1 dead in protests over India’s military recruitment policy

At least one person was killed Friday as angry young people in parts of India burned train coaches, blocked highways and attacked police with rocks in a second day of violent demonstrations against a new short-term government recruitment policy for the military, police said.

The death occurred in Secundrabad in southern India, where vastly outnumbered police used batons and fired shots at about 500 protesters who rampaged at a railroad station for more than an hour, police said. Fifteen people were reportedly injured. The protesters attacked police with rocks, an officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Television images showed people setting empty train coaches on fire and vandalizing railroad property. They burned tires and blocked train tracks, disrupting train service in the region for several hours.

Nationwide protests bring thousands to Russia's streets

Russia's opposition, often written off by critics as a small and irrelevant coterie of privileged urbanites, put on an impressive nationwide show of strength Sunday with dozens of protest across the vast country. Hundreds were arrested, including Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner who is President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic.

It was the biggest show of defiance since a 2011-2012 wave of demonstrations rattled the Kremlin and led to harsh new laws aimed at suppressing dissent. Almost all of Sunday's rallies were unsanctioned, but thousands braved the prospect of arrest to gather in cities from the Far East port of Vladivostok to the "window on the West" of St. Petersburg.

Belarus police arrest over 400 protesters; many are beaten

Police in Belarus cracked down hard Saturday on opposition protesters who tried to hold a forbidden demonstration in the capital — a human rights group said more than 400 people were arrested and many were beaten.

The demonstrators had hoped to build on a rising wave of defiance of the former Soviet republic's authoritarian government, led by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled since 1994.

Dakota Access oil pipeline camp cleared of protesters

Authorities on Thursday cleared a protest camp where opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline had gathered for the better part of a year, searching tents and huts and arresting dozens of holdouts who had defied a government order to leave.

It took 3 ½ hours for about 220 officers and 18 National Guardsmen to methodically search the protesters' temporary homes. Authorities said they arrested 46 people, including a group of military veterans who had to be carried out and a man who climbed atop a building and stayed there for more than an hour before surrendering.

Romania leader: govt won't resign in face of mass protests

The leader of Romania's ruling center-left coalition says the government won't resign following the biggest demonstrations since the end of communism against a measure that would ease up on corruption.

Social Democratic chairman Liviu Dragnea emerged from a meeting with governing partners Monday saying that "we unreservedly expressed our support for the government ... and the prime minister."

Over 1 million join anti-Trump women's marches worldwide

In a global exclamation of defiance and solidarity, more than 1 million people rallied at women's marches in the nation's capital and cities around the world Saturday to send President Donald Trump an emphatic message on his first full day in office that they won't let his agenda go unchallenged.

"Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!" marchers in Washington chanted.

Bahrain executes 3 over police bombing, triggering protests

Bahrain on Sunday carried out its first executions since an Arab Spring uprising rocked the country in 2011, putting to death three men found guilty of a deadly bomb attack on police.

The executions of the Shiite men drew swift condemnation from human rights groups and sparked intense protests by opponents of the Sunni-ruled government, who see the charges as politically motivated. Activists allege that testimony used against the condemned men was obtained through torture.

Mexico gas protests, looting leave 2 dead, 600 arrested

Anger over gasoline prices hikes in Mexico fueled more protests and looting Thursday, and officials said the unrest had resulted in the death of a policeman and a bystander, the ransacking of 300 stores and arrests of over 600 people.

The country's business chambers said the combination of highway, port and terminal blockades and looting this week forced many stores and businesses to close and threatened supplies of basic goods and fuel.

Workers strike across India to protest economic reforms

Millions of public sector workers across India went on strike Friday to protest economic reforms, saying the government's plan for raising the country's minimum wage for unskilled workers did not go far enough.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government says the reforms, including opening some sectors to private and foreign investment, are needed to boost growth.

3 detained after Dalit law student raped, murdered in India

Police detained three men for questioning Tuesday in the rape and murder of a law student whose body was found mutilated in southern India, officials said.

