successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine, a step that would mark significant progress in the secretive state's military capabilities.
It could pose a new threat to South Korea, Japan and the United States, which have tried to contain North Korea's growing nuclear and missile strength, military experts said.
The North's leader, Kim Jong Un, oversaw the test-launch from an offshore location as the submarine dived and "a ballistic missile surfaced from the sea and soared into the air, leaving a fiery trail of blaze," the official KCNA news agency said.
"Through the test, it was verified and confirmed that the underwater ballistic missile launch from a strategic submarine fully achieved the latest military, scientific and technical requirements."
North Korea is under United Nations sanctions banning it from developing or using ballistic missile technology.
The United States would not comment on the reported test but said launches using ballistic missile technology were a "clear violation" of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
"We call on North Korea to refrain from actions that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its international commitments and obligations," a State Department official said in an email.
The KCNA report did not mention the date or the exact location of the test, but a separate KCNA dispatch on Saturday said Kim gave field guidance at a fishery complex in Sinpo, a port city on the country's east coast and the location of a known submarine base.
ADVANCED CAPABILITIES
The test, if verified, would mean North Korea can move its missiles within range of the United States, said Korea analyst Victor Cha of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"The test shows that North Korea missile capabilities are advancing without any constraints now despite a bevy of nonproliferation sanctions applied by the United Nations," he said in an email.
A South Korean military expert who saw still photos of the launch in the North's media said they appeared to show a ballistic missile being fired from a submarine in a "cold launch" through an ejection mechanism, a key element in a submarine launch system.
"The potential of this is that existing missile defense against the North can be rendered useless," said Shin In-kyun, who runs the Korea Defense Network, an independent forum.
Such missile defense systems are positioned to look at the North, not at "submarines that could be south of Jeju or near Guam". Jeju is a South Korean island.
Shin said a full deployment of the submarine-based missile system would still require a functional guided propulsion mechanism that can carry the missile vehicle from the water surface to a target.
The North has also yet to demonstrate it has successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead to be fitted on a delivery vehicle for deployment, according to experts.
South Korea did not have an immediate comment on the report on the submarine launch.
MILITARY BOASTS
In January, Johns Hopkins University's U.S.-Korea Institute said on its website, 38 North, that satellite imagery showed possible evidence of work on vertical launch tubes on a submarine that could be for ballistic missiles.
The vessel could serve "as an experimental test bed for land-attack submarines", it said, although it cautioned such a test would be expensive and time-consuming "with no guarantee of success".
North Korea's state media often boasts of successful military and space accomplishments, including the launch of a functional communications satellite, which are not independently verified by outside experts.
It is believed to have launched a long-range rocket and put an object into orbit in December 2012, defying scepticism and international warnings not to pursue such a program, which could be used to develop intercontinental missiles.
South Korea's military said later on Saturday the North had fired three land-based cruise missiles from a separate location on its east coast into the sea with a range of about 120 km (70 miles).
The North has an arsenal of land-based ballistic missiles and last test-fired a mid-range missile in March last year, drawing further condemnation from the international community.
(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park in Seoul and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing byAndrew Roche and Raissa Kasolowsky)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the test-fire of a strategic submarine underwater ballistic missile (not pictured), in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on May 9, 2015.
Saudi-led coalition launches wave of air strikes on Yemen
A man rides a motorcycle past a headquarters of the Houthi group, which was destroyed after an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition, in Yemen's northwestern city of Saada April 26, 2015.
The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday it had hit Yemen with 130 air strikes over the previous 24 hours, and a senior UN official said some attacks violated international law.
The coalition of Arab states had called on civilians to evacuate Saada, the city in northern Yemen where support for Houthi rebels is strongest, before the bombing but it was unclear how they could leave.
"The indiscriminate bombing of populated areas, with or without prior warning, is in contravention of international humanitarian law," the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Johannes van der Klaauw said in a statement later in the day.
"Many civilians are effectively trapped in Saada as they are unable to access transport because of the fuel shortage. The targeting of an entire governorate will put countless civilians at risk."
