Spain’s “indignant” activists celebrated their first anniversary Tuesday, taking to streets around the nation to cap a four-day show of strength at the height of an economic crisis.

Tens of thousands have packed Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square each night since the come-back demonstrations began Saturday in 80 towns and cities around the country.

In the early hours of each morning, police have cleared the Madrid square of activists determined to defy the city hall and keep a permament presence throughout the night.

Madrid police, who arrested 18 people as they cleared the square on Sunday morning and two people when they did the same on Monday, said they had detained another eight Tuesday.

By early afternoon Tuesday, dozens of activists, who decry inequality, sky-high unemployment and spending cuts, as fruits of Capitalism, were holding assemblies in the square again ahead of a mass rally at night.

Madrid police estimated about 30,000 people had taken part in the first protest Saturday.

The authorities in Madrid insisted they would not allow a repeat of last year’s month-long sprawling encampment in Puerta del Sol that included everything from a canteen to a kindergarten and a library.

The movement, which relies heavily on online social networks to campaign and organise, has inspired similar protests from Britain to the Occupy Wall Street campaign in the United States.

“France is a major country with veto right at the United Nations Security Council, but Sarkozy led France as a follower of the US international policy,” Kowsari said commenting on Sarkozy’s defeat in the election.

He said that Sarkozy’s government lacked program and the people showed their dissatisfaction with the government in the presidential election.

Kowsari said that the developments at international and regional level had impacts on the French presidential election.

“The French people expressed their grievances at Sarkozy government by electing Socialist leader Francois Hollande.

The economist Hani Al-Khalili said in a statement to CNN Arabic posted Monday that “international sanctions on Iran have negatively affected the European countries more than the desired impact on Iran, especially amid these difficult economic conditions.”

Khalili noted that “changing and re-modeling the European oil refineries specially designed to match the oil from Iran, will cost millions of dollars. These are additional costs that will fall upon the economy in some European countries, especially those that are still struggling to get out of the financial crisis repercussions.”

Khalili pointed out that “the attitude of European countries is difficult now, where you cannot say for sure how long the sanctions imposed on Iran will last, and whether the solution of the Iranian nuclear issue is near term or not; therefore, any amendment to the oil refineries will be considered a waste of money in case an international agreement with Iran has been reached out.”

A number of the concerned observers said that the recent steps taken by Iran to halt the oil supply for a number of European parties show an indifference to the sanctions imposed on it, and that they are ineffective in cracking down on the Iranian regime to prevent the nuclear issue from moving forward.

According to a previous report broadcast earlier on the Iranian state television, the sanctions imposed by the United States and European countries on Iran have failed and could not achieve the desired goals, to deter Iran from pursuing its nuclear projects first and foremost.

The report, broadcast on “Press TV”, quoted a Netherlands-based Iranian diplomat, Kazem Gharib Abadi, as saying that “sanctions imposed have failed in dispersing rows of Iran, and making an imbalance between the Iranian people and the government.”

Abadi, Iran’s Permanent Representative to the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), added that “sanctions against Iran are not new, where the United States imposes sanctions and barriers on the Islamic Republic of Iran 30 years ago.”

In another report, “Press TV” noted that Iran had halted dealings with two Greek oil companies because of failure to meet payment, in a move designed to bring a message to the international community stating that Iran is still economically strong enough to select its trading partners and is not forced to Search for any commercial party to sell its wealth.

Tens of thousands of Spanish demonstrators have taken to the streets of the capital Madrid to protest against government plans to slash the health and education budgets.

The Sunday protest organized by Spanish Unions aims to reverse government plans to find savings of seven billion euros a year from their healthcare budgets, and shave a further three billion euros from education costs.

Madrid has proposed harsh budget cuts and a new set of tax hikes as part of its drive to reduce the public deficit and calm rising eurozone crisis fears.

“We are protesting against the cuts and the deterioration of workers’ labour rights. It is clear that we are suffering a setback of more than 30 years. The situation is disturbing but more disturbing is the situation that our children could inherit,” AFP quoted a protester as saying.

Protesters say that cuts could lead to more job losses as the country struggles with a record high unemployment rate of 24.4 percent that has left over 5.5 million people jobless.

On Monday, Spain’s Central Bank announced that the country is back in recession as its economy has shrunk for the second consecutive quarter at the end of the first quarter of 2012.

The recession will make it much harder for Spain, the fourth largest eurozone economy, to meet its deficit targets.

Spain has announced spending cuts of more than 11-billion dollars as well as tax increases to reduce the country’s deficit to avoid seeking a financial bailout like Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, triggering incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries.

Senior Iranian and Syrian diplomats lashed out at the West for its hostile policies towards the world nations, and urged the western states to respect the other nations’ rights.

In a meeting in Madrid, Iranian and Syrian ambassadors to Cuba condemned years of wrong performance of western powers against Iran, Syria and Palestine.

The two diplomats called on western powers to respect rights of nations in the international arena.

They also condemned any kind of foreign interventions in domestic affairs of world countries.

