Photos of the Day: Nov. 29

WHISTLING FOR ATTENTION: An antigovernment protester blew on a whistle as she hugged a riot policeman outside the headquarters of the ruling Pheu Thai Party of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in Bangkok Friday. Thousands of people have been demonstrating in Bangkok, calling for…
WHISTLING FOR ATTENTION: An antigovernment protester blew on a whistle as she hugged a riot policeman outside the headquarters of the ruling Pheu Thai Party of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in Bangkok Friday. Thousands of people have been demonstrating in Bangkok, calling for Ms. Yingluck’s removal.
Continued

SENT PACKING: Workers took apart a Louis Vuitton pavilion shaped like a giant suitcase in Moscow’s Red Square Friday. The 30-foot-tall structure was to have been home to a temporary exhibit on the history of the luggage but had drawn criticism from civic groups and politicians.
SENT PACKING: Workers took apart a Louis Vuitton pavilion shaped like a giant suitcase in Moscow’s Red Square Friday. The 30-foot-tall structure was to have been home to a temporary exhibit on the history of the luggage but had drawn criticism from civic groups and politicians.
Continued

DEFIANT: A man stood in a cloud of smoke and tear gas fired by Egyptian riot police in Cairo Friday. Officials were trying to disperse hundreds of Islamist demonstrators defying a new protest law that has drawn widespread criticism from the international community and democracy…
DEFIANT: A man stood in a cloud of smoke and tear gas fired by Egyptian riot police in Cairo Friday. Officials were trying to disperse hundreds of Islamist demonstrators defying a new protest law that has drawn widespread criticism from the international community and democracy advocates.
Continued

FACTORY FIRE: A firefighter tried to extinguish flames at a 10-story garment building complex in Gazipur, Bangladesh, Friday. No casualties were reported in the fire at the Standard Stitches Ltd. factory, around 30 miles north of Dhaka.
FACTORY FIRE: A firefighter tried to extinguish flames at a 10-story garment building complex in Gazipur, Bangladesh, Friday. No casualties were reported in the fire at the Standard Stitches Ltd. factory, around 30 miles north of Dhaka.
Continued

OUT AND ABOUT: Pedestrians at a street corner in New York City on Friday morning carried a variety of bags hinting at their morning stops, as Black Friday shoppers across the U.S. fought the lines at stores to load up on discounted gear and gifts.
OUT AND ABOUT: Pedestrians at a street corner in New York City on Friday morning carried a variety of bags hinting at their morning stops, as Black Friday shoppers across the U.S. fought the lines at stores to load up on discounted gear and gifts.
Continued

ON ALERT: Riot police watched over crowds of protesters at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday. Demonstrators have been calling on the Ukrainian government to move forward with trade talks with the European Union, suspended last week in favor of calls for reviving trade ties…
ON ALERT: Riot police watched over crowds of protesters at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday. Demonstrators have been calling on the Ukrainian government to move forward with trade talks with the European Union, suspended last week in favor of calls for reviving trade ties with Russia and other ex-Soviet republics.
Continued

CLEANING UP: In Raqqa, eastern Syria, on Friday, civilians emptied shops that had been damaged by what activists said was a Scud missile from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
CLEANING UP: In Raqqa, eastern Syria, on Friday, civilians emptied shops that had been damaged by what activists said was a Scud missile from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Continued

A WIN, AND TURKEY, TOO: Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones ate a turkey leg on the field after his team’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers Thursday. Baltimore won, 22-20.
A WIN, AND TURKEY, TOO: Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones ate a turkey leg on the field after his team’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers Thursday. Baltimore won, 22-20.
Continued

DISAPPOINTMENT: Employees of Valencia’s Channel 9, a public television and radio station, reacted at headquarters in Brujassot after their signal was cut from the air on Friday. The workers had staged an on-air protest to oppose a government decision to close the station to save…
DISAPPOINTMENT: Employees of Valencia’s Channel 9, a public television and radio station, reacted at headquarters in Brujassot after their signal was cut from the air on Friday. The workers had staged an on-air protest to oppose a government decision to close the station to save money.
Continued

HURTING: Doctors and medical staff at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh on Friday attended to a man hurt when protesters torched a bus in Dhaka late Thursday. At least 19 people, including a journalist, a police officer and a lawyer, sustained burns and other injuries.
HURTING: Doctors and medical staff at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh on Friday attended to a man hurt when protesters torched a bus in Dhaka late Thursday. At least 19 people, including a journalist, a police officer and a lawyer, sustained burns and other injuries.
Continued

HOPEFUL: Roona Begum, age 22 months, rested ahead of a surgery at a hospital in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Dehli, Friday. The toddler has had several surgical procedures with which doctors are trying to correct a rare disorder that has caused her head to swell.
HOPEFUL: Roona Begum, age 22 months, rested ahead of a surgery at a hospital in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Dehli, Friday. The toddler has had several surgical procedures with which doctors are trying to correct a rare disorder that has caused her head to swell.
Continued

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In Israel, a Dream Made Real

Nov. 29, 2013 6:41 p.m. ETFor those observing Israel from afar, the country must seem like an ongoing crisis. Israel is at once an occupier and a target of its neighbors’ enmity. It faces existential threats and herculean challenges—the Iranian nuclear project, chaos in the Arab world, the Palestinian rejection of its legitimacy.
But some perspective is in order. The 20th century was the most dramatic century in the dramatic history of the Jews. In its first half, we lost a third of our people. But the second half of the century was miraculous. In North America, we created the perfect diaspora, while in the land of Israel we established modern Jewish sovereignty. The Jews of the 21st century have today what their great-grandparents could only dream of: equality, freedom, prosperity, dignity. The persecuted people are now emancipated. The pitiful people are now proud and independent.
In Israel, the Jewish Renaissance was achieved by the remarkable success of Zionism. When Zionism was launched in 1897, approximately 50,000 Jews lived in the Holy Land. Now the Jewish population exceeds 6 million. In 1897, Jews living in Palestine represented only 0.4% of world Jewry. In 1950, we accounted for 10.6%. In 1980, 25.6%. Now we make up almost 45%.

Israelis stroll near Tel Aviv before the Jewish state’s Independence Day in April. Mati Milstein

Today, the Jewish community in Israel is one of the two largest in the world. Given current trends, by 2025 the majority of the world’s Jews will be Israelis. The fundamental Zionist diagnosis and prognosis proved to be correct.
Nowhere is this success more apparent than in the port of Tel Aviv. Here, on the banks of the Yarkon River, the first Jewish Olympic Games—the Maccabiah—were held in the spring of 1932, long before the founding of the modern state. Within a few weeks, a sports stadium was hastily constructed where thousands gathered to watch the hundreds of athletes who traveled to Palestine from 25 countries to prove that the Jew of the 20th century was a new Jew: athletic, muscular and strong.
Here, next to the Maccabiah stadium, five other Zionist projects were inaugurated before the end of the 1930s. The Bauhaus compound of the extravagant Levant Fair, the audacious Tel Aviv harbor, the renowned Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra, the electrifying Redding Power Station, the pioneering Tel Aviv airport—all were outstanding breakthroughs of modern Zionism. They shared initiative, daring, innovation and a can-do spirit. They gave the emerging Jewish national home a unique economic and cultural might. As the great Arab-Jewish war was about to begin in Palestine and while catastrophe loomed over European Jewry, the Zionist pioneers laid in Tel Aviv the foundations for a sovereign, modern, creative Jewish existence.
Some 80 years later, as I walk south from the Tel Aviv airport on the promenade between the runway and the sea, I see the staff of a high-tech company having a day out in the sun. Twenty red-helmeted men and women ride by on red-wheeled Segways. Behind them are cyclists in sleeveless shirts and Lycra shorts with determined expressions on their faces. The joggers are more relaxed in their fluorescent running gear, sharing the path with willowy girls on skates, opinionated pensioners, amateur fishermen.
Before me is an Israeli Central Park on the shores of the Mediterranean, a Hampstead Heath in the Middle East—with all the calm and tranquillity that only free societies can accord their citizens. There is a sense of well-being here that the Jews have not had for nearly 2,000 years.
When I cross the Yarkon River and enter the port, I see all around me a feast of life. The cafes on the wooden decks are bustling with young families and singles, enjoying espressos and Champagne. Bicycles, skate boards, baby carriages. What a cocktail: an immigrant society and a warrior society against the backdrop of the blue sea. Jewish history and the Israeli present and blue skies.
In Israel, centuries of pain have burst out into gaiety and creation. Here is the demography of hope: an almost extinguished people renewing itself. Unlike the affluent societies of Europe, Israel’s affluent society reproduces and grows—we have babies in great numbers.
Israel is not the utopia it set out to be. It is flawed and maimed in many ways. It denies the Palestinians their rights and often betrays its own citizens. It has an unworthy political leadership, a dysfunctional political system and an unjust socioeconomic structure. Yet Israel is an amazing expression of vitality, of success against all odds. Once one steps back from the ongoing friction of a conflict reported daily around the world, one can see the transformation of the Jews in the Zionist century. We had to come here, and once we came, we did wonders.
The Jewish nation state has brought neither peace nor peace of mind to the Jews. But it has provided us with the intensity of life on the edge—the adrenaline rush of living dangerously. Threatened with death, we have built a spectacle of life. We have converged on this shore and cling to this shore, come what may.
—Mr. Shavit is a senior columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. This essay is adapted from his new book, “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel,” published by Spiegel & Grau.

