Brussels, Belgium - Firefighters protesting for better pay and working conditions fought riot police in pitched street battles. Helmeted demonstrators blocked streets with fire trucks, fired foam hoses and threw flares and other projectiles at police who responded with their own water cannons. The firefighters are demanding earlier retirement, better injury compensation, and for their occupation to be classified as a high risk profession. Three officers suffered facial injuries, and three firefighters had to be hospitalized, one of them from broken ribs after he fell off a water cannon.

Houston, Texas, U.S. - An early morning fire has burned out Houston's radical anarchist book store, lending library and Indymedia office. Police say that the blaze that destroyed a portion of Sedition Books, located at 4420 Washington Avenue, was almost definitely set intentionally because is originated outside but their investigation has not been completed. One police officer suggested that the store operators who lived on the premise were asking for it by having politics that are "too extreme."

Fortunately none of the building's occupants were injured. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of suspects. The store's operators believe that the fire could have been started by local Ku Klux Klansmen, neo-Nazi skinheads, the agent of a developer or even a disgruntled former customer.

The fire department arrived promptly and many of the books and computer equipment was able to be salvaged. Collective members vow that they will be back in business in the next one to five months and have solicited donations from their supporters to help them achieve this goal.

Rospuda valley, Poland – Dozens of environmentalists have established a protest camp in the path of a section of the soon to be built Baltica Highway, linking Poland with Finland, which would destroy a protected nature reserve. Pollution and development that comes with the road along with the heavy construction equipment needed to construct it will drive dozens of rare plants and animals, found only in the bog, to extinction.

The decision to construct the highway violates a European program that protects rare ecological environments. The EU has demanded an explanation and threatened sanctions if the project goes ahead. After massive protests in numerous cities in the region even Poland's First Lady Maria Kaczyński has spoken out against the development.

Protesters have built a series of tree platforms in the threatened valley, 200 km north-east of Warsaw, in order better resist any attempts on the part of the police to forcibly remove them. The international conservationist organization Greenpeace has sent climbers to assist demonstrators.

Beroun, the Czech Republic - Anti-fascists clashed with ultra nationalist demonstrators and police at a protest rally against the possible location of a U.S. missile defense radar system in the Czech Republic. Police arrested a number of anti-fascists and used teargas against counter demonstrators, who are also opposed to U.S. missile bases.

Moscow, Russia - More than 100 anarchists took part in an unpermitted anti-war march Friday. They called for an end to the conflicts in Chechnya and Iraq and for Russians to refuse to serve in the military. The demonstration was planned to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Stalin-era deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from their native Chechnya to Central Asia and West Siberia.

Protesters who marched under the black and red and black flags shouted "Chechnya is not our enemy, our enemy is the Kremlin" and other chants. Three people were arrested during the demonstration and at least 12 were rounded up and taken into custody after leaving the march. Everyone was released later in the evening, most were ordered to pay a 500 ruble fine.

Unauthorized art installed in the Smith College Quad

Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S. - Since Valentine's day more than a dozen Smith College and even some privately owned buildings near campus were re-decorated with subversive stencil designs originally made by the British street artist Banksy. School Public Safety Sgt. Robert Young said that he expects that removing the images will cost thousands of dollars, and that "the incident is still under investigation."

Greece - Anarchists, students and unionists clashed with police in central Athens today, shutting down part of the city for a number of hours. Demonstrators fought police with clubs and pelted them with molotov cocktails and rocks. Police fired teargas at protesters. Similar demonstrations were held across the country in opposition to the government's plan to amend Greece's constitution in order to allow private companies to open universities. Currently all institutions of higher learning are state funded and don't charge tuition.

The northern city of Thessaloniki saw it's second day of protest. Yesterday a group of approximately 250 anarchists and students engaged police outside Thessaloniki University in protest to plans to relax a law that prohibits police from entering university grounds.

Athens, Greece - A group of about 20 youths attacked the General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE) building, in broad daylight, with rocks and petrol bombs. The assault took place as union leader Tassos Panagopoulos was attempting to exit the building. Police believe that anarchists are responsible. Anarchists groups claim that the unions have abandoned workers' interests and have aligned themselves with employers. Anarchists are also suspected to be behind last year's severe beating of Panagopoulos' predecessor, in central Athens. No one has been arrested in connection with either incident.

