Civil disobedience

Convicted November 17 terrorist Christodoulos Xiros was rushed to the Papanikolaou Hospital in Thessaloniki on Friday for reasons that were not made public though they are believed to be connected to his ongoing hunger strike.

Xiros, who is serving multiple life sentences at Diavata Prison, has been on hunger strike for three weeks, demanding improved detention conditions.

Or something more intellectually stimulating? How about mathematical equations sketched by quantum theory pioneers Erwin Schroedinger? Or poems from the pen of Arthur Rimbaud?

All yours if you have the money.

Small groups of youths have clashed with Greek police before a demonstration to mark the ninth anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a teenager in Athens that sparked the worst rioting Greece had seen in decades.

A court in central Vietnam on Nov. 27 sentenced an activist to seven years in prison for producing online videos and interviews related to an environmental disaster that instigated anti-government protests, in the authorities’ latest crackdown on dissent.

Tens of thousands of Romanians gathered on Sunday in Bucharest and in other towns and cities to demand the withdrawal of justice-related laws that will give more power to politicians over judiciary system.

Over 42 civic groups and non-governmental organizations, as well as the most powerful unions, asked people to attend the rallies to protest against the proposals.

Fourteen refugees who had been on a hunger strike for two weeks while camped on Syntagma Square in central Athens ended their action on Tuesday.

An Istanbul court has ordered the Interior Ministry to pay over 1 million Turkish Liras in compensation to an academic who lost an eye during a police crackdown on the Gezi protests in 2013. 

Refugees from Syria protest outside the German Embassy in Athens, on Wednesday, during day 8 of their hunger strike, demanding to reunite with their families who are already in Germany. [EPA]

Christian Orthodox activists shout slogans and hold up crosses and placards as they are held back by riot police during a protest outside a theater in Thessaloniki on Wednesday night.

Spanish authorities on Sunday pursued efforts to block an independence vote in Catalonia, seizing campaign materials as the chief prosecutor said jailing the region's top politician could not be ruled out.