Workers around the world held May Day rallies Monday to press for better factory conditions and higher wages in mostly peaceful marches, while activists in the Philippines and Belarus used the holiday to show their opposition to their governments in tense protests watched by police.
In Sri Lanka, where violence between Tamil Tiger rebels and the military has heightened fears of a return to civil war, the government canceled all May Day rallies in the capital, Colombo. Traditionally, almost all Sri Lankan political parties hold May Day rallies.
About 100,000 workers took to the streets across Indonesia, protesting a labor law that would cut severance packages and introduce more flexible contracts that would chip away at worker security.
In Cuba, more than 1 million workers in red T-shirts distributed by the government crowded into Havana's Plaza of the Revolution and adjacent avenues, and listened as President Fidel Castro said recent U.S. military maneuvers in the Caribbean were aimed at intimidating Cuba and its ally, Venezuela.
Most rallies across Europe were peaceful, although tensions were evident in Belarus, where about 2,000 opposition supporters marched in Minsk in a show of defiance, days after the authoritarian government of President Alexander Lukashenko tried to stop an unprecedented series of demonstrations by throwing protest leaders in jail.
Hundreds of thousands of people turned out across Russia for more traditional May Day celebrations.
About 25,000 people gathered in Moscow opposite the mayor's office in the warm spring sunshine to hear speeches from trade union leaders and the mayor and listen to a concert, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
In Istanbul, Turkey, police fired tear gas and pepper spray at demonstrators shouting slogans against the United States and the International Monetary Fund, and detained about 40. In the town of Elazig in eastern Turkey, another 30 were detained following a scuffle with police that left four people injured.
In the Philippines, government troops and police with batons and shields turned away hundreds who tried to approach the presidential palace to demand a wage increase and the removal from power of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Thousands marched in central Athens to protest the war in Iraq and the Greek government's economic policies.
Aleida Guevara, the daughter of Latin American revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was among 6,000 marching to the U.S. Embassy a traditional target of many Athens' protests.
The protesters cheered when they saw actor Tim Robbins, who opposes the war in Iraq and was in Athens to present a theatrical production.
AP