BEIJING/SHANGHAI – An online call for anti-government protests across China yesterday instead brought an emphatic show of force by police determined to deter any buds of the kind of unrest that has shaken the Middle East.
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DUBLIN – Ireland’s victorious opposition party Fine Gael set the stage for coalition talks with its traditional partner Labour next week, after a historic election that crushed long-time rival Fianna Fail.
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MADISON – Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker said yesterday he would not back down in his confrontation with state public sector unions and repeated his threat to lay off state workers if the standoff continues.
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MUSCAT – Omani police fired rubber bullets at stone-throwing protesters demanding political reform yesterday, killing two people, and demonstrators set government buildings and cars ablaze, witnesses said.
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KINSHASA – Six people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday in what authorities said was a failed coup attempt on a residence of President Joseph Kabila in the capital Kinshasa.
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RIYADH – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has ordered that state employees on temporary labour contracts be given permanent jobs, in another apparent bid to insulate the kingdom from a wave of protests in the Arab world.
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CAIRO – Egypt’s military rulers are likely this week to lift restrictions that have long crushed political opposition and call a referendum on constitutional reforms next month, a lawyer who helped draft the changes said yesterday.
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SEOUL – North Korea will fire across a land border with South Korea if Seoul continues its anti-North psychological campaign, the North’s official media said yesterday ahead of an annual, joint military drill between the United States and South Korea.
