Workers join May Day protests in Manila, elsewhere

ATHENS/MADRID — Trains and ferries were cancelled and hospital staff walked off the job in Greece on Wednesday and thousands were due to demonstrate across Spain as May Day triggered protests against harsh government spending cuts. Separately, Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds gathering in central Istanbul for a rally on what has become a traditional labour holiday.

Currently going on in Rio: three hundred thousand (expected to rise to a million) have taken to the streets in Rio in the biggest protests so far sweeping Brazil:

Filipinos and Vietnamese residents in the Philippine capital staged a joint protest Friday against “destabilizing” China’s incursions into South China Sea territories claimed by their countries. The Philippine government on Thursday released military surveillance photos of Chinese land reclamation on a reef claimed by Manila in the South China Sea that it said showed Beijing violated a regional agreement not to escalate territorial disputes.

On Friday, Salon reported Breaking: Massive Black Friday strike and arrests planned, as workers defy Wal-Mart.

In the shadows of an ancient cathedral in the Philippine capital, wilting horses attached to carriages shelter from the tropical sun as their drivers try to interest the few tourists milling around.Hawkers exhibit sombreros, fans and rosaries on the pavement nearby but few buyers are in sight -- a depressingly familiar scenario for Manila's historic tourist district centred on the colonial Spanish walled city of Intramuros.