Unrest

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Hundreds of Zimbabwe's riot police officers violently crushed yesterday an attempt by protesters to hold what they called a prayer meeting in one of the capital's largest slums to express opposition to President Robert G. Mugabe's rule. Beatrice Mtetwa, a civil rights lawyer in Harare, the capital, said at least 35 people had been arrested, including the leaders of the two rival political factions that oppose Mugabe's governing party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The leaders of the two main Palestinian factions called for an end to fighting that killed six more people yesterday and forced Palestinians to wonder whether their society was hurtling toward civil war. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas signed a fresh cease-fire agreement aimed at stopping nearly a week of clashes. It was not clear, however, whether the latest attempt to quell unrest would succeed, amid rising tension driven largely by Abbas' call for early elections that could undercut Hamas' historic victory in January's polls.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A Christian Cabinet minister who had stood against Syrian interference in Lebanon was shot dead yesterday, stunning and infuriating a war-haunted nation and heightening the threat of unrest. Pierre Gemayel, the 34-year-old minister of industry, was gunned down as he drove through a crowded intersection in the predominantly Christian outskirts of the capital. The killers rammed his car from behind, walked up to the door and shot him, according to witnesses quoted in local news reports.

BEIJING -- The number of "mass incidents" in China, a reference to protests, riots and other forms of social unrest, fell by one-fifth in the first nine months of 2006, according to Chinese government statistics released yesterday. The official New China News Agency reported that police dealt with 17,900 disturbances during the January-September period, a drop of 22.1 percent, quoting Liu Jinguo, a vice minister of the nation's Ministry of Public Security. At the same time, Liu also warned that unapproved religious groups have been gaining in numbers and influence.

PARIS -- France's far-right political party, the National Front, has emerged stronger than ever from the civil unrest that has beset the country in the past six months, a new survey shows, suggesting that the party could play a major role in the presidential election next year. The National Front's outspoken and vehemently anti-immigration leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has had occasional bursts of support before: Four years ago, he made it to the runoff for president, losing to President Jacques Chirac.

This is how bad gas prices are now: I just saw a guy with a polo shirt, khaki pants and penny loafers at an intersection holding a sign that said: "Will work for regular unleaded." OK, fine, that's not true. But it could happen. And the way things are going, I'll probably be the guy holding the sign. You'll recognize me because I'll also be waving a stack of college tuition bills in one hand. And if the windbags in Annapolis don't come through, and we get hit with a 72 percent rate increase from BGE, you might see me waving that bill, too. I know, I know ... you have your own problems.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Coup plotters arrested, troops in the streets, excited crowds calling for the president's ouster, soldiers and senators testing the wind and forming alliances. The Philippines is at it again, and for foreign and local experts it is a discouraging spectacle of national futility. On Friday, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency, saying a coup plot had been foiled and banning demonstrations in the streets. Yesterday, the police raided a pro-opposition newspaper in Manila.

Oil prices rose sharply yesterday after a series of violent attacks by militants in the Niger River delta that shut down nearly a fifth of Nigeria's oil production. Brent crude oil for April delivery rose $1.57 a barrel, to $61.46, on London's petroleum futures exchange. Trading in the United States was closed because of Presidents Day. Tensions in the oil-rich Niger Delta have flared since Saturday after armed militants kidnapped nine foreign oil workers, set pipelines on fire and disrupted a major export terminal in the latest series of clashes between local ethnic groups and the Nigerian central government.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Tens of thousands of angry protesters filled the streets of the capital yesterday, setting fire to barricades, storming a luxury hotel and demanding that front-runner Rene Preval be declared the winner of last week's presidential election. At least two people were killed and several injured in gunfire in the Tabarre neighborhood near the international airport. Witnesses interviewed on Haitian radio blamed United Nation peacekeepers, but a U.N. spokesman denied that troops had fired on protesters.

NALCHIK, Russia -- It should have taken Ruslan Nakhushev no more than 10 minutes to walk from the security police headquarters, where he was summoned this month to be questioned, back to his office on Gorky Street, one of the main thoroughfares here in the capital of one of Russia's troubled southern republics. But he never returned to the office or to the three-room apartment he shared with his mother. Calls to his cell phone were met by an unfamiliar voice, a laugh, then the silence of a dead line.