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Caveat Emptor: Lovers of Latin Try to Sell a Dead Tongue

Nov. 29, 2013 10:32 p.m. ETINCOURT, Belgium—A modest white schoolhouse near Brussels is in the vanguard of a long-struggling movement of Latin enthusiasts who refuse to say requiescat in pace to the ancient language.

Gaius Licoppe, hosting his Latin-speaking group at Schola Nova. Matthew Dalton

At Schola Nova, dozens of students are required to take up to 10 hours of Latin a week, but they don’t dwell just on Virgil or Ovid. They speak what is known as “modern” Latin: The children talk on telephonis gestabilibus (cellphones); they use computatoria (computers) to surf the reticulum interretiale (Internet); and they wear bracas Genuenses (jeans).
The school is the brainchild of founder Stéphane Feye, a bearded Belgian and native speaker of Franco-Gallici (French), who dreams of resurrecting Latin as Europe’s lingua franca.
“We have a single money, the euro,” Mr. Feye says. “We should have a single language, Latin.”
Given the economic problems created by the euro, it might seem like a non sequitur to encourage a single language for the continent. But a hard core of Latin enthusiasts say the language would foster a sense of European unity that’s been lacking since the decline of the Holy Roman Empire, which used Latin as one of its official languages.

Chief among them is Gaius (Guy) Licoppe. A retired radiologist, Mr. Licoppe hosts a Latin-speaking group at his townhouse in Brussels, not a mile from the headquarters of Europe’s contemporary, transnational entity, the European Union.
At a recent meeting, members bemoaned the outright hostility of Europe’s powers-that-be toward Latin. They lamented a plan instituted by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to improve Italian competitiveness—called Inglese, Industria, Informatica (English, Industry and Information Technology)—that cut the study of Latin in many Italian schools.
“Where is the liberty of the people?” Mr. Licoppe asked. “Because there are many who want to preserve the study of Latin.”
“That’s the legacy of Berlusconi,” said Mathieu Lenaerts, a professor of rhetoric and bell-ringer at a church in Tongres, Belgium.
Ever since the empire officially ended during the Napoleonic wars and Europe dissolved into a patchwork of fractious nation states, Latin has been more a scourge of Western schoolchildren than a living language.
A loose group of scholars and enthusiasts now connects the “Living Latin” movement. A number of them live in Germany and Austria: Despite not being derived from Latin, German’s grammatical structure—heavy on declensions—makes Latin easier for German speakers to grasp.
Among Latinists, the idea of updating the language is controversial. The Academia Vivarium Novum, a school in Rome where students from around the world take immersion courses in Latin, deplores the corruption the language suffered during the Middle Ages. It aims to preserve Latin as it was spoken during the time of Cicero, not adapt it to the era of Mr. Berlusconi.
“We already have a common language that would allow us to speak about these trifles,” said Luigi Miraglia, director of the academy, in a speech (in Latin) earlier this year. “If we must speak about Coca-Cola or McDonald’s, we can speak English.”
“The dead language is important because it is dead,” Mr. Miraglia said in an interview. “We have students coming from all over the world, and it is very beautiful seeing them have one language. But the more important thing is that they can speak with Petrarch, Lorenzo Valla, Erasmus and Thomas More.”
Mr. Feye responds: “Sometimes, I find Vivarium Novum too purist.”
Started as a school for one of Mr. Feye’s sons in 1995, Schola Nova’s student body has grown steadily and now numbers over 50. In the process it has churned out dozens of Latin speakers, of varying ability.
On a recent school day, Mr. Feye exhorted a classroom of teenagers in Latin: “English speakers and writers, and the Chinese, also, have a huge, very important language. Europeans also have a very important language, and that language is?”
“Latin,” a few of the students mumbled.
“You need to say it more loudly, because the whole world is listening,” Mr. Feye said, cupping his hands to his ears. “Europe has a common language and that is?”
“Latin!” they responded.

Stéphane Feye Matthew Dalton

“It’s absolutely absurd to have a Tower of Babel,” Mr. Feye said later. “If the politicians want to do something reasonable, it could be done progressively: For example, keep English as the language of economics, and use Latin as the language of administration.”
Latin campaigners have over the years petitioned EU officials to add Latin as one of its official languages (there are now 24), or even to designate Latin as a pan-European language. But the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has nixed the idea.
Mr. Feye recently asked the commission to include Latin in an annual competition it runs for young translators, with the Latin name Juvenes Translatores. Again, the commission said no: the competition is reserved for Europe’s official languages.
“It’s not realistic to say, guys, all right, we’re all going to switch to the language of Catullus,” said commission spokesman Dennis Abbott. “And it’s questionable whether this solution would be useful in relations with the rest of the world.”
“Government powers are hostile,” Mr. Licoppe said. “That’s because of European nationalism.”
Others see weak government support for the movement as merely a casualty of Europe’s economic crisis. Kurt Smolak, a professor at the University of Vienna who is president of Academia Latinitati Fovendae (Academy for Promoting Latin), said the group used to receive support from the Italian government, but that ended three years ago because of the country’s financial troubles.
Mr. Smolak defends efforts to update the language. For one thing, giving directions for conferences gets difficult if, instead of using the modern Latin word for train (ferrivia), you must write something like vehiculum in binaris ferris currens: “vehicle running on two irons.”
“It’s not practical,” Mr. Smolak said.
Even if they want to update Latin for the modern world, many enthusiasts are skeptical of the loftier dreams of Mr. Licoppe and others to revive Latin as a European language.
“It’s a kind of crusade he’s undertaking, and I admire him for that,” said Rafael Bellón Gómez, a Latin speaker who works for the EU. “But I’m pessimistic about the outcome.”
Write to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com

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U.K. House Prices Surge

U.K. house prices surged in November and mortgage lending hit a five-year high in October, two separate surveys found Friday, a day after the Bank of England cut its support for home loans in the U.K. amid anxiety over a surge in prices.
Home sales and prices and have risen sharply for much of 2013, supported by government programs encouraging banks to lend and the construction of new homes.
U.K. high street lender…

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Canada Sells London Diplomatic Office

OTTAWA—The Canadian government said Thursday it has agreed to sell some of its prime diplomatic real estate in London to Indian developer Lodha Group for 530 million Canadian dollars ($500.71 million).
Canada’s Conservative government first announced its intention to sell Macdonald House, which houses trade and consular services and is in the British capital’s tony Mayfair district, back in February. It intends to consolidate all its…

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U.K. Jury Hears of Brutal Killing

LONDON—British prosecutors described how two men allegedly tried to hack the head off a British soldier on the streets of London in broad daylight, as the high-profile trial related to the killing of Lee Rigby opened here on Friday.
Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, both British citizens of Nigerian descent and Muslim converts, are on trial for the murder of 25-year-old Mr. Rigby in May outside an army barracks in Woolwich,…

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Helicopter Crashes Into Scottish Pub

Nov. 29, 2013 7:09 p.m. ETLONDON—Scottish authorities say there are numerous casualties and people remain trapped inside a Glasgow pub after a police helicopter crashed into its roof.
Authorities early Saturday said search and rescue teams were on the scene at The Clutha pub in the city center.