A coalition spokesman said the latest wave of aerial bombing, on about 100 locations, was in response to the shelling of Saudi border areas by Houthi forces this week.
The air strikes targeted bases of Houthi leaders across Saada and Hajja provinces, said Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, as well as hitting tanks and other military vehicles.
Other strikes targeted Sanaa airport's runway, a Yemeni official there said, and Houthi targets in the al-Sadda district of Ibb in central Yemen, residents there said.
In the southern port city of Aden, clashes continued on Friday and Saturday in the central Crater, Khor Maksar and Mualla districts as the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh shelled local militias trying to oust them from the city.
However, the Houthis were pushed back from parts of Dar al-Saad in the city's north into Lahj Province, local militias said, and faced fighting in al-Dhala Province.
In Shabwa province, east of Aden, four men including a suspected al Qaeda leader were killed in a drone strike, local officials said.
FEARS OF PROXY WAR
The coalition has bombarded the Houthis and army units loyal to Saleh since March 26, but eased back on the strikes in late April and on Friday offered a five-day truce starting on May 12 if other parties agreed.
The Saudis and nine other Arab countries, backed by the United States, Britain and France, hoped to force the Houthis back to their northern heartland and restore the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is in Riyadh.
The Houthis are mainly drawn from the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam that predominates in Yemen's northern highlands. They took advantage of political chaos to seize Sanaa and then advance further south over the past year, aided by Saleh.
Riyadh fears the Houthis will act as a proxy for their main regional rival, Shi'ite Iran, to undermine Saudi security, and that their advance into Sunni regions will add a sectarian edge to the civil war, strengthening an al Qaeda group in Yemen.
Iran and the Houthis deny funding, arming or training is coming from Tehran, and analysts say the rebel group is unlikely to become an all-out proxy for the Islamic Republic in the mold of Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday the Saudi-led campaign was the work of an "inexperienced" government that did not understand the region's politics.
In Rome Varoufakis
Rome visits today Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, as part of a tour of European capitals. Mr. Varoufakis will meet with his Italian counterpart Carlo Pierre Padoa, while Friday will hold a meeting in Madrid with Spanish Finance Minister Luis de Guinness . Yesterday, the Greek Finance Minister met in Paris with French counterpart Michel Sapen, the Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moskovisi but also to Economy Minister Emmanuel away. Speaking after his meeting with the last Finance Minister stressed that the discussion with Mr. away "were very complex but fruitful, as part of the technical solutions we seek together to find." "What is important is that together we put the question opposite and together we are trying to address it," he added and stressed that Mr. away "helped to shape some ideas in an attempt the next day to find solutions.
Kerry says U.S. wants to renew ties with Sri Lanka
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at a news conference as part of the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee (2+2) meeting in New York April 27, 2015.
REUTERS/ANDREW KELLY
(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday the United States wanted to renew ties with Sri Lanka and announced the start of an annual bilateral dialogue after years of tensions with the island nation's former government.
Kerry arrived in the South Asian country earlier on Saturday, the first time in a decade that a U.S. secretary of state has visited Sri Lanka.
Washington had years of tensions over human rights with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was unseated by Mathripala Sirisena in a surprise election win in January.
Sri Lanka had also tilted heavily towards China as Rajapaksa fell out with the West over human rights and allegations of war crimes at the end of the government's drawn-out conflict with Tamil separatists, which ended in 2009.
Kerry said Washington wanted to work with Sirisena and lauded the new government's efforts to tackle corruption, build democratic institutions and address the wrongs of the past through a process of national reconciliation.
"I am here today because I want to say to the people of Sri Lanka in this journey to restore democracy the American people will stand with you," Kerry said after meeting Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera.
"We intend to broaden and to deepen our partnership with you," Kerry said while announcing the annual dialogue.
Samaraweera called Kerry's visit a "momentous occasion" and said it "signified the return of our little island nation to the center stage of international affairs".
Kerry has been credited in Sri Lanka for his role in pressing for peaceful and inclusive elections, and for calling Rajapaksa on the eve of voting to urge him to respect the outcome.
