MADRID — Thousands of protesters in Madrid furious over soaring unemployment staged a silent protest and then erupted in cheers of joy as a 48-hour ban on their demonstration took effect on Saturday.

"Now we are all illegal" and "the people united will never be defeated," were among the chants of the protesters who crammed Madrid's Puerta del Sol square and spilled onto side streets. The protesters held a minute's silence, their hands in the air and some with tape over their mouths, just before midnight on Friday, when campaigning officially ended for Sunday's regional and municipal elections. The crowd then cheered as the clock in the square, the main site of New Year festivities in Madrid, chimed midnight and a ban on the protest became effective. "From Tahrir to Madrid to the world, world revolution," said one of the placards, referring to Tahrir Square in Cairo which was the focal point of the Egyptian revolution earlier this year. Some 19,000 people took part, according to a calculation by the Lynce organisation which estimates crowd numbers and released by the Spanish national news agency Efe.

BBC: Protesters defy ban with anti-government rallies
El País: Las concentraciones en toda España marcan la jornada de reflexión
Alejandro López: Tens of thousands protest throughout Spain, defying government ban

Tens of thousands of Czech workers including union leaders have taken to the streets of the capital city, Prague, to protest the government's planned austerity measures.

During the protests, the union leaders said their members would bear the brunt of the government's plans to cut pensions, healthcare and social benefits, and called for a new election, Reuters reported. The austerity measures include increasing the retirement age, diverting part of pensions to private funds, and raising payments for healthcare, and etc. "We are refusing your pension theft," a union leader said, addressing the government at Prague's central Wenceslas Square.

NATO says the airstrikes came after it observed Libyan government vessels threatening alliance ships and mining sea lanes off the city of Misurata.

A series of NATO airstrikes on Libyan government vessels left ships burned, battered and sunk in three ports Friday as the alliance sought to degrade the ability of Moammar Kadafi's regime to attack from the sea. The strikes came after alliance forces in recent weeks observed Libyan vessels threatening NATO ships and carrying out "indiscriminate mining" in sea lanes off the rebel-held city of Misurata, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said. In Tripoli, foreign journalists were taken to the sprawling port area, where at least five vessels had been hit, including one that was sunk in the harbor and several that were scorched from fires. The strikes blew apart gun turrets, tore gaping holes in hulls and collapsed decks, sending debris and shrapnel across the docks.

Raw Story: Libyan leaders: Obama is ‘delusional’

When I wrote earlier this week about Jane Mayer's New Yorker article on the Obama administration's war on whistleblowers, the passage I hailed as "the single paragraph that best conveys the prime, enduring impact of the Obama presidency" included this observation from Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin: "We are witnessing the bipartisan normalization and legitimization of a national-surveillance state." There are three events -- all incredibly from the last 24 hours -- which not only prove how true that is, but vividly highlight how it functions and why it is so odious.

Two Australian soldiers charged over the deaths of six civilians, including children, during a military raid in Afghanistan will not have to face a court martial, a judge advocate ruled Friday. The two Army Reserve soldiers had been charged with manslaughter over the deaths which occurred in February 2009 as special operations soldiers were clearing a compound in which they believed a Taliban leader was hiding. Six civilians, including five children, died in the operation.

The German military has corrected its initial statement on protests in Afghanistan this week that left 12 people dead. The Bundeswehr has now admitted that it deliberately fired on demonstrators who were attacking a German base.

Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, has released new and explosive details about a violent altercation between demonstrators and German soldiers in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday that left 12 dead and dozens wounded, including two German soldiers. In a statement posted on its website Friday morning, the military contradicted its earlier claims and admitted that German soldier had deliberately fired upon the demonstrators. The Bundeswehr also said it was possible that the shots had been responsible for at least one death. The incident occurred Wednesday morning in front of a German military camp in the northern Afghan city of Taloqan, in Takhar province, as a funeral march was being held for four people, including two women, who had been killed by US troops in a nighttime operation against suspected terrorists. The Bundeswehr had previously claimed that German soldiers had only fired warning shots to protect their camp from further attacks by enraged demonstrators taking part in the funeral procession.

The Bundeswehr claims that members of the funeral procession threw numerous hand grenades and Molotov cocktails toward the roughly 40 German soldiers in the small camp. The perimeter of the camp was being protected by Afghan guards belonging to a so-called "provisional advisory team" (PAT). After reportedly coming under heavy attacks, both the Afghan guards and Germans soldiers allegedly fired on the crowd in an effort to disperse it. [More images HERE.]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington has prompted protests against the controversial ties between the United States and Israel.

A day after US President Barack Obama's Middle East speech, protesters gathered outside the White House in opposition to Netanyahu's visit on Friday, a Press TV correspondent reported. “Israeli policy and US support for that policy, has been part of destroying people's basic rights in the occupied territories amongst Palestinians,” one demonstrator told Press TV. “President Obama's speech, it was nonsense, and it did not support Palestinians at all. Unfortunately, all the press have been focusing on one sentence he said, that Palestinians have the right to the border of [19]67. But his whole speech supported the Israelis,” Lucy Jerias of Code Pink told Press TV.

Bill Van Auken: Netanyahu snubs Obama over 1967 border remark