A helicopter crashed late Friday night into the roof of a popular pub in Glasgow, Scotland. AP

Officials say a number of people have been rescued and taken to hospitals but it was too soon to comment on the number of casualties. Scotland’s leader, Alex Salmond, warned that fatalities are likely.
Asst. Chief Officer Lewis Ramsay says rescuers have made contact with some people still in the pub and are working hard to stabilize the building and “get people out.”
Gordon Smart, editor of the Scottish edition of the Sun newspaper, told Sky News, “There was no fireball and I did not hear an explosion. It fell like a stone. The engine seemed to be spluttering.”
Labour Party spokesman Jim Murphy told the BBC, “it’s a horrible, horrible scene.”
He added, “I saw a pile of people clambering out of the pub in the dust. No smoke, no fire, just a huge amount of dust.”
Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: “My thoughts are with everyone affected by the helicopter crash in Glasgow—and the emergency services working tonight.”

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EU Turns Up the Heat on Ukraine

VILNIUS, Lithuania—Tension between the European Union and Ukraine flared Friday following the country’s collapsed trade deal and alleged pressure tactics from Russia, undermining a summit that was meant to strengthen Europe’s ties with its eastern neighbors.
Georgia and Moldova gave their preliminary backing to broad trade and political accords with the European Union on Friday morning, but Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych didn’t…

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U.S. Signs Tax-Information Pact With Cayman Islands

WASHINGTON—The U.S. signed an agreement with Cayman Islands to obtain information about Americans’ financial accounts as part of an effort to combat offshore tax evasion, the Treasury Department said Friday.
Under the agreement, the first to be reached with a Caribbean country under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, authorities in the…

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Seoul Shows Interest in Big Trade Pact

SEOUL—South Korea will hold preliminary talks on joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said, the strongest indication yet of Seoul’s interest in the new regional free-trade bloc.
“Our government needs to first show its interest in the TPP,” the minister told reporters Friday. “We plan to enter into preliminary negotiations with the countries involved.”
South Korea…

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S&P Raises Outlook on Spain

MADRID—Credit ratings firm Standard & Poor’s raised Spain’s sovereign debt rating outlook Friday to stable from negative, a step that removes the danger of a downgrade to junk territory for the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy.
Spanish markets were buoyed by the upgrade, with the IBEX 35 pushing 0.52% higher by early afternoon while bond yields eased. Yields fall as prices rise.
S&P was in recent years the most…

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Euro-Zone Data Ease Deflation Worries

The number of people without jobs across the 17 countries that share the euro fell in October by the largest amount since April 2011, while the annual rate of inflation picked up in November, although it remained well below the European Central Bank’s target level.
The European Union’s statistics agency said Friday the euro zone’s unemployment rate fell to 12.1% in October from 12.2% in September—which was a record high—and the annual…

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Hungary Turns to Constitutional Court Over Forex Loans

BUDAPEST—Hungary’s government on Friday took a step toward outlawing foreign-currency mortgage loans, which it considers toxic for the nation, by asking the top court to mandate a change of contracts between borrowers and mostly foreign-owned lenders.
The governing Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban asked the country’s Constitutional Court to review whether it has the legal right to intervene and change the terms of the…

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Brazil Orders Partial Halt to Stadium Construction After Accident

Brazil’s government has ordered a partial halt to construction of a new sports stadium, following an accident that killed two workers, creating doubts about the venue for the soccer World Cup opening game in 2014.
The labor ministry ordered nine pieces of heavy construction equipment impounded, pending inspection and testing. The collapse of a crane on Wednesday killed two workers at the construction site of the Arena Corinthians in…

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General Apologizes for Afghan Deaths

KABUL—The top U.S. general in Afghanistan called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to apologize for a coalition airstrike that killed a child and injured two women, an incident that further complicated attempts to reach a security agreement on the long-term American military presence here.
A coalition official said U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the head of the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, telephoned Mr….

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Moody's Upgrades Greece Bond Rating

Nov. 29, 2013 5:29 p.m. ETMoody’s Investors Service on Friday upgraded Greece’s government bond rating, saying the nation’s economy is “bottoming out.”
Moody’s said it raised the rating two notches to Caa3 from C, with a stable outlook. The rating remains in the “not prime” tier of Moody’s scale.
The upgrade comes a couple of days after the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development said Greece would continue to be mired in a recession next year, despite “substantial progress” in its fiscal and economic reforms. The group said it expects Greece’s economy to contract by 0.4% in 2014, more optimistic than its previous forecasts.
Weeks ago, however, Greece’s government and its so-called troika of creditors—the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank—said they expected the Greek economy to return to modest growth next year.
Moody’s on Friday said it was moved to upgrade the Greek government bond rating due to “significant fiscal consolidation” in the face of low growth and political murkiness, as well as a reduction in the government’s interest load.
Additionally, Moody’s said, Greece’s economic outlook is looking rosier in the medium term.
There is “evidence that the Greek economy is bottoming out after nearly six years of recession, and that the combination of cyclical factors and the implementation of structural reforms are leading to a gradual improvement in medium-term growth prospects,” the firm said.
Moody’s said it expects the Greek economy to contract by 0.5% next year, followed by 1% growth in 2015.
Continued reduction of debt levels and structural reforms to support economic growth, along with improvement in the political picture, could drive the rating up, Moody’s said, although a “deceleration in the implementation of the Troika economic program” could limit growth prospects and put the rating at risk for downgrade.
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras on Friday said a deal between Greece and the troika for a 1 billion-euro installment of loans has been delayed, but he said the parties “aim to finish this by the end of the year,” Agence France-Presse reported.
Write to Michael Calia at michael.calia@wsj.com

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Protesters Occupy Thai Army Headquarters

Updated Nov. 29, 2013 7:45 a.m. ET

With protests growing in Thailand, a key opposition legislator is calling for the end of “Shinawatra rule” in Thailand. The WSJ’s Deborah Kan speaks to Korn Chatikavanij on the opposition’s demands.

BANGKOK—Tensions escalated in the Thai capital Friday after more than 1,000 protesters forced their way into the army’s headquarters in central Bangkok, amplifying concerns about how long Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will be able to effectively govern this badly divided nation.
For five days now, protesters have been Ms. Yingluck and her self-exiled older brother Thaksin Shinawatra remove themselves from Thailand’s political system. Protesters fanned out across Bangkok, besieging government ministries and bringing work in some government departments to a virtual halt.
Among the main targets were the Ministry of Finance and a government complex in the northern suburbs of the city that houses the Department of Special Investigation, among other state agencies. Ms. Yingluck’s heavily-defended main base at Government House is so far unaffected.

Antigovernment protesters push through the gates of the Thai army headquarters in Bangkok on Friday. The activists withdrew after two hours.Getty Getty Images

The invasion of the army headquarters among the gilded temples and broad boulevards of Bangkok’s historic old quarter just after noon was especially significant.
Though military leaders previously relocated to a military base in the city’s suburbs, the army headquarters is one of the key symbols of political power in Thailand. Protesters at the site were heard demanding that the army declare which side it is on, with many posing for photographs within the grounds before leaving around two hours later.
The continuing protests, which rally leaders say they intend to intensify over the coming days, are in large part designed to wear down the government’s ability to function. When demonstrators surrounded the finance ministry on Monday, the main protest leader, former lawmaker Suthep Thaugsuban, said he hoped that shutting down the flow money could suffocate the rest of the government quickly bring the Yingluck administration to its knees.
Political analysts say the demonstrators are also attempting to create enough chaos to prompt the army to stage another coup, much as they did in 2006 to unseat Ms. Yingluck’s brother, Mr. Thaksin.

Turmoil in Thailand: Key Players
Read more about Thai political figures.

“So far, the army has been closer to the government and has not shown any tendency to be against it,” said Panitan Wattanayakorn, a professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University and a spokesman in a previous government led by Mr. Thaksin’s critics. “But the army’s indifference is viewed by many protesters as a show of support for the government. They are now trying to push, provoke and pressure the army to tell them where it stands.”
In a statement, army commander-in-chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha urged rival groups to find peaceful solutions to their problems. “No one should hurt anyone else because at the end, no matter who wins, it is Thailand that will lose,” he said.
In a statement, army commander-in-chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha urged rival groups to find peaceful solutions to their problems. “No one should hurt anyone else because at the end, no matter who wins, it is Thailand that will lose,” he said.
Thailand’s economy and basic government systems thus far appear to bearing up under the strain, at least for the time being. “We are not seeing any major stresses so far, although the fact that tensions continue to rise rather than fall worries us,” said Supavud Saicheua, an economist and managing director at Phatra Securities in Bangkok.
The biggest problem, though, is that there appears to be no solution in sight. The protesters have rejected talks with the government and have rejected snap elections to clear the air, leaving it difficult to see how Thailand can find a way forward.

