The number of empty shops on the UK’s High Streets is set to increase this year, a survey says, as economic conditions get tougher.

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Empty shop numbers ‘set to rise’

Anti-government protesters take to the streets of Syria in support of thousands of people detained by the government in the 10-month uprising.

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Call for Syria detainees’ release

MOSCOW — Ignoring the political upheaval that has shaken Russia over the past month, Vladimir Putin’s presidential campaign unveiled a hefty new Web site Thursday that promises a fistful of important reforms but sidesteps the complaints that have drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the streets. Read full article > >

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Putin Web launch ignores Russian protests

Hundreds of extra firefighters are on the streets in Los Angeles after a spate of arson attacks in the Hollywood area and elsewhere.

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Los Angeles on arson attack alert

The Syrian government pulled tanks from the streets of Homs on Tuesday as Arab League observers arrived to monitor government pledges to withdraw forces.

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Embattled City in Syria Simmers as Monitors Enter

BEIRUT — After days of punishing assaults, Syria’s army began withdrawing tanks from the restive city of Homs on Tuesday just as a team of Arab League observers was on its way to the central city, according to activists and an Arab official. Opposition activist Mohammed Saleh said the heavy bombardment of Homs stopped Tuesday morning and tanks were seen pulling out of the streets. Another Homs-based activist said he saw armored vehicles leaving early Tuesday on a highway leading to the city of Palmyra to the east. He asked that his name not be made public for fear of retribution. Read full article > >

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After days of attacks, Syria pulls tanks from streets of restive city as Arab monitors arrive

Thousands of Yemenis take to the streets of Sanaa, to protest against the killing of demonstrators and demand their country’s acting leader resign.

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Yemenis denounce protester deaths

The reality of life on the streets of London’s Square Mile

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Sleeping rough in the Square Mile

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made few concessions Thursday to the protesters who have rocked his country in recent weeks, saying that they reflected a pluralistic society but also claiming that they had been paid to turn out into the streets. Putin was taking questions in a carefully orchestrated, nationally televised session that has become an annual ritual during his 12-year-rule over the country. This year, it took place 11 days after a parliamentary election in which Putin’s United Russia party was dealt a major blow, even amid allegations that ballot-stuffing offset even greater losses. Read full article > >

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Putin says protesters were paid by rivals

NOWSHERA, Pakistan — A few hundred men took to the streets in a suburb of this city early this month, furiously chanting for the expulsion of neighbors they described as interlopers. The objects of their ire were Afghan refugees, millions of whom reside here in Pakistan. They are hardly newcomers — many fled war, Russian occupation or Taliban rule years or even decades ago. Many were born in Pakistan. Read full article > >

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Spotlight on Afghan refugees in Pakistan

BEIRUT — Syria continued to defy mounting international pressure to halt attacks on civilian protesters Friday as Turkey and France suggested they are not ruling out the possibility of military intervention if the violence continues to escalate. Human rights groups and activists said Syrian security forces killed at least 17 protesters across the country after tens of thousands of people poured into the streets yet again after Friday prayers to demand the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. Read full article > >

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Defiant Syria kills more civilian protesters

T he tents are gone from Zuccotti Park , though tents, and their attendant grunge, were hardly what Occupy Wall Street was about. The pathologies of the streets that came with urban encampment have been, if not dispelled, at least dispersed. The pathologies of the suites — the day-to-day conduct in America’s boardrooms and largest banks — remain. Read full article > >

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Where Occupy Wall Street must go from here

T he Occupy Wall Street movement slogan “We are the 99 percent” is ironic to many of those who are serving, or have served, in Afghanistan or Iraq. Our servicemen and women are not the 1 percent of Americans whom OWS has taken to the streets to condemn. Rather, this 1 percent goes ignored by the self-proclaimed 99 percent in Zuccotti Park, as well as by those looking down on the protesters from their offices at Goldman Sachs or Citibank. And it is not lost on those fighting in Afghanistan that it was bank accounts, not an interest in or concern for those patrolling Kandahar, that motivated the protesters to take to the streets in cities across America. Read full article > >

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U.S. soldiers at war: The forgotten 1 percent

Ambulance workers treat 170 people, with 22 being taken to hospital, as more than 60,000 people take to the streets of Lewes for bonfire night.

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Dozens hurt in firework accidents

OAKLAND, Calif. — Thousands of Wall Street protesters marched in the streets of Oakland on Wednesday as they geared up with labor unions to picket banks, take over foreclosed homes and vacant buildings and disrupt operations at the nation’s fifth-busiest port. The protests marked an escalation from previous demonstrations as they went beyond boisterous rallies at park encampments and took aim at a major hub of commerce — the Port of Oakland. Organizers say they want to halt “the flow of capital” at the port. Read full article > >

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Occupy protesters target downtown Oakland banks; branches close for the day