Gaetano Bresci

Providencia, Chile - An Army recruiting center in the Santiago Metropolitan Region was bombed by the previously unknown Federación Revuelta 14F - Gaetano Bresci Brigade on Thursday. Gaetano Bresci was an Italian-American immigrant who assassinated Umberto I, King of Italy. The loud blast tore the door off the recruitment station. The bombers left pamphlets at the scene that criticized the police, prisons and the new urban transportation service.

The Ross Sea, Southern Ocean - A fire aboard the whaling ship the Nisshin Maru has forced the majority of the crew to evacuate. The vessel is a floating slaughterhouse and the flagship of Japan's illegal whaling fleet. The fire will likely halt Japan's whale hunt for the remainder of the season. 127 Members of the ship's crew were rescued by other ships. 20 Stayed aboard to fight the fire.

The blaze was the second serious one to interrupt the Nisshin Maru's yearly hunt for endangered whales in the past ten or so years. The whalers were chased and collided with the anti-whaling ships operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society last week, but those activists had abandoned their chase in order to refuel their boats. A Greenpeace vessel was headed for the whalers in order to document the hunt when the fire broke out.

Jeff Luers

Oregon, U.S. - The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled that environmentaly motivated arsonist, Jeffrey "Free" Luers, will get a new reduced sentence that could be as much as 15 years shorter than his current one. Luers was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2001 for burning and damaging three SUVs as a protest meant to call attention to global warming in Eugene.

Luers was convicted of three arson counts and three attempted arson counts. The sentences were ordered to be served consecutively but according to the appeals court Luers' judge should have ordered that they be served concurrent. It's possible that he could be released from prison as early as 2008.

Antarctic Whale Sanctuary, Southern Ocean - Anti-whaling activists chased down Japanese whalers off the coast of Antarctica. The Sea Shepherd vessels Robert Hunter and Farley Mowat discovered the Japanese factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru and a fleet of smaller vessels illegally hunting whales in violation of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling.

Sea Shepherd crew members aboard small inflatable zodiacs threw bottles of butyric acid on the kill deck of the Nisshin Maru and sealed the decks drain pipes, which dumps whale blood into the ocean.

A few days later the Japanese ship the Kaiko Maru and the Robert Hunter collided. Both ships blamed the other for the incident and both parties claimed that their ships were damaged, but not too damaged as to need assistance.

Captain Paul Watson of the Farley Mowat has announced that he will ram the whaler's flag ship, the Nisshin Maru. Watson claims to have sunk nine whaling ships and rammed a dozen more since he parted way with Greenpeace to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 1977.

St. Petersburg, Russia - Fascists are suspected to be responsible for a bomb attack timed to coincide with a Food Not Bombs (FNB) sharing Sunday. A time bomb hidden inside a flower stall exploded in Vladimirskaya Square, where FNB shares food with homeless and other hungry people every week. The device exploded at 4:20 PM when the group is scheduled to be there. Because the group was late and because the explosion was not very large no one was injured.

On January 14th Ivan Elin, an anarchist activist and member of the local FNB chapter, was attacked and stabbed approximately 20 times by neo-Nazi fascists. In September 2005 anarchists Timur Kacharava and Max “Zgibov” Zgibai were attacked and stabbed by neo-Nazis. Kacharava was killed and Zgibai was hospitalized.

Adelanto, California, U.S. - Defiant animal liberator, Peter Young was released from the federal Victorville Prison today after serving nearly two years for a series of raids on mink fur farms in 1997. Young was initially facing more than 80 years in prison but took a plea deal after his accomplice Justin Samuel agreed to testify against him. Samuel was arrested first and named Young and another person who assisted them to a grand jury in exchange for the same reduced sentence Young eventually received.

After his federal charges were resolved South Dakota State's Attorney Vince Foley announced his intention to prosecute Young on the state charges of third degree burglary, intentional damage to property and animal enterprise trespass. It is not clear whether South Dakota or any of the other states where Young rescued animals would legally be able to prosecute him for the same crimes he was already prosecuted for at the federal level.

Washington, D.C., U.S. - Some 200 to 300 demonstrators, with the "Radical Youth Bloc," broke through police lines in an attempt to rush the U.S. Capitol building Saturday. Protesters got as far as the Capitol steps where anarchy symbols and various slogans including "you can't stop us," where spray-painted. The demonstrators where part of a breakaway group that left the larger permitted demonstration organized by United For Peace and Justice on the mall. Later the anti-capitalist bloc vandalized a military recruiting center where a window was broken.