In many ways, the dispute is about the identity of the country as it enters the last years of the reign of its 85-year-old monarch, King Bhumibol Adjulyadej. During his decades on the throne, Thailand has evolved from a backward, impoverished nation to becoming a member of the club of so-called Asian tiger economies and globally-influential manufacturer of everything from computer hard drive to automobiles.
The arrival of telecommunications billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister in 2001 sharply accelerated the rate of change. His brash populism turned Thailand’s hierarchical political culture upside down, and while this thrilled many poorer Thais, it left many in the country’s establishment uneasy with Mr. Thaksin’s growing power. The army disposed him in a bloodless coup in 2006 and Mr. Thaksin fled the country to avoid imprisonment on corruption charge that he says was politically-motivated.
When his sister, Ms. Yingluck, pressed ahead with plans for a sweeping amnesty law that could bring her brother back home a free man, many Thais were incensed. A series of protests erupted across Bangkok, and while Ms. Yingluck quickly backed off the amnesty plan, the demonstrations intensified and changed direction to target her entire two-and-half-year old government.
Business leaders and policy makers are now worrying about the longer-term impact of the protests. Pointing to the risks, the Bank of Thailand Wednesday surprised investors with a 25 basis point cut in its main policy rate to 2.25%.

About 1,200 protesters briefly forced their way into the Thai army’s headquarters in a two-hour protest, one of the most dramatic escalations yet in their campaign to unseat Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Photo: AP.

“Their attitude changed markedly. Before the rate cut they were insisting that the economy is on the way to recovery,” Phatra Securities’ Mr. Supavud said. “Now they seem to see downside risks everywhere in the domestic economy—and they specifically mentioned politics.”
Many of Bangkok’s civil servants, meanwhile, are opting to work from home or from other backup facilities to keep the government moving. Some are still trying to work in some of the besieged buildings. Several staff at the Office of the Auditor General have turned up for their work at the offices of the finance ministry, but on Thursday had to abandon their building after demonstrators accused them of trying to remove files that could incriminate government leaders.
One official said she was worried about a backlog of paperwork building up while the protesters besieged the building. Customs officials also are having a harder time processing exports. One of the department’s servers is housed at the finance ministry, where the power was cut to some buildings. Officials now have to fill out some forms by hand as a result, increasing processing times for exporters.
Other civil servants tried to blend in with demonstrators in the hope that they would be to keep an eye on equipment and offices.
Boonmee Boonrat, who works in the Treasury Department, sports a whistle slung through a red-white-and-blue ribbon like many of the demonstrators. “My job is to take care of the building and make sure that no one damages the property,” Mr. Boonmee said. “It’s wise to try to blend in. People have different political opinions and you never know how they will react if they find out you don’t agree with them.”
—Wilawan Watcharasakwet and Nopparat Chaichalearmmongkol contributed to this article.
Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com and Warangkana Chomchuen at warangkana.chomchuen@wsj.com

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Netherlands Loses Triple-A Rating, Spain's Outlook Raised

Credit-ratings firm Standard & Poor’s raised the outlook for Spain’s sovereign-debt rating, but cut the Netherlands’ credit rating, in moves that reflect how parts of the crisis-hit Southern Europe are starting to stabilize, while some economies in Europe’s stronger North are weakening.
The Netherlands became the latest country to be stripped of a coveted triple-A credit rating Friday. S&P downgraded the country to…

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Detained American Arrested in N. Korea

SEOUL—North Korea made its first public acknowledgment that it had arrested U.S. citizen Merrill E. Newman, saying the 85-year-old military veteran had confessed to “hostile acts” against North Korea. It didn’t make clear whether it would release him.
The report, published by the official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday morning in Pyongyang, gives the first explanation behind the detainment of the Palo Alto, Calif.,…

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Russia's Olympic Effort Sputters

SOCHI, Russia—”Sorry, we can’t make you a tea,” the waiter in a Sochi 2014 jacket told guests at Chaika, the grand dame of a restaurant on the roof deck of this city’s 1950s seaport station. “The electricity is out.”
It was at least the third time in a little more than a week that parts of the coastal Russian resort that is…

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Energy Plans Derail Political Accord in Mexico

MEXICO CITY—President Enrique Peña Nieto’s plan to revamp Mexico’s nationalistic energy laws has led a major opposition group to abandon a political agreement under which a number of high-profile initiatives have been launched in the past year.
The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, said Thursday it was leaving the so-called Pact for Mexico, a deal among the three biggest parties that ended 15 years of gridlock in the…

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Pakistan Leader in Kabul to Push Taliban Talks

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visits Kabul on Saturday on a trip that aims to push forward the Afghan government’s stalled talks with the Taliban and spur joint economic projects that could ease Pakistan’s chronic electricity crisis.
Mr. Sharif’s trip—his first to neighboring Afghanistan since taking office in June—comes as Afghan President Hamid Karzai is embroiled in a deepening crisis with the U.S., refusing to sign…

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Babies Still at Risk in Typhoon Recovery

TACLOBAN, Philippines—In a makeshift shelter in the heart of this typhoon-ravaged city, a father cradled one of his twin infant sons, feeding him with a paltry helping of milk from a tiny baby bottle.
“My children are having a lack of milk because there are no supplies” provided in relief packages, said Lee Anthony E. Olegario, a 41-year-old warehouse worker whose family of nine was camped out in an evacuation center in downtown Tacloban. With prices climbing for baby formula—a prized commodity in post-typhoon…

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Nineteen Killed in Bangladesh Blockade

DHAKA, Bangladesh—Nineteen people were killed and scores were injured since Tuesday in clashes between police, opposition activists and government supporters as opposition groups enforced a three-day blockade of roads, ports and railways across the country, demanding electoral reform.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies are trying to force changes to the electoral system ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 5. The opposition, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has…

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OPEC Rift Develops Over Output From Iraq

Tensions are emerging within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries over which member countries should trim oil production to make room for a resurgence in Iraqi exports and the possible return of more Iranian crude to world markets if sanctions are eased.
There is no expectation of a decision to cut back at the OPEC cartel’s meeting in Vienna on Wednesday. The group of 12 of the world’s largest producers, though long…

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Weapons Inspectors Reveal New Concerns in Syria Task

As a series of deadlines approach for removing Syria’s chemical weapons from the country, international inspectors are expressing growing concern about the weapons’ security and the difficulty in finding a country willing to accept and destroy them.
The U.S. is close to finalizing a proposal to destroy the most-lethal chemicals at sea, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical…

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Thanksgiving Around the World

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Thanksgiving Comet ISON Gets Gobbled Up

Updated Nov. 28, 2013 2:32 p.m. ET

A pristine comet called ISON, which left its home at least a million years ago, will be making its closest approach to the sun on Thanksgiving day. Gautam Naik reports.

A new guest arrived just in time for Thanksgiving dinner, but apparently didn’t survive the festivities.
The visitor, a pristine comet called ISON that left its home at least a million years ago, made its closest approach to the sun Thursday afternoon.
But based on images arriving from various spacecraft, the consensus among scientists appeared to be that ISON, like the mythical Icarus, didn’t survive its close encounter with the sun.
The comet’s sweep near the sun was a moment that thousands of astronomers around the world had anxiously awaited, and before hopes dimmed about its survival, ISON was predicted to possibly loop around the star and emerge as a bright object visible to the naked eye in the skies of the Northern Hemisphere.
However, scientists now suspect it fragmented into countless pieces—never to be seen again.
Before the close approach, observations “showed that the comet had brightened and then lost brightness. So there’s a lot of conjecture that it might be fading,” said Padma Yanamandra-Fisher, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., before the comet made its close pass with the sun.

