Bomb wrecks Athens court

A POWERFUL bomb detonated outside a court building near central Athens on Thursday morning, causing significant damage but no injuries, reports Angry News From Around the World.

The authorities found the device and cordoned off the area around the Athens administrative court after calls to the private television station Alter and the daily newspaper Eleftherotypia at about 7:40am warned that a bomb would go off there in 40 minutes.

“In both cases, the caller said the device had been strapped to a scooter outside the courthouse and gave the scooter’s registration number,” said an officer at the Athens police headquarters who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

“The explosion occurred two minutes after the deadline,” the officer said, adding that police bomb disposal experts had gathered the remnants of the device and the vehicle and were examining them.

A local resident told the private television station Skai that he had seen two men dressed in police uniforms pull up near the court building on a motorcycle about 6:30am.

The witness said he greeted the men, who told him they were abandoning the scooter because it had engine problems. According to the witness, the pair then got into a white van parked nearby and were driven away by a third person.

The explosion damaged the facade of the court building as well as several cars, and also blew out windows in nearby apartment buildings.

The caller who provided the warning in the Athens bombing was described as a man speaking clearly in Greek.

The blast occurred in a densely populated area in the city’s Ambelokipi district, shattering windows and nearby shop storefronts in a 200-meter (yard) radius, and seriously damaging at least 10 cars. It sent up a cloud of smoke that was visible across the city.

Police said the bomb was stored in a hard luggage case in the back of a motorcycle reported stolen in a nearby area of Athens several hours earlier.

An initial examination of the site, suggested that the explosive Anfo — a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil used in construction but also in improvised explosive devices — was used, police investigators said. The material has been used in the past and seized in police raids in recent months on suspected militant safehouses.

Meanwhile, as Angry News also reports, shortly before the bombing in Athens, a smaller explosion occurred outside the Greek Embassy in Buenos Aires in the middle of the night.

“According to the initial findings of the Argentinean police, the blast was caused by a Molotov cocktail thrown by unidentified assailants,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to a crude incendiary weapon comprising a glass bottle filled with flammable liquid.

Free Binayak Sen!

OUTRAGE and anger have greeted the jailing of a well-known Indian civil rights campaigner for helping the Naxalite rebel cause.

Writer Arundhati Roy and American academic cum activist Noam Chomsky are among those who have voiced support for the growing campaign.

Dr Binayak Sen was convicted of sedition under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and faces life in jail on what many see as false trumped-up charges.

Sify News reports that activists and civil society leaders staged a protest march in Kolkata to condemn the judgement, and said their protests would continue till Binayak Sen was released.

It quotes renowned actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen as saying: "We protest this because we feel we have very few workers who serve the poor as tirelessly as Binayak Sen.

"We feel it is a travesty of our democracy that a fine worker like Sen is incarcerated while we know there are many people who are cheats and who have robbed the country of thousands and thousands rupees of money are walking free on the streets today."

Renowned activist Medha Patkar called the judgment a political statement, says Sify.

"We must really stand up and fight. We condemn something that is not legal or a judicial judgment. It is political statement, that clearly expresses the content of constitution, the fundamental rights and also the freedom of expression," Patkar is reported to have said.

Raipur Sessions Court had held Dr Sen and three other people guilty of treason and waging war against the state. He has also been found guilty of sedition. He now faces life imprisonment.

Dr Sen was arrested in Chhattisgarh in 2007 and was granted bail two years later. He was honoured with Jonathan Mann award in 2008, while he was still in prison.

The 58-year-old paediatrician and public health physician with a 25-year record of providing health care to the Adivasi people of Chhattisgarh.

A graduate of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, Binayak Sen was one of the top students of his batch. He completed his post graduation in paediatrics in the early 1970s.

For most of the years since then, he has devoted his life to health care of the poor.

Italian students avoid police blockade

THOUSANDS of students in cities across Italy have protested against a law that would result in cuts to university budget expected to be approved by parliament this week, reports Aljazeera.

It says: "Police blocked off large parts of central Rome, the capital, to prevent a repeat of last week's violent clashes, but students managed to avoid the blockade.

"Instead the demonstrators occupied part of a highway running to the east of the city, but many students made it clear they intended the action to be a peaceful one.

"Some carried flags and banners emblazoned with non-violent slogans, and many had painted their hands white as a representation of their peaceful intent.

"However clashes broke out at a protest in the city of Palermo, and there were reports of incidents in Naples, Milan and Turin.

"The government says the new law, which could be voted on Wednesday or Thursday, will strengthen Italy's crumbling university system. But critics say will only cut funding without solving real problems.

"The battle over university reform has highlighted discontent over the future of Italy's youth, which has been fuelled by an official youth unemployment rate of around 25 per cent in the country and up to 35 per cent in the poorer south."

Reuters quotes one student as saying:"We will certainly continue mobilising. It's not only a mobilisation against university reforms but of a generation that is making itself heard again over the politics of the country, the issues we face and the precarious situation in which we live."

Rising up against the rich

WILL 2011 be the year in which the people of Europe finally rise up against the rich parasites feeding on their lives?