Iranian officials have always deplored certain foreign countries for interfering in Syria’s internal affairs, and stated that the crisis in Syria should be dealt within the country and no other state should be allowed to interfere in its internal affairs.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

In October, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of stirring unrests in Syria once again.

Spanish students protested Wednesday against austerity reforms that are squeezing education spending and raising university fees, launching a series of demonstrations for the coming weeks, according to AFP.

More than 100 students rallied in the university district of northwest Madrid demonstrating against the conservative government’s reforms, including the fees hike announced last week.

It was a low-key protest compared to various demonstrations over recent months but students said it was just the start of a series of protests across Spain.

Students on the Move, an alternative group distinct from the national Students’ Union, said in a statement Wednesday it was calling meetings, sit-ins and rallies in a dozen towns over the next three days and on May 2 and 3.

“Education is for defending, not for sale!” it said.

It denounced “the brutal and unjust raising of fees” and spending cuts, which the government says will slash Spain’s overall education budget by 21 percent.

“Enrolment for 1,500 to 3,000 euros? Goodbye to scholarships? React!” read a banner unfurled by demonstrators in Madrid on Wednesday.

The national Students’ Union has vowed more mass protests on May 10 and will also join in demonstrations on May 12 to mark the anniversary of the “indignant” movement which swamped Spanish cities last year.

Separately, Spain’s main unions have called a day of protests against the health and education cuts on April 29.

Students marched in their thousands on February 29 in anger at the cuts disrupting schools and universities. On Saturday thousands of people demonstrated in the streets of Barcelona.

Switzerland’s opposition to economic sanctions against Iran was a “correct decision”, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said, and urged other European states to follow suit and review their stance on Iran.

“We believe this decision (by Switzerland) affects our bilateral ties and we hope that other states in Europe and the West abandon their wrong decisions and return to a correct approach that will be effective for their national interests,” Mehman-Parast said in a weekly press conference here in Tehran on Tuesday.

He also lashed out at the sanctions against Iran, and stated, “We consider each sanction as a negative and wrong step and regard any removal of these illegal and irrational sanctions as a correct approach for compensating the past mistakes.”

The spokesman, however, said that sanctions will consolidate the Iranian nation’s resolve to continue the path of independence.

His remarks came after the Swiss Foreign Ministry last week rejected the US-led West’s oil and financial embargos against Iran, and announced that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) can continue business activities in Switzerland.

Iran’s central bank, under siege from the US and European Union, which froze its assets in January, can keep doing business in Switzerland because of its systemic importance to the Persian Gulf nation’s economy, said a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

Switzerland will also leave the door open to Iranian oil imports, the spokesman, Rudolf Christen, said.

“The expansionist and provocative approach of the Zionist regime (Israel) in the Middle East and [its] violation of the human rights of the Palestinians is the cause of the escalation of tension and insecurity in the region,” Al-e-Habib said on Monday.

“The bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israeli fighters has led to the martyrdom of many Palestinians including women and children, and has deprived 1.5 million Palestinians of [their] basic needs,” he added.

The Iranian official called on the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the international community to take measures in order to stop Israel’s violence and the expansion of its illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian territories.

Al-e-Habib also criticized ‘the unfounded and irresponsible’ remarks by foreign officials, regarding the three Iranian islands of Abu Mousa, the Greater and the Lesser Tunb in Persian Gulf.

“These islands have always been an inseparable part of Iran and Tehran will categorically reject any claims against this principle,” he went on to say.

On April 11, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the Iranian Island of Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf as part of his tour of the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan.

On the same day, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan criticized the visit as a “violation of UAE sovereignty over its territories.”

The islands of the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa have historically been part of Iran, proof of which can be found and corroborated by countless historical, legal, and geographical documents in Iran and other parts of the world.

However, the United Arab Emirates has repeatedly laid claims to the islands.

Approximately 62,000 French citizens living in Israel participated in Sunday’s French presidential elections, according to a report on Army Radio.

The report said that 80 percent of French Israelis voted for incumbent president, Nicolas Sarkozy, while the leading candidate for president, Francois Hollande, received 8 percent support.

The demonstrators, who gathered on the outskirts of Baku, called on President Ilham Aliyev to step down, Reuters reported.

Carrying Azerbaijan’s national and opposition party flags, the protesters chanted, “Ilham – Go,” “Freedom” and “Resignation.”

The mass protest was held close to the venue of the upcoming Eurovision Song contest in May.

Some analysts say the protesters were using the occasion to draw the world’s attention to what they call lack of democratic rights in the oil-rich country.

Opposition leaders say the protests will continue even after the Eurovision contest.

“The protests will continue, because they are not connected with any contests or festival,” said Isa Gambar, the leader of Musavat Opposition Party.

“The protest will be held before the Eurovision Song Contest and after the Eurovision contest, possibly during Eurovision Song contest as well,” Gambar added.

The Azeri protesters are furious about the gap between the rich and the poor, rampant corruption and an economy highly dependent on oil in the country of nine million.