Comet ISON approaches the sun as seen by a NASA spacecraft on Nov. 25, 2013. U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Since it was spotted more than a year ago, ISON’s behavior has constantly surprised astronomers, and they had held out hope that the comet could still put on a pretty display. On Monday, for example, it looked like it wouldn’t survive. Yet it was still there on Tuesday.
In addition to being a cosmic tease, ISON was one of the most tracked comets in history.
Thousands of telescopes—amateur, professional and space-borne—were being trained on this relatively tiny clump of ancient rock and ice no more than three or four miles in diameter.
The comet was discovered in September 2012 by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using data from the International Scientific Optical Network, whose initials provided the name.
Nothing like ISON has been seen in living memory. It is a relatively rare “sungrazer,” a comet that flies especially close to our sun.
Unlike periodic comets that come and go like the famous Halley’s, ISON is pristine and was making its first journey toward the sun. Its composition—mainly rock and ice—has barely changed since it formed some 4.5 billion years ago, making it one of the oldest objects in the solar system.
That had scientists intrigued, because ISON’s proximity to the sun, and the chance to study what it is made of, could provide valuable clues about origins of the solar system.
When a new comet flies close to the sun, the tremendous heat can help reveal rarer materials, such as metals, of which it is made.
“It’s the first time in 200 years that we’ve seen a comet that’s both a sungrazer and brand new,” said Matthew Knight from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.
Comet ISON left its home in the faraway Oort cloud—a vast area of cosmic debris a long way from the sun.
Remarkably, space telescopes have managed to film the latter part of its passage through the solar system.
At the beginning of November, ISON was traveling at 95,000 miles an hour. Since then, the sun’s gravitational pull on it had gotten stronger and stronger. If it had survived its close encounter, ISON was expected to reach a speed of 845,000 miles an hour later on Thursday, catapulting around the sun at perihelion, its closest point to the solar surface.
At that point, it would have been about 1.9 million miles from the sun, a mere hop, skip and jump in cosmic terms. But the sun’s heat and gravitational pull at that point would prove overpowering.
If ISON had survived, scientists predicted it would have been poised to put on a display in the first week of December, at least for Northern Hemisphere viewers.
“It would have a very long and bright tail as it comes up from the horizon shortly before sunrise,” said Dr. Knight, before Thursday’s fatal close encounter.
“If you go out 30 minutes before [sunrise], you should be able to see it with the naked eye.”
But that was only if ISON had survived Thursday’s flyby.
Write to Gautam Naik at gautam.naik@wsj.com

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Photos of the Day: Nov. 28

BALLOON DAY: A giant Uncle Sam balloon marched down sixth Avenue during Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Thursday, in New York. After fears the balloons could be grounded if sustained winds exceeded 23 mph, Snoopy, Spider-Man and the rest of the iconic balloons received the all-clear from the New York Police Department to fly between Manhattan skyscrapers. John Minchillo/Associated Press

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Draghi Said to Share Exchange-Rate Views

BUDAPEST—European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has told fellow central bankers that a euro exchange rate above $1.30 harms the competitiveness of southern European exports, said the head of Hungary’s central bank.
“President Draghi tells us every single time in Basel that as long as the euro is not that strong against the dollar—it’s at $1.1—the Club Med countries remain competitive on the global market, but they are not any longer with a euro-dollar of $1.3. And that a [euro-dollar rate of] $1.6 is only…

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Venezuela: OPEC Must Accommodate Iran Supply

CARACAS—Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will have to accommodate any additional oil supply into the market in light of the recent easing of economic sanctions on Iran without changes to the cartel’s overall production ceiling, Venezuela Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Thursday.
Mr. Ramirez said how Iranian crude is absorbed into the market will feature highly in discussions next week when OPEC…

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Venezuela Sees Lackluster Growth This Year

CARACAS—The head of Venezuela’s central bank on Thursday said the South American country would miss its economic growth target estimated by officials at the beginning of this year and could post roughly half the rate of expansion.
The comments by the central bank chief, Eudomar Tovar, are the latest sign of the oil-rich nation trending toward the toxic combination of soaring inflation and slowing economic growth, known as…

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EU Court Overturns Sanctions on Iranian Company

LONDON-—The European Union’s highest court Thursday ruled an Iranian energy company shouldn’t be subject to sanctions but upheld restrictions against another, just a day after the EU subjected Tehran’s largest cargo-shipping company to new sanctions.
Thursday’s decision is the latest in a series of court setbacks to the EU’s Iran sanctions regime, even though the vast bulk will remain in place despite Sunday’s confidence building deal between Iran and six major powers. EU officials have this week made clear they will…

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Li Ka-shing Readies Watson IPO

HONG KONG—Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing is close to appointing HSBC Holdings PLC as an underwriter on an initial public offering of his global retail business, A.S. Watson & Co., next year, which some analysts have valued at over $20 billion.
The move comes just months after Mr. Li aborted a multibillion-dollar sale of his Hong Kong…

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India Seeks Deal With WTO

NEW DELHI—India wants permission to offer nearly free grains to about 70% of its people, in exchange for backing the latest trade package from the World Trade Organization, senior Indian government officials said Thursday.
Ministers representing countries in the troubled WTO will meet in Indonesia next week hoping to pass a package of simple global trade deals to prove the multilateral institutions can continue to facilitate trade. India is one of the countries that has been getting in the way of a deal as it wants…

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Honduras Political Tensions Ease

TEGUCIGALPA—Political tensions eased in Honduras on Thursday after the country’s leftist opposition signaled it would protest contested election results through formal channels but not in the streets.
Late Wednesday, the country’s electoral agency declared Juan Orlando Hernández, of the ruling National Party, as the winner of Sunday’s presidential election with 35% of the vote. In the field of a record eight candidates, Xiomara…

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Euro-Zone Private-Sector Lending Declines

FRANKFURT—Banks in the euro zone reduced their lending to the private sector in October while Germany’s robust labor market showed signs of strain, signaling that the region’s economy is struggling to gain a firm footing.
Still, a report on business and consumer sentiment across the euro area improved, indicating that the region’s economy will likely at least expand for a third successive quarter during the last three months of this…

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Germany Gives Details of Nazi Art Trove

Nov. 28, 2013 9:51 a.m. ETBERLIN—Germany published the details of more than 100 artworks, including pieces by Picasso and Cézanne, discovered in the Munich trove of suspected Nazi loot.

A Glimpse at Masterpieces Discovered in Nazi-Era Art Stash

The latest batch posted on a government-sponsored website, www.lostart.de, includes sketches by Pablo Picasso and Edgar Degas, as well as Paul Cézanne —an artist whose works weren’t known to have been in the collection until now. The works were found in the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, 80 years old, the son of a prominent art dealer for the Nazis.
With Thursday’s disclosure, more than a third of the works in the cache, some of which authorities believe may have been stolen from their original owners by the Nazis, have been made public. The task force assigned by prosecutors to determine the provenance of the artwork said it would post further pieces from the trove “at frequent intervals.”
The task force estimates 590 works may have been looted during the Third Reich. Thursday’s disclosure brings the total number of works made public to 219.

The release comes a day after Germany’s largest political parties pledged more funding in the next legislature for provenance research into Nazi-looted art.
“In order to rectify claims over the restitution of National Socialist-plundered cultural assets, particularly those from Jewish ownership, the coalition wants to boost the means for provenance research,” the parties said in their coalition agreement. The parties didn’t specify sums but said the next government would push ministries and public authorities to investigate the country’s Nazi past more intensively.
The pledge follows international criticism of the Bavarian authorities’ handling of the more than 1,400 artworks held by Mr. Gurlitt. While Mr. Gurlitt’s father, who died in 1956, was tasked with selling work confiscated from museums that Adolf Hitler considered “degenerate” to raise money for the Nazi regime, artworks seized from Jewish owners also turned up in his heir’s collection, which customs officials seized in early 2012.
Authorities kept the case secret until it was disclosed by a German magazine in early November.
Critics said authorities should have immediately disclosed the discovery of any works registered as stolen. Local officials involved in the investigation, initially over suspected tax evasion, argued privacy laws prevented that, and they kept the find secret for nearly two years.
Mr. Gurlitt is under investigation and hasn’t been charged with any crime, a spokesman for the Augsburg public prosecutor said Thursday.
Mr. Gurlitt couldn’t be reached for comment. Earlier this month he told a German magazine he isn’t willing to return any of the art to previous owners, including pieces taken from Jews.
“I will not speak with them, and I won’t freely give anything back, no, no,” Mr. Gurlitt said to Der Spiegel of reports that government officials are working to negotiate settlements for many of the works. “When I’m dead they can do with them what they want.”
Write to Harriet Torry at harriet.torry@wsj.com

