Egypt’s riot police stand behind a barbed wire fence closing off the road before a demonstration, in front of the presidential palace in Cairo, December 4, 2012. [REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih] LIVE COVERAGE: Anti-Mursi activists protest in Egypt
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Egypt’s riot police stand behind a barbed wire fence closing off the road before a demonstration, in front of the presidential palace in Cairo, December 4, 2012. [REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih]

LIVE COVERAGE: Anti-Mursi activists protest in Egypt

Fast-food restaurant employees protested in New York City on Thursday, demanding higher pay and the right to form a union - the latest attempt by lower-wage workers in the United States to increase their compensation. The campaign, called “Fast Food Forward,” seeks to roughly double hourly pay to $15 an hour and is being billed as the largest attempt to unionize U.S. fast-food workers. Leading the effort is New York Communities for Change, a group that has helped unionize low-wage carwash and grocery workers in New York. Strikes were scheduled at McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Domino’s restaurants around the city throughout the day. READ ON: Fast-food workers in New York protest for higher wages
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Fast-food restaurant employees protested in New York City on Thursday, demanding higher pay and the right to form a union - the latest attempt by lower-wage workers in the United States to increase their compensation.

The campaign, called “Fast Food Forward,” seeks to roughly double hourly pay to $15 an hour and is being billed as the largest attempt to unionize U.S. fast-food workers.

Leading the effort is New York Communities for Change, a group that has helped unionize low-wage carwash and grocery workers in New York.

Strikes were scheduled at McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Domino’s restaurants around the city throughout the day.

READ ON: Fast-food workers in New York protest for higher wages

A member of punk band Pussy Riot was freed on appeal on Wednesday but a Moscow court upheld prison sentences for two others imposed over a raucous cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin, who said they had got the jail terms they deserved. Yekaterina Samutsevich walked free from Moscow City Court after six months behind bars but the appeal judge who suspended her two-year sentence said fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina should serve out their terms. “I have mixed feelings,” Samutsevich, 30, said outside the court, where she was greeted by applause and whistles from a crowd of about 150 people in the rain. “I’m happy, of course, but I am upset about the girls.” READ ON: One Pussy Riot member freed on appeal by Russian court
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A member of punk band Pussy Riot was freed on appeal on Wednesday but a Moscow court upheld prison sentences for two others imposed over a raucous cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin, who said they had got the jail terms they deserved.

Yekaterina Samutsevich walked free from Moscow City Court after six months behind bars but the appeal judge who suspended her two-year sentence said fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina should serve out their terms.

“I have mixed feelings,” Samutsevich, 30, said outside the court, where she was greeted by applause and whistles from a crowd of about 150 people in the rain. “I’m happy, of course, but I am upset about the girls.”

READ ON: One Pussy Riot member freed on appeal by Russian court

A police officer uses his baton to hit an activist from the National Committee to protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports during a protest against the government in Dhaka September 30, 2012.  Demonstrators demanding the government withdraw the recent power tariff hike marched towards the city’s energy ministry on Sunday, but were dispersed by local authorities using batons and tear gas, according to local media. [REUTERS/Andrew Biraj] PHOTOS: Reuters images from the past 24 hours
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A police officer uses his baton to hit an activist from the National Committee to protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports during a protest against the government in Dhaka September 30, 2012. 

Demonstrators demanding the government withdraw the recent power tariff hike marched towards the city’s energy ministry on Sunday, but were dispersed by local authorities using batons and tear gas, according to local media. [REUTERS/Andrew Biraj]

PHOTOS: Reuters images from the past 24 hours

When people ask if I enjoy my job, I usually tell them: “Who wouldn’t — I always have a different view from my mobile office each day.”

But the view I had on August 16 of the deadliest South African police security operation since apartheid ended will be difficult, if not impossible, to erase from my mind.

I’d been sent to cover a tense stand-off between police and striking platinum miners at a dusty mine northwest of Johannesburg. Little did I know that I would witness a police operation that led to 34 miners shot dead and more than 70 injured.

The police announced over a loud speaker that photographers on the hill should leave. I sensed there was trouble brewing.

