NEWS,02.06.2013

Police fire tear gas as protests spread

Turkish police fired tear gas at protesters in Ankara on Sunday while thousands of people occupied Istanbul's main Taksim Square on the third day of mass demonstrations against Turkey's Islamist-rooted government.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said more than 1 700 people had been arrested in the unrest that has spread to 67 cities nationwide, though most have since been released.

In Istanbul, a sea of protesters from across Turkey's political spectrum flooded Taksim a day after police pulled out of the area, waving flags and chanting "Government, Resign!" and "Istanbul is ours, Taksim is ours!"

From a nearby rooftop, a banner with the words: "Do not surrender" was unfurled.

Taksim has been at the heart of a wave of protests that have spread across the country in the biggest public outcry against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government since it took power in 2002.

Rights groups have complained about what they said were a "disgraceful" heavy-handed response by police to the demonstrations while Turkey's Western allies appealed for restraint.

The unrest began as a local outcry against plans to redevelop Gezi Park near Taksim, but after a heavy-handed police response quickly snowballed into broader protests against what critics say is the government's increasingly conservative and authoritarian agenda.

Routine

After two days of violence, the situation appeared to have calmed in Istanbul on Sunday after police pulled out of Taksim and officials adopted a more conciliatory tone.

But in Ankara police fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse about 1 000 protesters who were attempting to march on the prime minister's high-security office, images that were shown live on a television network.

Amnesty International said some protesters had been left blinded by the massive quantities of tear gas and pepper spray used by police.

Amnesty's Europe director John Dalhuisen said police excesses had become routine in Turkey "but the excessively heavy-handed response to the entirely peaceful protests in Taksim has been truly disgraceful."

Human Rights Watch said the number of injured was higher than official figures suggested and that one protester had lost an eye.

Turkey's Nato allies Britain, France and the United States have all urged the Erdogan government to exercise restraint.

German protesters clash with cops

German police used pepper spray and batons against thousands of anti-capitalist demonstrators from the Blockupy movement on Saturday during a second day of protests in Frankfurt against Europe's austerity policies.
Planned rallies in struggling euro zone members Spain and Portugal drew fewer people than expected, but in Germany's financial capital around 7 000 protesters marched with signs reading "Make love, not war" and "IMF - get out of Greece".
The protest was initially peaceful but small groups of masked protesters then hurled stones and smoke bombs at the police who responded with force.
Several protesters and police officers were hurt before the action died down later in the evening. Police at the scene said several arrests had been made, but could not say how many.
A first day of protests on Friday in Frankfurt succeeded in paralysing some of the city's financial institutions, cutting off access to the ECB's iconic tower office building and Deutsche Bank's headquarters.
Police anger
Police angered marchers on Saturday by halting them before they could pass close to the ECB building after protesters let off firecrackers.
In a statement, Blockupy accused the police of wanting to "escalate" tensions and of blocking a legitimate protest.
"This is scandalous," spokesperson Ani Diesselmann said. "The (original) route was approved by several legal institutions."
Police said officers had been repeatedly attacked by the small group of demonstrators, making it necessary for them to use force and pepper spray.
Protests against the "troika" of international lenders that has bailed out struggling euro zone states - the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union - were planned in several countries on Saturday.
Europe's Blockupy movement was formed after the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. They blame the budget cuts and labour market reforms supported by the ECB, the IMF and European financial and political leaders for driving the continent into a recession that has left more than a quarter of Greeks and Spaniards out of work and millions of Europe's poor worse off.
Germany's own economy has been fairly resilient to the crisis and many in Europe's struggling southern states blame Chancellor Angela Merkel for enforcing the painful policies in exchange for EU funds which largely come from Germany.
As well as the ECB, on Friday the Blockupy demonstrators targeted several large commercial banks, stores and Frankfurt airport.

Central Europe hit by floods

Authorities in parts of central Europe issued disaster warnings and scrambled to reinforce flood defences on Sunday as rivers swollen by by days of heavy rain threatened to burst their banks.

Several people have died or are missing in the floods in Germany, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
Czech officials warned that the waters of the Vltava river could reach critical levels in Prague late on Sunday.
Interim mayor Tomas Hudecek said authorities were considering whether to shut down parts of the capital's subway network and called on people not to travel to the city.
In the nearby city of Trebenice a woman was found dead in the rubble after a summer cottage collapsed due to the raging water, Czech public television reported.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said 200 soldiers had been deployed so far to help local authorities.
In Germany, where at least four people have died or are missing, Chancellor Angela Merkel promised federal support for affected areas and said the army would be deployed if necessary.
Several cities, including Chemnitz in the east and Passau and Rosenheim in the south issued disaster warnings.
Passau, which is located at the confluence of three rivers, could see waters rise above record levels of 2002, said mayor Juergen Dupper.
A German news agency reported that large stretches of the Rhine, Main and Neckar rivers have been closed to shipping.
Evacuations are also taking place in neighbouring Austria and Switzerland.
Meteorologists are predicting the rainfall will ease in the coming days.

14 die in US storms

Tornadoes and floods in the United States killed at least 14 people, including two children, officials said on Saturday, with most of the fatalities in Oklahoma where a monster twister struck last month.
Friday night's storms battered areas in and around Oklahoma City with high winds, heavy rain and hail, much of it near where 24 people were killed in the 20 May tornado.
The Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office announced nine fatalities in the state and said five of the victims have not been identified, while the sheriffs' offices in towns east of Oklahoma City confirmed two other people had died.
In Missouri, authorities said three people died from severe flooding in the wake of the storms.
Streets turned into rivers, with stranded cars submerged in water as high as their door handles in some places. CNN said a massive sink hole off a major road developed due to the deluge, halting traffic.
The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Centre in Norman, Oklahoma, warned that the severe weather was shifting eastward again Sunday, with damaging winds and heavy downpours and possibly small hail and isolated tornadoes expected to threaten northern Virginia through Maine.
And northern Mexico was also bracing for severe thunderstorms, strong winds, and possibly hail and tornadoes.
Local broadcaster KOCO reported that 77 people had been admitted to hospitals with storm-related injuries.
Power company OG&E, meanwhile, reported 65 000 outages by late on Saturday, down from a high of 120 000, and the American Red Cross has opened shelters for those in affected areas.

Southern California's wildfire explodes

A fire that destroyed at least five structures and threatened hundreds of others exploded in size overnight, burning dangerously close to two communities north of Los Angeles.

Erratic wind spread the blaze in the Angeles National Forest to nearly 106km² on Sunday, triggering the evacuation of nearly 1 000 homes.

Matt Corelli of the Forest Service said that five structures had been razed by the fire and at least 10 other structures were damaged.

Crews working in steep terrain expected cooler weather after temperatures above 38ºC on Saturday.

The wind pushed the fire up and down steep slopes, creating embers that sparked spot fires in different directions.

The fire was about 20% contained.

A huge plume of smoke could be seen from various parts of northern Los Angeles county and air-quality officials warned against strenuous outdoor activity.

The blaze broke out near a hydro-electric plant near the Los Angeles aqueduct on Thursday, forcing about 200 evacuations in the mountain community of Green Valley.

Evacuations remained in effect for the Cottonwood campground and two youth probation camps along Lake Hughes Canyon Road.

The flames were chewing thick, dry brush that hasn't been burned in about a dozen years.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.