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Maoist Popularity Wanes in Nepal Election

Updated Nov. 28, 2013 5:52 p.m. ETNEW DELHI—Results for Nepal’s national elections show its Maoist party has plummeted in popularity, coming in a distant third and suggesting the former rebels’ influence has diminished in the South Asian nation.
The centrist Nepali Congress, one of the country’s oldest political parties, won 2.4 million proportional votes, followed by the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), which won 2.2 million votes, the Election Commission said Thursday.
The main Maoist party, Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), won 1.4 million votes. Exactly how the proportional vote, in which voters pick parties rather than candidates, will translate into seats in the new constituent assembly was expected to be announced by Sunday.
Thursday’s count mirrored the results earlier this week of the direct voting, in which voters choose candidates rather than parties, announced earlier in the week. The candidates for the Maoist party—led by the revolutionary leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal —secured only 26 of the 240 seats.
The results raised hopes that a national constitution could be drafted as the two leading parties should be able to find common ground on many contentious issues such as federalism.
The results were also a painful defeat for the Maoists, who in 2008 emerged as the single largest party, sparking hope of political stability and inclusive governance with the end of a 10-year civil war. But soon after the monarchy was abolished and Nepal was declared a secular republic, the assembly became paralyzed as partisan squabbling sidelined economic development.
Whichever parties lead the country will still have to struggle to accommodate the views of the influential extreme left and a resurgent right-wing party.
“If they try to bulldoze with their points of view, the others may threaten to pull out of the democratic process,” said Nischal Pandey, the director of the Center for South Asian Studies in Katmandu.
“Despite the numbers, they will have to figure out how they will take everyone along.”
Minendra Rijal, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress, said his party intends to form a “consensus government” by accommodating the views of all major parties as it writes a new constitution.
“But consensus should not be understood as meaning that a party with 14% of votes can impose its will on others with 85% votes,” he said.
Last week, as early results showed the Maoists were trailing, the party alleged fraud and threatened to boycott the new assembly. Nepal’s election commission has declined repeated requests by the Maoists for a probe into their allegations.
On Thursday, the Maoists said they wouldn’t participate in the new assembly unless their demand for an independent probe was met. They also demanded an amendment to the 2007 interim constitution requiring a consensus vote to pass a new constitution rather than a two-thirds majority.
Accommodating these two demands are “basic and minimum for us to enter into the Constituent Assembly,” said Agni Sapkota, a leader of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).
Nepal suffers crippling power cuts and its economy has failed to create jobs for its youth, a large number of who work overseas.
“The Maoists were the largest party and were seen as catalysts for change,” Mr. Pandey said. “The gross political instability and their inability to move forward on any major issues caused huge frustrations.”
Write to Niharika Mandhana at niharika.mandhana@wsj.com and Krishna Pokharel at krishna.pokharel@wsj.com

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Philippine Economy Could Hit Growth Targets

Updated Nov. 28, 2013 9:33 p.m. ETMANILA—The impact of the Typhoon Haiyan on the economy is manageable and domestic growth could hit the government’s targets for this year and next with little need for additional monetary policy easing, Philippines central bank Gov. Amando Tetangco said Friday.
Gross domestic product in the nine months to September averaged 7.4%, above the government’s 6%-7% annual growth target. Economic managers think Haiyan could shave as much as 0.8% off the growth rate given the damage to areas in the central Philippines that together account for 12.7% of GDP.
The government is aiming for a 6.5%-7.5% growth for 2014.
“Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a need for altering the stance of monetary policy,” Mr. Tetangco said, referring to the easy monetary policy that has brought its closely watched overnight rates to 3.5% for borrowing and 5.5% for lending.
He said the earlier forecasts for inflation to average 3.2% for this year and 4.5% for 2014 “appear to be on conservative side.” That means, he said, that inflation this year could even be lower.
Mr. Tetangco said Haiyan may stoke some inflationary pressure but “won’t be significant.”
Write to Cris Larano at cris.larano@wsj.com

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Higher Prices Point to Japan Growth

TOKYO—Prices in Japan posted strong gains in October while the labor market also improved, indications that the country is on its way to shaking off 15 years of deflation.
The government said that the core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food prices, rose 0.9% in October from a year earlier. That was the highest since November 2008, matching the rise forecast by economists. It marked the fifth straight month of…

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Merkel: 'No Hope' for Ukraine Deal

VILNIUS, Lithuania—European leaders acknowledged Thursday there would be no last-ditch deal with Ukraine on a sweeping trade and political deal at this week’s two-day Vilnius summit despite a last-gasp meeting between Ukraine’s president and the European Union’s top two officials.
Speaking to reporters on her way into the summit in the frosty Lithuanian capital, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European heads of government would…

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China Aims to Increase Big Coal's Clout

BEIJING—China is moving to increase the clout of its state-owned coal giants, as it seeks to clean up a sprawling and heavily polluting industry that is nevertheless crucial to its energy needs.
In a policy proposal unveiled Thursday, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said it wants big corporate champions to manage the economic development and environmental consequences of the industry, which also has a slew of smaller…

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Russia's Ex-Defense Chief Faces Criminal Probe

MOSCOW—Russian investigators on Thursday opened a criminal-negligence case against former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who was forced out a year ago in what commentators and Russian media had called the highest-level move against alleged corruption in years.
Prosecutors said they are calling in Mr. Serdyukov for questioning next week about allegations he used army recruits to make improvements to his son-in-law’s vacation home…

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U.S. Marines Chief Flags Afghan Risks

KABUL—The Afghan president’s push to delay a security pact with the U.S. has undermined confidence in Afghanistan’s future, testing international support for the country at a crucial moment, the U.S.-led coalition’s top commander said.
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford warned that President Hamid Karzai’s failure to quickly sign the agreement could weaken the Afghan economy, embolden the country’s powerful neighbors and ultimately…

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85 Hurt in Hong Kong Ferry Collision

Nov. 28, 2013 8:50 p.m. ETHONG KONG—More than 80 passengers were injured when their Macau-bound high-speed jetfoil collided with an unknown object just west of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour.
The Hong Kong government said at least three of the 85 people who were sent to hospitals were in serious condition. Most passengers suffered injuries from the force of the impact.
The ferry, operated by Shun Tak-China Travel Ship Management Ltd., was carrying around 105 people en route to the gambling mecca of Macau from Hong Kong when the collision happened at about 1:20 a.m. Friday local time, the government said. Local television footage showed many passengers being carried into ambulances on stretchers after the ferry was towed back to port.
The ferry operator said the jetfoil, which is equipped with radar, was traveling at its normal cruising speed of 38-40 knots (43-46 miles per hour). It said it was unclear what the ferry collided with in the pitch dark of night, and added there was no visible damage to the jetfoil. The operator also said it was likely the seriously injured passengers weren’t wearing seat belts, which are installed on all seats.
The Hong Kong-Macau ferry route is one of the busiest in the world, with jetfoils plying the one-hour journey as frequently as every 15 minutes during the day. Services are around the clock. Other high-speed ferries also crisscross Hong Kong’s waters to the city’s outlying islands as well as to cities in mainland China.
The increase in high-speed ferry traffic has contributed to more frequent accidents in the busy waters off Hong Kong in recent years, according to maritime experts.
In October last year, a high-speed commuter ferry operating within Hong Kong collided with a boat packed with families on a pleasure trip, killing 39 people, in Hong Kong’s worst maritime disaster in four decades.
Just months earlier, a Hong Kong-Macau jetfoil slammed into a speedboat, killing the small boat’s operator.
In October 2011, nearly 80 people were injured when a catamaran crashed into a concrete pillar minutes after leaving the pier on one of Hong Kong’s many outlying islands.
Still, Hong Kong remains one of the world’s safest maritime hubs, given tough regulations on ship maintenance and port management, according to experts.
Write to Jeffrey Ng at jeffrey.ng@wsj.com

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Prisoners Fight U.S. Over Exit From Gitmo

The Obama administration’s effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison has hit a snag: detainees who don’t want to be repatriated.
Two Algerian citizens held at the naval base in Cuba are fighting a transfer to their homeland, people familiar with the situation say. The two men say they fear that Islamist extremists will try to recruit them and may attack or kill them when they discover the detainees don’t share their commitment to…