Reuters photographer Siphiwe Sibeko: “Witness to the Lonmin shootings”

A judge sentenced three members of Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot to two years jail on Friday for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a church, an act the judge called “blasphemous.” Judge Marina Syrova found the women guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, describing them as blasphemers who had deliberately offended Russian Orthodox believers by storming the altar of Moscow’s main cathedral in February to belt out a song deriding Putin. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, stood watching in handcuffs in a glass courtroom cage. The women say they were protesting against Putin’s close ties with the church when they burst onto the altar in Moscow’s golden domed Christ the Saviour Cathedral wearing bright ski masks, tights and short skirts. State prosecutors had requested a three-year jail term. “Tolokonnikova, Samutsevich and Alyokhina committed an act of hooliganism, a gross violation of public order showing obvious disrespect for society,” the judge said. “The girls’ actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church’s rules.” READ ON : Russian punk protesters sentenced to two years jail
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A judge sentenced three members of Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot to two years jail on Friday for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a church, an act the judge called “blasphemous.”

Judge Marina Syrova found the women guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, describing them as blasphemers who had deliberately offended Russian Orthodox believers by storming the altar of Moscow’s main cathedral in February to belt out a song deriding Putin.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, stood watching in handcuffs in a glass courtroom cage.

The women say they were protesting against Putin’s close ties with the church when they burst onto the altar in Moscow’s golden domed Christ the Saviour Cathedral wearing bright ski masks, tights and short skirts. State prosecutors had requested a three-year jail term.

“Tolokonnikova, Samutsevich and Alyokhina committed an act of hooliganism, a gross violation of public order showing obvious disrespect for society,” the judge said.

“The girls’ actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church’s rules.”

READ ON : Russian punk protesters sentenced to two years jail

More than 100,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched through central Tokyo on Monday to voice their opposition to atomic power, racheting up the pressure on under fire Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. On the hottest day of the year, protesters forsook their air-conditioned homes to say the country does not need nuclear energy after last year’s Fukushima disaster raised concerns about the safety of atomic power. It was the biggest demonstration since Noda said last month Japan needed to restart reactors shut down for safety checks to avoid electricity shortages that might hit the economy. “Today temperatures reached record high levels,” Noda told Japanese television, as the city sweltered in 36.6-degree Celsius. “We must ask ourselves whether we can really make do without nuclear power.” READ ON: More than 100,000 protest nuclear power in Tokyo
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More than 100,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched through central Tokyo on Monday to voice their opposition to atomic power, racheting up the pressure on under fire Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

On the hottest day of the year, protesters forsook their air-conditioned homes to say the country does not need nuclear energy after last year’s Fukushima disaster raised concerns about the safety of atomic power.

It was the biggest demonstration since Noda said last month Japan needed to restart reactors shut down for safety checks to avoid electricity shortages that might hit the economy.

“Today temperatures reached record high levels,” Noda told Japanese television, as the city sweltered in 36.6-degree Celsius. “We must ask ourselves whether we can really make do without nuclear power.”

READ ON: More than 100,000 protest nuclear power in Tokyo

A demonstrator throws a grille at riot policemen during a rally at Santiago downtown, July 11, 2012.  The rally was held in support of the 41th copper nationalization anniversary during the overthrown socialist Salvador Allende’s government (1970-1973).  The graffiti says “Many policemen, little fun”. [REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado]
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A demonstrator throws a grille at riot policemen during a rally at Santiago downtown, July 11, 2012. 

The rally was held in support of the 41th copper nationalization anniversary during the overthrown socialist Salvador Allende’s government (1970-1973). 

The graffiti says “Many policemen, little fun”. [REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado]

California Highway Patrol officers take positions at the Golden Gate Bridge in anticipation of May Day demonstrations in San Francisco, California May 1, 2012. Authorities anticipated demonstrators would shut down the bridge, but agreement was reached to prevent that action. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith LIVE BLOG: May Day protests around the world
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California Highway Patrol officers take positions at the Golden Gate Bridge in anticipation of May Day demonstrations in San Francisco, California May 1, 2012. Authorities anticipated demonstrators would shut down the bridge, but agreement was reached to prevent that action. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

LIVE BLOG: May Day protests around the world

A riot police officer fires teargas during clashes with anti-government protesters after a rally held in support of opposition members currently serving life in prison, in the village of Bilad al-Qadeem, west of Manama, April 1, 2012. [REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed] More photos | Reuters on Facebook
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A riot police officer fires teargas during clashes with anti-government protesters after a rally held in support of opposition members currently serving life in prison, in the village of Bilad al-Qadeem, west of Manama, April 1, 2012. [REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed]

More photos | Reuters on Facebook