PRAGUE, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Protesters against Washington's plans to site its anti-missile shield in the Czech Republic called for a boycott of US goods and firms at a rally Saturday for a referendum on the matter.

'Our politicians do not listen to us, they do not respect the opinions of the majority in the country...The only word that they understand is the word money,' said Jan Tamas, a spokesman for the main anti-shield 'No Bases' movement, as he demanded 'economic pressure' against the United States.

MADRID, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Heavy security was in place in Madrid on Saturday to prevent clashes between far-right militants and leftists ahead of the anniversary of dictator General Francisco Franco's death, police said.

The 700-strong police deployment came after clashes on November 11 between leftists and neo-Nazis in the capital that resulted in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old boy.

Authorities feared his death could result in reprisals and were also concerned about violence related to the anniversary itself.

ATHENS, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Several thousand Greeks marched in Athens Saturday to commemorate the 1973 student uprising against the country's US-backed former military regime that claimed at least 44 lives.

Bearing banners against NATO and the US and chanting anti-American slogans, over 5,000 people including university students, labour unionists and left-wing youth members participated in the annual demonstration towards the US embassy.

'Long live the Iraqi resistance, and may the (American) conquerors see coffins every day,' one block of demonstrators chanted.

ANKARA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Police arrested 10 people in eastern Turkey on Saturday as they broke up with warning shots and tear gas a rally by a Kurdish party that authorities are trying to ban, media reports said.

Police moved in on the 2,000-strong group in the city of Van when some demonstrators chanted slogans in favour of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist rebels, the NTV news channel reported.

ATHENS, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Thousands of police were deployed around central Athens on Saturday ahead of a march commemorating the 1973 student uprising against the country's former military regime, police said.

Over 8,000 officers have been mobilised to guard against violence that routinely erupts during the annual demonstration, which crosses the city centre and culminates at the US embassy.

Over 4,000 police have been assigned to guard embassies, foreign companies and banks that are often targeted with firebombs and paint during the march.

ISTANBUL, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - About 3,000 flag-waving Turks took to the streets here Monday, chanting slogans against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in a second say of protest at the deaths of 12 soldiers in an ambush.

Gathered at the sprawling Kadikoy square on the city's Asian shore at the call of the opposition Republican People's Party, the demonstrators also chastised Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for not striking immediately at PKK bases in northern Iraq.

ISTANBUL, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - Nearly 1,000 people took to the streets here Sunday in an impromptu demonstration to protest against mounting violence by separatist Kurdish rebels after fighting in the country's southeast left 35 people dead.

Demonstrators gathered at the central Taksim square on the European side of the city that straddles the Bosphorus Strait, sometimes disrupting busy weekend traffic, an AFP photgrapher at the scene said.

BERLIN, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Members of a German neo-Nazi party demonstrated Saturday in Frankfurt against the construction of a mosque in an area which already has two Islamic shrines.

About 200 people marched shouting 'Stop the Islamisation of Germany,' said Joerg Krebs, a spokesman for the local branch of the NPD, a neo-Nazi party.

'We don't want a big mosque in Hausen,' a Frankfurt quarter, 'as there are already two mosques.'

ROME, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Italians Saturday marched through central Rome to pressure Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government into adopting more left-leaning policies to improve the lot of part-time workers.

Some 200,000 protestors responded to the demonstration called by the left-wing parties in Prodi's ruling centre-left coalition to demand measures to ensure better contracts for part-time workers and to stop illegal employment at low wages.

Some four million people in Italy do not hold full-scale jobs.

DJIBOUTI, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Thousands of protestors on Saturday denounced French moves to have senior officials here arrested for allegedly blocking inquiries into the 1995 death of a French judge in Djibouti.

Several government ministers, deputies and religious leaders joined Saturday's march, during which demonstrators shouted anti-French slogans denouncing France's 'racist justice system.'