Kerry was due to meet Sirisena later on Saturday as well as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, who heads the main ethnic Tamil political party.
He will also discuss U.S. interest in expanding trade and investment with Sri Lanka, a senior State Department official said. Sri Lanka exports roughly $2.5 billion in goods, mostly textiles, to the United States a year.
The State Department official said Washington was "encouraged" by the new government's cooperation with the United Nations over a U.N. report on possible atrocities committed during the final stages of the civil war.
The United Nations said Rajapaksa's government had failed to properly investigate war crimes. In February, at the request of Sirisena's government, the U.N. Human Rights Council agreed to delay the release of the U.N. report until September.
Sirisena appears to be more willing to work with the United Nations and his government has said it wants to conduct the war crimes investigation with U.N. assistance.
"It's a real opening in terms of Sri Lanka's relations with the international community and with the United Nations," the State Department official said. "We'll have to see where this goes with Sri Lanka and its dialogue with the U.N."
Thousands of South Koreans Protest Over Govt Labor Policies
Thousands of South Koreans marched in Seoul on Friday for a third week to protest government labor policies and the handling of a ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people a year ago.
Demonstrators, many of them carrying banners and wearing yellow jackets, the color identified with supporters of the families of the ferry disaster victims, occupied several downtown streets and sporadically clashed with police officers.
Twelve people were detained for allegedly assaulting police officers and other disorderly conduct, said an official from the National Police Agency, who didn't want to be named citing office rules. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Police created tight perimeters with their buses to block the marchers, contributing to a significant disruption in commuting traffic. In several streets, protesters tried to move the buses by pulling ropes they tied near the vehicles' wheels and police responded by pepper spraying them. Many buses were vandalized by protesters who spray-painted anti-government slogans on them.
South Korean labor groups have been denouncing a series of government policies they believe will reduce wages, job security and retirement benefits for state employees.
"We, the workers, will succeed in forcing the administration of (President) Park Geun-hye to stop its repression of labor," Han Sang-goon, president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, shouted at one of the rallies.
Marches on May 1 are rooted in labor movements worldwide. The demonstrations in Seoul were joined by supporters of the ferry victims' relatives who want a more thorough investigation into the sinking. At an earlier demonstration on April 18, dozens of people were hurt in a violent clash between police and demonstrators.
The ferry disaster continues to be a thorny issue for increasingly unpopular Park, despite her bowing to relatives' demand to proceed with the difficult and potentially dangerous job of salvaging the vessel. Relatives also want a new investigation to look into the government's responsibility for the disaster, which was blamed in part on official incompetence and corruption.
A total of 304 people, most of them schoolchildren, died when the ferry Sewol sank last year. Nine victims' bodies have not been found.
US Envoy Deflects Insult by Turkish Mayor With Humor
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey is fighting back with humor after Ankara's mayor called a U.S. state department spokeswoman a "stupid blonde."
John Bass posted a picture on his Instagram account with his normally dark hair digitally altered to a reddish blond. The caption said: "American Diplomats: We Are All Blonde."
Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek had taken to social media to go after State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf for criticizing Turkish police tactics during demonstrations.
Earlier this week, Gokcek posted a tweet with an image of police in Baltimore forcibly subduing someone during the recent unrest with a caption that said: "Where are you stupid blonde, who accused Turkish police of using disproportionate force?"
The Tweet included a picture of Harf and said: "Come on blonde, answer now."
When asked about the Tweet, Harf has said that she did not want to dignify it with a response.
Gokcek, a longtime mayor of Ankara, is a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gokcek is a cantankerous presence on social media, which he often uses to go after foes of his party. He was also outspoken during the large anti-government protests in 2013, attacking protesters and journalists.
Romanian Mayor Suspected of Using Police to Spy on Rivals
Romanian police
have detained the mayor of a northeastern city on suspicion that he abused his position by using police to spy on people he considered rivals.
have detained the mayor of a northeastern city on suspicion that he abused his position by using police to spy on people he considered rivals.
