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At least five people have been killed and 46 others injured after clashes erupted in the Thai capital as security forces attempted to seal off an anti-government protest camp.

Explosions and gunfire were heard in Bangkok’s business district on Friday as the so-called red shirts battled with troops using tear gas and rubber bullets.

The army said it was not planning to crack down on the main protest site in the central Rajprasong business district, but was attempting to seal off the camp, cut the protesters’ supplies and limit the size of the crowd inside.

“We will allow protesters to leave the area today,” Sansern Kaewkamnerd, an army spokesman, said.

Al Jazeera’s Aela Callan, reporting from Bangkok, said that the violence appeared to be intensifying around the protest camp.

“As night has fallen, we have seen some more intense firing taking place,” she said. “We are still hearing a lot of gunfire coming from the area. Its very hard to say whether the gunfire is coming from the red shirts side as well as the soliders.”

Callan said that the clashes had spread to just outside the demonstration area as protesters had left the area to get reinforcements.

‘Civil war’

Nattawut Saikuar, a red shirt leader, called on the army to pull back and said that Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai prime minister, had  “started civil war”.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled former prime minister who is closely linked to the red shirts, echoed that call, saying that the government’s actions were a “grave infringement of human rights”.

The army had moved on a red shirts at a checkpoint set up outside the main camp on Friday after a series of violent clashes left at least one person dead and nine injured overnight.

Military vehicles and a bus were reportedly set on fire as the red shirts attempted to halt the troops.

The protesters had gathered outside the Suan Lum night market to stop soldiers from advancing towards the main site.

Electricity has been cut off to that part of the capital in an apparent attempt to force the protesters out and sections of the city’s elevated rail system were closed, including at Sukhumvit Road, a key tourist area.

“Bangkok is under a state of emergency,” Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay, reporting from the protest site, said.

“So things are stepping up and the government is trying to increase pressure on the red shirts.

“There is still a hardcore of protest leaders there who are staying put.”

The military has said that snipers could be deployed to the area and armoured vehicles may also be used around the site to prevent more people joining the protesters.

Renegade general killed

Clashes erupted late on Thursday after a suspended army general allied with the red shirt movement was left in a coma after being shot in the head.

Witnesses said the shooting was apparently carried out by a sniper, but it was not clear exactly who was behind the attack.

Panitan Wattanaygorn, the acting Thai government spokesman, told Al Jazeera that soldiers were not involved.

“Our operation is to secure the outer areas of the demonstrations. We will investigate as the red shirts have problems with their own leaders. Our officer was killed in a similar way in the last week,” Panitan said.

But Phongthep Thepkanjana, a red shirt ally and former minister of justice, told Al Jazeera: “I don’t think anybody can accept that because there was information that the government has snipers deployed close to the demonstration site. He was shot from a long distance.”

The former army general was speaking to a group of journalists as he was shot inside the barricades.

“He is one of the more hardline of the red shirt group and had been criticised for being too radical,” Al Jazeera’s Callan said.

“It is hard to say what exact effect this will have on the protesters but it will certainly bring down morale as he is one of their fighters, but he is not one of the rank and file, one of the core leadership group. He is not making decisions so it is more a symbolic loss.

Street rallies have been held since March 12 in an attempt to bring a disolution of parliament and fresh elections.

‘Illegitimate government’

The red shirts have called the government illegitimate as it came to power in a 2008 parliamentary vote.

This followed a controversial court ruling that ousted elected allies of Thaksin, who was himself unseated in a 2006 coup and remains closely linked to the red shirts.

Abhisit on Thursday held up a plan to hold early elections in November as deomonstrators refused to clear from the city centre.

The red shirts have said that they will not leave until Suthep Thaungsuban, the deputy prime minister, is charged for his alleged role in a deadly crackdown on protesters on April 10.

Demonstrations have often brought parts of central Bangkok to a standstill for long-periods and have included clashes with police that have about 30 people dead and more than 1,000 injured.

The red shirts initially called for immediate elections but agreed to a reconciliation deal this month in which Abhisit offered to dissolve parliament in the second half of September and hold polls on November 14.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies.

ATHENS — Demonstrations against tough new austerity measures in Greece claimed their first fatalities on Wednesday with three people reported to have died inside a bank building set ablaze by protesters. The reports came as workers across Greece went on strike over deep spending cuts and new taxes aimed at staving off economic collapse.

Tear gas billowed across the central Sintagma Square in front of Parliament as demonstrators trying to storm the Parliament building hurled rocks, paving stones and gasoline bombs. Police responded with tear gas canisters that spread a choking pall of smoke. Fire fighters extinguished blazes in two buildings and protesters threw up barricades, setting fire to cars and a fire truck, news reports said.

Tens of thousands of people had converged on the city center as part of a general strike that paralyzed flights, ferries, schools and hospitals.

At one point, Reuters reported, protesters set fire to a building and a witness saw firemen evacuate at least four people. “There are probably people trapped in the building,” fire officials said in a statement before the news emerged that people trapped in the building had died. The police blamed what were called “hooded youths” for setting fire to the building.

The Greek fire brigade reported that three people died in the building, a branch of the Marfin Bank on the route of a protest march into the city center, according to The Associated Press. It had apparently been attacked with gasoline bombs.

The demonstrations were the first major protests since the Socialist government of Prime Minister George Papandreou unveiled belt-tightening changes on Sunday that amount to the biggest overhaul of the state in a generation.