The anger expressed at the rich and the royal family in the London student protests, the regular uprisings in the banlieues of France and the ongoing burning of expensive cars in Germany all point in that direction.

And in Greece, fears are being voiced that a massive class war is about to erupt.

Reports The Guardian: "An attack in broad daylight on Kostas Hadzidakis, a minister in the former conservative government, has highlighted fears that Greeks are at a tipping point.

"He was set upon as he walked through Athens during one of the capital's biggest ever anti-austerity demonstrations.

"Protesters were seen shouting 'thieves, thieves' and 'let the parliament burn' as they punched him in the face, threw stones at him and tried to attack him with sticks.

"Official unemployment reached a record high of 12.4% last week, further proof that seven months after its €110bn bailout by the EU and IMF the recession-hit country is nowhere near exiting its worst economic crisis since the second world war.

"'There's an invisible red line of what Greeks are prepared to tolerate in terms of sacrifices, and I think we are crossing it,' said Aliki Mouriki, a sociologist.

"'The assault on Hadzidakis by middle-aged men who didn't even bother to hide their faces reflects the desperation and anger of people who would normally never have done such a thing'."

Mass anger on streets of Greece

ANGRY scenes erupted in Greece on Wednesday as opposition to neoliberal rule grows stronger across Europe.

Reports From the Greek Streets:"More than 100,000 people marched in central Athens today against the freshly-voted labour relations law and the austerity measures imposed by the government and the EU/IMF/ECB troika.

"One of the most mass demonstrations the city has seen in recent times was met by brute police violence; the police, nevertheless, proven unable to quell people’s anger.

"A former conservative minister, Kostis Hatzidakis, made the unfortunate decision to be present at Stadiou Street at the time of the demonstration and felt the anger of the demonstrators, quickly leaving the scene injured.

"Street-fighting erupted across the city, which saw chaotic scenes for hours.
"Barricades were erected across Patision Avenue, which leads to the Polytechnic School; waves of demonstrators arriving at Syntagma square, outside Parliament, fiercely fought with the police.

"An – eventually unsuccessful – attempt by demonstrators to occupy the building of GSEE (the country’s mainstream trade union) saw people fighting off the notorious Delta motorcycle police and two of their bikes were set ablaze.

"From reports coming in so far, 23 people were detained in Athens today and of those 10 are arrested and face charges. There will be an update on the arrested tomorrow.

"One of the most empowering elements of today’s demonstration was people’s sheer anger and their willingness to fight back at the police repression and to defend their right to be on the streets.

"New tactics, including the incredibly successful use of fire extinguishers in keeping police away from demonstrator blocks, is surely a legacy for the struggles to come."

Romans riot against corrupt regime

ROME erupted into riots on Tuesday after the corrupt neoliberal regime of Silvio Berlusconi clung onto power in a controversial parlaimentary vote.

Violent clashes in the streets of the capital left 90 people injured and dozens more arrested.

Following hot on the heels of massive protests in France and Britain, this is yet another sign of growing public anger against the totally discredited global capitalist system.

Reports Aljazeera: "Angry protesters banged on the metal blinds of shuttered shops in the centre of Rome late on Tuesday as word spread that Berlusconi had won the vote.

"Some of the protesters then set cars alight and hurled cobblestones at police in chaotic scenes in some of Rome's most tourist-heavy streets.

"Riot police fired tear gas and could be seen striking some of the protesters with truncheons in running street fights. Several protesters were taken away, some with blood on their faces.

"Officials said at least 90 people were injured in the violence, including 50 security officers and 40 protesters, while forty-one people were detained on charges of violence, vandalism and use of illegal arms.

"The clashes came after a peaceful march by several thousand anti-Berlusconi protesters through the centre of Rome. There were also protests in some of Italy's biggest cities including Genoa, Milan, Naples and Turin."

New protest against police brutality

ANGRY students have called for a protest against police brutality outside New Scotland Yard in central London on Tuesday December 14.

A posting on Indymedia from Friends of Alfie Meadows calls on supporters to "Kettle the Cops - protest against police violence" and to wear a hard hat.

It adds: "Alfie Meadows was brutally assaulted by police on the 9th. He suffered severe brain haemorrhaging and has undergone 3 hours of brain surgery.

"THE POLICE TRIED TO STOP THE HOSPITAL TREATING HIM-HE COULD HAVE DIED IF NOT FOR THE AMBULENCE DRIVER! Something the mainstrean bullshit media is hiding.

"Due to luck his situation is now stable. This is a call for all to show your solidarity with him and the fight for our civil liberties, of which the right to education and the right to protest are both crucial parts.

"Bring hard hats, fancy hats and any other kind of hat you can. Lets get noticed.

"Please pass this on to all sympathizers and post up the flyer anywhere you can. We need 1000's on this demo-we will not tolerate extreme violence by these thugs.

"To the streets! Spread the word."

The protest on Tuesday 14th December is at 1pm at New Scotland Yard, 8-10 Broadway, London SW1H 0BG

There is a Facebook page for the protest.