The anti-corruption department said Gheorghe Nichita, mayor of Iasi, was detained early Friday. A court will decide later whether he should be arrested. He was questioned for seven hours Thursday about suspicions that personally used local police officers to spy and report on people in Iasi, the most important city in northeastern Romania.
Three senior police officers from Iasi were also detained in the case. Nichita, mayor since 2003, is a member of the ruling Social Democratic Party.
Prosecutors said that from January to April, Nichita abusively obtained confidential information using police and city hall employees for personal gain. In April, he is alleged to have asked a police officer to install a surveillance application on a mobile phone that he gave as a present to the person he intended to spy on.
May Day Demos Staged Around the World; Turkey Square Blocked
Left-wing groups and trade unions are staging rallies across Europe, theMiddle East and Asia on Friday to mark International Workers Day.
Most events are expected to be peaceful protests for workers' rights and world peace. But May 1 regularly sees clashes between police and militant groups in some cities.
International Workers Day originates in the United States. American unions first called for the introduction of an eight-hour working day in the second half of the 19th century. A general strike was declared to press these demands, starting May 1, 1886. The idea spread to other countries and since then workers around the world have held protests on May 1 every year, although the U.S. celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday in September.
Here's a look at some of the May Day events around the world:
TURKEY
Police and May Day demonstrators clashed in Istanbul as crowds determined to defy a government ban tried to march to the city's iconic Taksim Square.
Security forces pushed back demonstrators using water cannons and tear gas. Protesters retaliated by throwing stones and hurling firecrackers at police.
Authorities have blocked the square that is symbolic as the center of protests in which 34 people were killed in 1977.
Turkish newswires say that 10,000 police officers were stationed around the square Friday.
The demonstrations are the first large-scale protests since the government passed a security bill this year giving police expanded powers to crack down on protesters.
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Thousands of people marched in the capital Seoul on Friday for a third week to protest government labor policies and the handling of a ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people a year ago.
Demonstrators occupied several downtown streets and sporadically clashed with police officers. Protesters tried to move buses used to block their progress. Police responded by spraying tear gas. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
South Korean labor groups have been denouncing a series of government policies they believe will reduce wages, job security and retirement benefits for state employees.
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PHILIPPINES
More than 10,000 workers and activists marched in Manila and burned an effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III to protest low wages and a law allowing employers to hire laborers for less than six months to avoid giving benefits received by regular workers.
Workers in metropolitan Manila now receive 481 pesos ($10.80) in daily minimum wage after a 15 peso ($0.34) increase in March.
Although it is the highest rate in the country, it is still "a far cry from being decent," says Lito Ustarez, vice chairman of the left-wing May One Movement.
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GREECE
In financially struggling Greece, an estimated 13,000 people took part in three separate May Day marches in Athens, carrying banners and shouting anti-austerity slogans. Minor clashes broke out at the end of the peaceful marches, when a handful of hooded youths threw a petrol bomb at riot police. No injuries or arrests were reported.
Earlier, ministers from the governing radical left Syriza party joined protesters gathering for the marches, including Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis — who was mobbed by media and admirers — and the ministers of labor and energy.
In the northern city of Thessaloniki, police said another 13,000 people took part in three separate, peaceful marches.
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May Day Demos Staged Around the World; Turkey Square Blocked
GERMANY
Police in Berlin say the traditional 'Walpurgis Night' protest marking the eve of May 1 was calmer than previous years.
Several thousand people took part in anti-capitalist street parties in the north of the city. Fireworks and stones were thrown at police, injuring one officer. Fifteen people were detained. Elsewhere in the German capital revelers partied "extremely peacefully," police noted on Friday morning.
At noon, Green Party activists unveiled a statue at Alexanderplatz in central Berlin of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, considered heroes by many on the left for leaking secret U.S. intelligence and military documents. The statue, called "Anything to say," depicts the three standing on chairs and is scheduled to go on tour around the world, according to the website http://www.anythingtosay.com/.
In the central German city of Weimar far-right extremists attacked a union event. Police said 15 people were injured and 29 were arrested.
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RUSSIA
In Moscow, tens of thousands of workers braved chilly rain to march across Red Square. Instead of the red flags with the Communist hammer and sickle used in Soviet times, they waved the blue flags of the dominant Kremlin party and the Russian tricolor.
