1.   By evening, large numbers of police officers maintained an uneasy peace, and Palestinians called for a protest strike on Wednesday.

2.   In France, markets rose after Prime Minister Alain Juppe affirmed his resolve to see through proposed fiscal reform as protest strikes crippled the country for the second week.

3.   Opposition parties have threatened protest strikes if they determine government has given away too much.

4.   Palestinian leaders ordered those shopkeepers to observe a four-hour protest strike Wednesday.

5.   Palestinian leaders called a two-hour protest strike.

6.   A coalition of unions threatened to stage a protest strike in September.

7.   A government spokesman disputed a report that hundreds of thousands joined a similar protest strike earlier this week.

8.   A Kashmiri party assumed power in the insurgency-wracked Indian state Wednesday, as a protest strike called by separatists partially shut down the state capital.

9.   A one-day, state-wide protest strike called by several political parties erupted into violence in several areas in Gujarat, Press Trust of India said.

10.   A sidewalk vendor was killed by unidentified gunmen in troubled Aceh province as a weeklong transportation protest strike entered its last day Friday, police and witnesses said.