Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

Italy has been hit by a nationwide worker strike following a call by the country's largest trade union, which has protested at Rome's economic and immigration policies.

Called upon by the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL), various cities saw workers bringing the public services to standstill for an entire day and freezing the public transport networks for four hours, Reuters reported.

Tehran's Ambassador to Rome Mohammad-Ali Hosseini has rejected Italy's allegations against a veteran Iranian journalist as unacceptable.

Hamid Masoumi-Nejad, a correspondent for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) based in Rome, was arrested on March 3 along with another Iranian national identified as Homayoun Bakhtiyari under the allegations of arms trafficking to Iran.

Moscow says the United States and NATO's inaction in fighting drug trafficking in Afghanistan, translates into an "undeclared war" against Russia.

Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin slammed the alliance for its loose surveillance on drug trafficking out of Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

Residents of one settlement in the Moscow region are worried about the gathering of ballistic missile units in the neighbouring. Locals are no strangers to war games as they live next to a military training ground but they have never seen such a number of state-of-the-art weapons. Egor Piskunov reports from the site.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has criticized Stockholm over a Swedish parliament resolution that branded the World War I killing of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as 'genocide.'

"The resolution on Armenian allegations which was approved by the Swedish Parliament does not have any credibility. Those who made this decision and voted in favor of the resolution were not historians," Gul said on Thursday.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Stockholm after the Swedish parliament branded the killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War I as "genocide."

"We strongly condemn this resolution, which is made for political calculations. It does not correspond to the close friendship of our two nations. We are recalling our ambassador for consultations," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement released on Thursday. He also cancelled a Stockholm visit scheduled for next week.

Ukraine's newly appointed Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has promised to push through a realistic budget and to meet Kiev's obligations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ahead of his appointment, Azarov, who is a former finance minister, had said that Ukraine's economy was in a dire situation.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner claims that the UN Security Council (UNSC) is drafting new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

According to Kouchner, the UNSC is working on drafting economic sanctions to restrict Iranian banks abroad and insurance of shipments to and from Iran but has yet to reached an agreement yet, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Greek police have clashed with protesters on the streets of Athens as strikes against government's austerity measures paralyze the city.

Violence erupted on Thursday in the capital with riot police firing tear gas at hooded youths, who hurled firebombs and vandalized stores near parliament, AFP reported.

Greek Police have fired teargas to disperse a small group of protesters outside parliament, as the cash-strapped country was hit with a fresh general strike.

Thursday's clashes broke out in Athens between police and around 30 protesters demonstrating against the government's unpopular austerity measures, a package passed into law last Friday.