21.   The threesome hectored home-plate umpire Joe Brinkman for his hesitation-waltz strike calls.

22.   Vina argued a strike call and while pointing at an umpire made contact.

23.   While many shops were also closed, there were merchants who ignored the strike call in Peshawar and Quetta, border cities where Taliban support runs deep.

24.   Police used wooden batons to disperse the protesters, who allegedly attacked a private bank after it defied their strike call.

25.   Palestinian merchants in Hebron shuttered their shops Thursday to comply with a strike call by the Muslim militant group Hamas.

26.   A complex contract dispute is behind the strike call.

27.   A complex contract dispute was behind the strike call.

28.   Ajmal Dahlvi, an MQM spokesman, said the strike call was to protest the arrests and alleged killings of MQM activists while in police custody.

29.   Air traffic controllers are expected to ignore the strike call.

30.   An empty bus and a motorcycle were also bombed on Thursday, frightening many shopowners into closing their businesses again, after some had begun defying the strike call.