The case has drawn comparisons to the deadly 2012 gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus that sparked widespread outrage and nationwide protests demanding an end to the widespread sexual assault and abuse of women across India.

Protests that led to caste violence in north India near end

Authorities in a north Indian state on Monday began lifting curfews in key towns and protesters gradually removed roadblocks after 12 people died in clashes during their demonstrations for government benefits.

Government forces also secured a canal in Haryana state, which provides 60 percent of New Delhi's water needs, easing fears of a shortage in the Indian capital. New Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said engineers were repairing portions of a reservoir damaged by protesters.

Protests that led to caste violence in north India near end

Authorities in a north Indian state have begun lifting a curfew in key towns and protesters have removed roadblocks after clashes left 12 people dead during their demonstrations for government benefits.

Government forces also Monday secured a canal in Haryana state, which provides 60 percent of New Delhi's water needs, easing fears of a shortage. New Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said engineers were repairing portions of a reservoir damaged by protesters.

Deadly north India protests lead to New Delhi water shortage

Authorities in India's capital have closed schools and taken other measures to combat water supply problems caused by violent protests in a neighboring state that have left at least 12 people dead.

Thousands of members of an underprivileged community who are protesting to demand government benefits have damaged equipment that brings water from the Munak canal in Haryana state to New Delhi, depleting the capital's water supply. New Delhi, a city of more than 16 million people, gets about 60 percent of its water from Haryana state.

6 dead in protests for caste benefits in northern India

Hundreds of Indian security forces imposed a curfew and were ordered to fire without warning in a bid to quell protests by members of an underprivileged community demanding government benefits in a northern state, where at least six people have died in clashes, officials said.

The violence raged for a second straight day Saturday and protesters burned several railroad stations and attacked shops and vehicles in several towns in Haryana state, said police officer Y.P. Singhal.

Protests against India student leader's arrest spread

A protest that rocked a New Delhi university this week spread across India on Thursday, with students and teachers in at least 10 cities demanding the release of a student leader arrested on sedition charges and accused of being anti-Indian.

The protesters were outraged by nationally televised scenes of Kanhaiya Kumar, the student union president at Jawaharlal Nehru University, being kicked and punched while he was escorted to a court hearing Wednesday, renewing allegations that the Hindu nationalist governing party is intolerant.

Coke suspends bottling at plant at center of water dispute

Coca-Cola suspended bottling at three plants in India, including one in the parched northwest where farmers have been protesting the company's use of dwindling groundwater reserves.

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, which is a subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Co. based in Atlanta, said it was reorganizing operations across its 24 franchise bottling plants in India according to market demand and factory upgrades.

French taxis, air traffic controllers, schools on strike

Paris police fired tear gas and taxi drivers lit bonfires on a major highway Tuesday amid nationwide strikes and protests over working conditions and competition from non-traditional services such as Uber.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls met with taxi drivers in an apparent attempt to defuse tensions. He condemned the drivers' violence but promised to strengthen a police crackdown on the competing taxi services the drivers are protesting. He is also forming a panel of taxi company representatives and government ministers to discuss reforms in the sector.

Iranian protesters damage Saudi embassy in Tehran

Protesters in Iran, angered by the execution by Saudi Arabia of a prominent Shiite cleric, broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran early Sunday, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof, Iranian media reported.

The semiofficial ISNA news agency said the country's top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, rushed to the scene and police worked to disperse the crowd outraged by the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Shiite leaders in Iran and other countries across the Middle East swiftly condemned Riyadh and warned of sectarian backlash.

Minor convicted in India gang rape released after 3 years

A man convicted as a juvenile in the fatal 2012 gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving bus in India's capital ended his three-year term in a reform home Sunday, as angry protesters demanded that he remain in detention.

The man was short of his 18th birthday when he and five others brutally attacked the 23-year-old woman in a case that shocked India, where sexual violence against women is rampant.