Despite an economic crisis that is squeezing the working class, there was little if any criticism of President Vladimir Putin or his government.
Participants said the May 1 march was a tradition going back to their childhood. This Soviet nostalgia was imbued with feelings of patriotism in the run-up to the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II on May 9.
The Communist Party later held a separate march under the slogan "against fascism and in support of Donbass," with participants calling for greater support for the separatists fighting the Ukrainian army in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
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CUBA
Thousands of people were converging on Havana's Plaza of the Revolution for the traditional march, led this year by President Raul Castro and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. After attending Cuba's celebration, Maduro was to fly back to Caracas to attend the May Day observances in his own country.
Additional marches were planned in major cities around Cuba, including Santiago and Holguin in the east.
Arrests Rise in Burundi Protests; Protesters Vow to Remain
About 500 students spent the night outside the U.S. Embassy in Burundi's capital, asking the U.S. for protection as street protests went into their sixth day Friday against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to seek a third term.
In the Musaga neighborhood, protesters marched past many smoldering barricades while brandishing wooded sticks and metal bars. They tried to reach a major road but were stopped by a cordon of riot police. The demonstrators turned in their sticks, sang the national anthem and after a minute of silence marched back into the neighborhood.
Many protesters say they will not leave the streets until Nkurunziza withdraws his candidacy in June 26 elections.
Families gathered outside a jail to bring food to those who have been arrested. Carina Tertsakian, a senior Rwanda researcher with Human Rights Watch, said Friday that more than 400 people are believed to be in detention as Burundi's government tries to stop the protests.
The protests started on Sunday after the ruling party the previous day nominated Nkurunziza to be its candidate.
Some events carried on as normal. At a local sports field, civil servants paraded in front of officials in a May Day celebration.
Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Tom Malinowski, who traveled to Burundi on Wednesday, told reporters that the government has been warned of "real consequences" if the crisis escalates.
Many see Nkurunziza's decision to run again as a violation of the Arusha Agreements that ended civil war that killed more than 250,000 people. The fighting between Hutu rebels and a Tutsi-dominated army ended in 2003.
Nkurunziza, a Hutu, was selected by Parliament in 2005 to be president. He was re-elected unopposed in 2010. His supporters say he can seek re-election again because he was voted in by lawmakers for his first term, and was not popularly elected.
At least six people have been killed since Sunday, according to the Burundi Red Cross.
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AP journalist Andrew Njuguna in Bujumbura contributed to this report. Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda.
Police in Southern China Raid Office of Car-Hailing App Uber
Police in southern China raided the office of U.S. car-hailing app Uberafter the Chinese government in January banned drivers of private cars from offering such services through apps.
A statement by the Guangzhou Municipal Transport Commission said police suspected Uber was operating an illegal taxi service without a proper business registration. It said police seized thousands of iPhones and other equipment used to run the business in the Thursday night raid in the city of Guangzhou. The commission also said it was cracking down on other car-hailing apps in the region and issuing fines of 30,000 yuan, or about $4,860.
Uber said in a statement Friday that it was cooperating with the authorities while continuing to offer the service to Guangzhou residents.
The transport commission said it recognized the limits of traditional taxi services in the area and was studying how online-based services could fill the need.
Turkish May Day Protesters Clash With Police in Istanbul
Police and May Day demonstrators have clashed in Istanbul as crowds determined to defy a government ban tried to march to the city's iconic Taksim Square.
Security forces pushed back demonstrators using water cannons and tear gas. Protesters retaliated by throwing stones and hurling firecrackers at police.
Istanbul's police chief said around 136 people had been detained, according to private Dogan News Agency.
Authorities have blocked the square that is symbolic as the center of protests in which 34 people were killed in 1977.
Turkish newswires say that 10,000 police officers were stationed around the square Friday with water cannons to block the protesters. Protests are also taking place in cities across Turkey.
The demonstrations are the first large-scale protests since the government passed a security bill this year giving police expanded powers to crack down on protesters.
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