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Pakistan Army Chief Takes Over at Tumultuous Time

KARACHI, Pakistan—Lt. Gen. Raheel Sharif takes the reins of Pakistan’s powerful army Friday, amid hopes that his reputation as a moderate will temper relations with the civilian government in a country that was ruled by the military through half of its history.
Gen. Sharif was appointed Pakistan’s army chief Wednesday in a surprise move by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who passed over two more-senior generals.
The decision is…

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Power Outages Hobble Pakistan's Biggest Exporters

FAISALABAD, Pakistan—Muhammad Latif stays in his neat office these days, upstairs from the vast textile factory he founded in 1975.
Until a few years ago, he says, his business, Chenab Ltd., made high-end sportswear and bed linen for some of America’s best-known retailers, from Macy’s to Tommy Hilfiger to Victoria’s Secret, in this industrial…

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Turkey Sees Boon from Iran Deal

ISTANBUL—Turkish hotels and travel agents reported a sharp jump in bookings from Iranian tourists this week while traders in Istanbul’s famed bazaar said more Iranian businessmen have been buying Turkish goods in bulk to sell back home.
The pickup in activity immediately after Iran won relief from international sanctions in a nuclear agreement…

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Photos of the Day: Nov. 27

FORZA SILVIO: Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spoke Wednesday outside Palazzo Grazioli, his private residence, after Italy’s Senate voted to strip Mr. Berlusconi of his seat. ‘It’s a bitter day of mourning for our democracy,’ he told his Forza Italia party supporters.
FORZA SILVIO: Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spoke Wednesday outside Palazzo Grazioli, his private residence, after Italy’s Senate voted to strip Mr. Berlusconi of his seat. ‘It’s a bitter day of mourning for our democracy,’ he told his Forza Italia party supporters.
Continued

DOORS CLOSED: Reigning World Boxing Council heavyweight champion and Ukraine parliamentary opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, top right, reacted after he was denied entry to the Cabinet of Ministers in Kiev Wednesday. Thousands protested against the government’s decision to ditch an…
DOORS CLOSED: Reigning World Boxing Council heavyweight champion and Ukraine parliamentary opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, top right, reacted after he was denied entry to the Cabinet of Ministers in Kiev Wednesday. Thousands protested against the government’s decision to ditch an agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia, but officials showed no signs of relenting.
Continued

BACKSTAGE POSING: A contestant flexed his muscles before going on stage at a bodybuilding competition in Mumbai Wednesday.
BACKSTAGE POSING: A contestant flexed his muscles before going on stage at a bodybuilding competition in Mumbai Wednesday.
Continued

ESCALATING STREET RALLIES: More than 10,000 antigovernment protesters marched in Bangkok Wednesday. While the protests have expanded, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whom they oppose, has said his government won’t use violence to deal with the demonstrators.
ESCALATING STREET RALLIES: More than 10,000 antigovernment protesters marched in Bangkok Wednesday. While the protests have expanded, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whom they oppose, has said his government won’t use violence to deal with the demonstrators.
Continued

CAIRO’S VOICES: Secular activists protested in Talaat Harb Square in downtown Cairo Tuesday. Security forces broke up the protest, in the first implementation of a protest law which rights experts, activists and some politicians allied to the government have blasted as dragging Egypt…
CAIRO’S VOICES: Secular activists protested in Talaat Harb Square in downtown Cairo Tuesday. Security forces broke up the protest, in the first implementation of a protest law which rights experts, activists and some politicians allied to the government have blasted as dragging Egypt back into the authoritarian ways of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011.
Continued

HANUKKAH LIGHTS: Jews celebrated the first day of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, in central Moscow, Wednesday.
HANUKKAH LIGHTS: Jews celebrated the first day of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, in central Moscow, Wednesday.
Continued

CLEANING UP IN TACLOBAN: Typhoon survivors rummaged through muddied items carried outside a storm-damaged grocery store by store employees Wednesday in Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines.
CLEANING UP IN TACLOBAN: Typhoon survivors rummaged through muddied items carried outside a storm-damaged grocery store by store employees Wednesday in Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines.
Continued

FRENCH EVACUATION: A child looked at French police standing guard as Roma families were evacuated from their illegal camp near the Var river in Nice, southeastern France, Wednesday.
FRENCH EVACUATION: A child looked at French police standing guard as Roma families were evacuated from their illegal camp near the Var river in Nice, southeastern France, Wednesday.
Continued

FORGOT ANYTHING? An elderly man cycled in his shorts Wednesday along Fleet Street in central London, where the high reached 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius).
FORGOT ANYTHING? An elderly man cycled in his shorts Wednesday along Fleet Street in central London, where the high reached 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius).
Continued

WHITEOUT: A skier made his way through snow-covered landscape near Bayrischzell, southern Germany, Wednesday.
WHITEOUT: A skier made his way through snow-covered landscape near Bayrischzell, southern Germany, Wednesday.
Continued

UNDER RUBBLE: Two people were injured in a partial building collapse at 2601 Westchester Ave., in the Bronx borough of New York, city fire officials said.
UNDER RUBBLE: Two people were injured in a partial building collapse at 2601 Westchester Ave., in the Bronx borough of New York, city fire officials said.
Continued

WORLD CUP PREPS: A crane installing a part of the roof of the Itaquerao Stadium, which will host the opening soccer match of World Cup 2014 in São Paulo, Brazil, collapsed Wednesday, killing two people and injuring a third, a spokesman for the São Paulo fire service said.
WORLD CUP PREPS: A crane installing a part of the roof of the Itaquerao Stadium, which will host the opening soccer match of World Cup 2014 in São Paulo, Brazil, collapsed Wednesday, killing two people and injuring a third, a spokesman for the São Paulo fire service said.
Continued

INDIA’S MARS ANTENNA: A security officer patrolled past the antenna that receives signals from India’s Mars orbiter, in Byalalu, 25 miles from the southern Indian city of Bangalore, Wednesday. The mission to Mars set off on Nov. 5 and is expected to reach the Martian orbit in…
INDIA’S MARS ANTENNA: A security officer patrolled past the antenna that receives signals from India’s Mars orbiter, in Byalalu, 25 miles from the southern Indian city of Bangalore, Wednesday. The mission to Mars set off on Nov. 5 and is expected to reach the Martian orbit in September 2014.
Continued

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Two Weeks in, Kennedy Faces Diplomatic Challenge

TOKYO—Caroline Kennedy’s new job as Washington’s ambassador to Japan has already thrust her into the middle of growing geopolitical tensions in East Asia, less than two weeks after her arrival.
The daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy came to Japan with the profile of a superstar, but with little experience in foreign policy and no specific ties to her host country. Rather than easing into her new role, the 56-year-old lawyer, author and mother of three has found herself on the spot, delivering a stern message…

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Two Dead in Brazil Soccer Stadium Collapse

SÃO PAULO–A crane installing a part of the roof of the stadium that will host the opening soccer match of the 2014 World Cup here collapsed on the arena on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring a third.
The crane and the roof section of the $353 million Arena Corinthians in São Paulo came crashing down on a corner of the new stadium, killing two construction workers, Fábio Luiz Pereira, 42 years old, and Ronaldo Oliveira dos…

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After Typhoon, Forecasters Look to Technology

Updated Nov. 28, 2013 12:08 a.m. ETGUIUAN, Philippines—The Philippines had access to some of the best technology available to predict the route of Typhoon Haiyan, including Doppler radar systems and satellite images provided by storm-monitoring agencies in the U.S. and Japan. It still got slammed.

The devastated village of Santa Rita on the typhoon-ravaged Samar Island, Philippines, on Nov. 20. European Pressphoto Agency

Now, the country is planning the acquisition of yet more technology and trying to improve warning systems from the nation’s forecasters and emergency-relief officials. Yet the experience of the nation’s most front-line forecaster was a reminder of the force that Haiyan packed and the limits of technology in dealing with it.
Marianito “Marianing” Macasa was monitoring the Philippine Atmospheric, Geographical and Astronomical Services Administration, or Pagasa, post here on this sandy spit of land sticking out into the Pacific Ocean when the storm was approaching. He first knew it was going to be a big one when he saw satellite images sent from the agency’s headquarters on Nov. 6 and spent most of that day advising local officials, including the mayor, to forcibly evacuate residents from low-lying coastal areas.
The first time Mr. Macasa, 48 years old, saw the storm on his own monitor in the Guiuan weather station was at 8 p.m. on Nov. 7, the night before the storm hit. He has been tracking typhoons for 24 years, but the scale shocked him. “It was the first time I saw that kind of tropical cyclone since I’ve been tracking them,” he said.
It was almost his last.

