Anti-government Protest | featured news

Tanks, trucks and troops deploy outside Ajdabiya, apparently ready for a full-scale battle.Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's forces appear to be poised Thursday to crush rebels who have taken control of key eastern cities despite international condemnation that has yet to result in concrete actions.

Military troops and security forces moved Wednesday against thousands of anti-government protesters occupying a landmark square in Bahrain's capital, a day after emergency rule was imposed in the violence-wracked Gulf kingdom.

Moammar Gadhafi's troops pummeled rebel forces Tuesday in the last major city outside their stronghold of Benghazi.

The move by King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa to quell a growing uprising is akin to three months of martial law for Bahrain. With hundreds of foreign military and police in the nation to support the government, protesters and their foes set up rival checkpoints.

Saudi officials say that about 1,000 Saudi troops have entered Bahrain, and opposition groups denounced the move as a foreign occupation.

Defying a government ban on all kinds of public demonstrations, a group is planning a "Day of Rage" protests Friday in Saudi Arabia.

Stocks tumbled Thursday, hit first by new worries about global growth and then by reports that Saudi police had fired on protesters.

For the third Sunday in a row, Chinese police swamped a downtown Beijing area for "stroll-by" protests against China's communist government.

The Middle East was engulfed by protests Friday from Yemen to Tunisia, with some turning violent at times.

Algeria on Thursday lifted a 19-year-old state of emergency in a concession to the opposition designed to keep out a wave of uprisings sweeping the Arab world.