As the 24-hour strike began, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told legislators that the 110-billion euro plan to bail out Greece was “about nothing less than the future of Europe and the future of Germany in Europe.”

Opening a debate in Berlin in which legislators are being asked to approve a law that would allow Germany to lend up to 22 billion euros to Greece as part of the overall amount agreed to last weekend, Mrs. Merkel said Germany “had an exceptional responsibility for Europe and will exercise that today.” She said the aid package was necessary to prevent “a chain reaction that would contaminate the markets.”

Mr. Papandreou’s reforms, which aim to squeeze savings of 30 billion euros through 2012, include cuts to salaries in Greece’s sprawling public sector, higher taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, and tighter retirement rules. They are part of an effort to clear the way for a 110-billion euro rescue package aimed at preventing the debt-ridden country from defaulting.

The strikes on Wednesday shut hospitals, schools and tourism sights across the Greek capital, including the Acropolis, where several dozen protesters from the Communist Party broke the locks at the entrance to the monument on Tuesday and spread banners saying, “Peoples of Europe — Rise Up.”

Analysts said the strikes could signal the beginning of protracted social unrest, paralyzing the economy and help push the country into deeper recession. Isolated violent clashes between demonstrators and police have erupted in recent days. But in a country where taking to the streets is a national sport, the demonstrations have thus far been largely peaceful and modest.

Many Greeks are angry and complain that they are paying the price for the profligacy of others.

But most now appear to be resigned that megaphones and protest songs are no match for the volatile financial markets that have roiled the country for the past several months. Many appear resigned to endure what some economists predict could be a ten-year period before the economy bounces back.

Despite the strike, the draft bill setting out the measures was to be discussed Wednesday afternoon in a parliamentary committee before it is put to a vote on Thursday. Mr. Papandreou’s Socialist party has a majority of 160 seats in the 300-seat Parliament, and the bill is expected to easily pass.

As the leader of Europe’s largest economy, Mrs. Merkel had held out the longest in supporting any rescue package for Greece until Mr. Papandreou had agreed to impose austerity measures including pension reductions and painful cuts in the public sector.

Mrs. Merkel defended her stance — although opposition legislators Wednesday, including Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats, criticized Mrs. Merkel for reacting far too slowly to the Greek crisis and failing to provide leadership.

Mrs. Merkel said immediate assistance would have been counter-productive.

“Immediate assistance is the last way to guarantee the stability of the euro area altogether,” she told legislators. “It must go forward so as not to unleash a chain reaction onto international markets that would contaminate Europe.”

By DAN BILEFSKY

 

BANGKOK — Antigovernment protesters clashed on Wednesday with security forces who fired their weapons in a short, sharp encounter on the edge of the city.

One soldier was killed and at least 18 people were injured, according to the government-run Erawan Medical Center.

Standing behind coils of razor wire and taking aim from behind concrete pilings, troops fired into the air and into the crowd to c, who had arrived in a long convoy of motorcycles and trucks

The Associated Press reported that witnesses said the soldier appeared to have been shot by other security forces.

Earlier in the day, an army spokesman, Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd, said that soldiers mostly used rubber bullets but were authorized to use live ammunition in self-defense.

Protesters charged the razor wire and threw rocks and bottles, some of them from a highway overpass near Bangkok’s second-largest airport, Don Muang.

The encounter came after the protesters — who have largely discarded their trademark red shirts — made a rare foray from their camps in the center of Bangkok, where they have forced the closing of shopping malls and major hotels.

The protesters, who mostly represent the rural and urban poor and whose demonstrations have paralyzed parts of the capital for nearly seven weeks, say they will not relent until the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva resigns and holds a new election. At least 26 people have been killed in the protests.

Many support the fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and say they were robbed of their votes when he was ousted in a coup in 2006 and when later governments aligned with him were removed through court rulings.

The government has responded that it was duly elected by a parliamentary vote and that it will not give in to street protests.

The city is tense, with daily rumors of a military crackdown.

On Tuesday, soldiers in body armor set up command posts at several points in the city after the protesters said they would set out Wednesday in convoys around the city.

The protesters avoided these posts and headed toward the airport road in a procession led by a pack of hundreds of motorcycles.

Thousands of people on the backs of trucks waved flags and sang and danced to loud music that blasted through megaphones.

After the clash, soldiers took an aggressive stance, stopping and searching vehicles on the nearby Vibhavadi highway, the main gateway from the north, an area largely sympathetic to the protests.

They guarded the road into the airport and patrolled the highway on foot and on motorcycles.

For their part, the protesters turned their trucks and motorcycles around and headed back into the city, waving at the police.

By SETH MYDANS

Video-sharing website YouTube has removed hundreds of pornographic videos which were uploaded in what is believed to be a planned attack.

The material was uploaded under names of famous teenage celebrities such as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers.

Many started with footage of children’s videos before groups of adults

performing graphic sex acts appeared on screen.

YouTube owner Google said it was aware and addressing the problem.

Disturbing videos

The BBC was made aware that scores of sexually explicit and inappropriate material was uploaded.

In one video titled Jonas Brother Live On Stage, a user posted a comment saying: “I’m 12 years old and what is this?”

Under other uploaded videos, online users posted comments such as: “Take the tags off, you’ll get us caught.” Another said: “Your gonna kill us all!”

As the disturbing videos were being uploaded, many viewers added them to their favourites and rated them highly.