Police brutality

Police fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse protesters in Paris who are angry over rising fuel costs and President Emmanuel Macron's economic policies, the second weekend of "yellow vest" protests that have caused disruption across France.

Scores of people have filed complaints against the Romanian Gendarmerie and prosecutors have launched a probe of the military security force's violent intervention against anti-corruption protesters.

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a shake-up of his office after acknowledging failings in the way the presidency handled a scandal over his top bodyguard who was filmed beating a protester on May Day, a source close to the Elysee said.

An Athens court has exonerated 18 police officers accused by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras when he was still in the opposition of using excessive force during an anti-austerity protest in the summer of 2011.

Two rallies were under way in central Athens and Thessaloniki on Sunday to protest June's deal between Athens and Skopje on the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's (FYROM).

The gatherings outside Parliament in the Greek capital and Aristotelous Square in the northern port shut down key thoroughfares in both cities.

The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture, CPT, on Thursday urged Serbia to investigate and curb the police's "accepted practice" of using violence to force confessions and punish suspects.

Protesters affiliated with the Communist Party-affiliated labor union PAME shout slogans as they pass the US Embassy near the center of Athens Tuesday evening during a demonstration against recent air strikes on Syria by the United States, Britain and France. Some of the protesters threw eggs at both the embassy and the offices of the European Commission.

Greek communist party (KKE) supporters tried to take down a statue of former US president Harry Truman in Athens on Monday during a protest against air strikes on Syria by the United States, Britain and France, Reuters reports. Protesters used a metal grinder to try to cut off the statue's feet and tug it down with ropes before riot police intervened and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Turkish police on March 5 fired tear gas to break up a women’s rights march in Ankara with some 15 protesters reportedly detained.

Marking International Human Rights Day, the German human rights NGO, Rigardu, has. launched a website documenting allegations of police violence against mostly Middle-Eastern refugees traveling westwards along the so-called Balkan Route.