Spain, Portugal bracing for more protests against tax hikes September 29, 2012 - 11:48 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Authorities in Madrid are bracing for more protests near the Spanish Parliament in the city's downtown district after demonstrations there last week brought violence and arrests, AP reports. The latest rally Saturday, Sept 29, is expected to draw tens of thousands of people angered by government spending cuts and tax hikes. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government says the measures will continue into next year, as will the economic recession. Spain's unemployment rate is almost 25 percent, and more than half of people under 24 are jobless. In neighboring Portugal, where protests have been big but tame, the main trade union confederation has called people onto the streets to demonstrate against the bailed-out country's austerity drive. Portugal is locked into a program of budget cuts in return for last year's €78 billion ($101 billion) bailout. Partner news  Top stories Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer of the Oklahoma medical examiner's office, said 51 were confirmed dead. An Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to the republic of Chechnya, has spread across the North Caucasus in recent years. Earlier, at least five Azerbaijan soldiers were killed and six seriously injured when their vehicle rammed into a tree and overturned. Among its provisions are bans on child marriage and the traditional practice of selling and buying women to settle disputes.   Partner news |  Latest news “Wall Street and W” scribe to adapt “Three Graves Full” novel  The book follows a mild-mannered guy who happens to kill somebody he wishes he’d never met, and buries the body in his backyard.Park Chan-wook cult film “Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance” getting remake The film centers on two men who are bound by their common sense of loss and headed on a collision course of revenge.Russia to scrap world’s largest nuke subs by 2018 Six Typhoon-class submarines entered service with the Soviet Navy in the 1980s, and remain the largest submarines ever built.Syrian, Hezbollah forces fighting rebels in key town of Qusair At least 31 fighters from the Hezbollah group, a staunch ally of President Assad, have been killed in the struggle for the town of Qusair. |