At about 3.30 a.m. on Nov. 8, Mr. Macasa’s colleague told him that water was leaking into his office because of the force of the storm, potentially damaging his books and records. He went to pick up the items. Around 20 minutes later, with the ocean-facing windows of his office blown out by the storm, the wind began hurling debris and computer equipment around the room. The force was so powerful that he couldn’t reopen the door to escape. The combined efforts of the four other people at the station couldn’t budge it either.
“I couldn’t breathe or open my eyes because of all the dust in the strong wind,” Mr. Macasa recalled. “I thought, if I can’t get out in four minutes I will die here.”
Finally, one of Mr. Macasa’s reports, a security guard and two Philippine military officials smashed a hole in the bottom of the wooden door with a fire extinguisher, creating a kind of dog flap. Mr. Macasa squeezed through to safety. Many others didn’t. In all, at least 5,560 people were killed by the storm, and 3.5 million displaced.
While the Philippines’ Doppler radar stations gave the country’s meteorologists a reasonably good idea of Haiyan’s path and the storm surge that accompanied the typhoon, Filipino forecasters are now working on something better to save more lives.
The set-piece of a planned new network of warning-and-detection equipment is called Lidar, or Light Detection and Ranging. It works by targeting laser beams on approaching storms and interpreting the reflected light to measure speed and direction and then create three-dimensional, high-resolution maps. Alfredo Mahar Lagmay, executive director of the government agency installing the network of Lidar stations, Project NOAH—for Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards—says the system should be fully in place by the end of next year after an initial rollout in some areas two months ago.
To make it work, Mr. Lagmay says the new network will need buy-in from local communities. “These warnings must be matched by community action,” he said in a telephone interview. “It isn’t learned overnight but requires education. It’s a long process.”
Essentially, this means going out into the field and convincing local-government officials of the merits of the new system—one by one, if necessary. Ideally, people will be able to locate their house on digital hazard maps and assess for themselves what they need to do for protection. “It should be guided by science: methodological and not based on wild guesses,” Mr. Lagmay said.
Technology isn’t everything, though, as Typhoon Haiyan illustrated so brutally: Ordinary people living in a storm’s path need to know what all the warnings mean.
Many of the victims in the two islands worst-hit, Leyte and Samar, said they didn’t catch on to what forecasters meant when they warned that a “storm surge” of wind-driven waves up to seven meters high would slam into some parts of the storm-tossed region. It wasn’t a term many people had heard before, even though the area is hit by several typhoons a year.
“Language had a big part to do with it. Nobody knew what ‘storm surge’ meant,” said Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, a vice chair on the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. “Maybe we should have said a ‘tidal wave’ was coming, or something like that, just a teensy little white lie.”
Officials at Pagasa say they will review the way they present their forecasts to make the most important information leap out. Before Haiyan, information about the extent of the storm surge was mentioned only briefly at the bottom of the releases the agency published on its website and distributed to local media.
“In the future, the agency will look into how to improve the present format, how to convey our warnings to the public in such a way that they can be easily understood,” said Mario Palafox, a senior weather forecaster at Pagasa.
Write to Josephine Cuneta at josephine cuneta@wsj.com and James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com

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Philippines Banks Strain to Meet Needs

GUIUAN, Philippines—Armed with a Bible, nine weapon-wielding guards, and a Goldilocks polvorón—a powdery shortbread popular in the Philippines—Jorge “Don Don” Agnes Jr. sat at attention at his desk, ready to open his bank for the first time since supertyphoon Haiyan leveled this town three weeks ago.
Until Mr. Agnes’s Philippine National Bank branch reopened this week, the people of Guiuan—the first town struck by the typhoon—had no immediate way to get cash for food and supplies to rebuild their homes. With…

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Australia Resource Investment Slides

SYDNEY—Spending on resources projects in Australia has fallen at its fastest pace for 14 years, adding to the economic challenges facing Prime Minister Tony Abbott as government revenue shrinks and unemployment edges higher.
The Australian government’s commodities forecaster on Wednesday reported a sharper-than-anticipated drop in investment in mining and energy projects between May and October, as companies scaled back expansion…

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Thailand Surprises With Interest-Rate Cut

BANGKOK—Thailand’s central bank cut interest rates to the lowest in three years, citing a poor economic outlook and political tension that is hurting investor confidence.
The Bank of Thailand cut its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage point to 2.25%. Nine of 10 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected the bank to hold rates…

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China Pension Fund Strained as Retirees Increase

BEIJING–Chinese people retired from the workforce faster than new workers started paying into the country’s national pension fund last year, according to data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
The number of Chinese contributing to the urban pension fund rose 7% from a year earlier to 214 million in 2012 while the number of retired Chinese climbed 9.5% from a year earlier to 69 million, the ministry said on…

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Tax Probe at U.S. Embassy in Norway

OSLO—Authorities in Norway accused more than 50 Norwegian citizens working for the U.S. Embassy over the past several years of tax evasion, claiming that staff members had failed to report their full income.
The nation’s tax administration said Wednesday that employees at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo avoided paying full taxes on annual salaries of between 100,000 Norwegian kroner ($16,400) and 600,000 kroner. Some of the evasion took…

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Pakistan Leader Names New Army Chief

KARACHI, Pakistan—Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif bypassed more senior generals on Wednesday to name Lt. Gen. Raheel Sharif as the new chief of army staff, a day before Gen. Ashfaq Kayani was due to retire from the helm of the world’s sixth-largest army.
A more senior general widely seen as Gen. Kayani’s preferred choice for the army leadership, Lt. Gen. Rashad Mahmood, was named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, a…

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Karzai: U.S. Is Obstacle to Peace

KABUL—Afghan President Hamid Karzai escalated his standoff with Washington, describing in a radio interview the planned security deal with the U.S. as “an evil” and saying that America is an obstacle to peace in the war-torn nation.
Mr. Karzai’s provocative remarks, in a Pashto and Dari-language interview with the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty recorded Tuesday, capped a turbulent week in which his relationship…

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German, French Data Shows Up Differences

FRANKFURT—Consumer sentiment in Germany rose to a six-year high while confidence in France tumbled, according to data released Wednesday, underscoring the divergent economic outlook in the euro zone’s biggest economies.
The figures Wednesday come on the heels of purchasing manager surveys and readings on gross domestic product earlier this month suggesting that while Germany’s economic growth rate is poised to accelerate this quarter…

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Consumer Spending Fuels U.K. Growth

LONDON—The U.K. economy’s pickup in growth during the third quarter was driven by the fastest rise in household spending in more than three years, which only partly compensated for a steep decline in exports, a finding likely to deepen concerns that the recovery may prove unsustainable.
The continued dependence of the economy on consumer spending is likely to perturb officials at the Bank of England, who have warned that for the…

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Greece Stifled by Overregulation, Says OECD

ATHENS—Overregulation in Greece costs businesses and consumers billions of euros each year, a new report said Wednesday, urging the government to sweep away hundreds of rules that hobble the country’s private sector and undermine competition.
The report, published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, identifies restrictions deemed unwarranted on everything from the shelf life of milk products and the sale of…

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EU Governments Back Away From Tax Clarity

BRUSSELS—European Union governments including Germany are trying to water down a proposed law that would open up the tax affairs of big companies to greater scrutiny and shine a light on their environmental practices.
Leaders of the 28-member bloc agreed in May to rush through rules requiring all large companies to reveal their profits and taxes on a country-by-country basis, dropping long-standing concerns that such requirements…

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Honduras Declares Ruling-Party Win

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras—Honduras’s electoral court has officially declared ruling-party candidate Juan Orlando Hernández the winner of Sunday’s presidential election, with 80% of the vote counted.
Mr. Hernández got 35% of the vote, to 29% for his closest challenger in an eight-candidate field, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the court said Wednesday. The…

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Thai Leader Survives Confidence Vote

BANGKOK—Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra survived a no-confidence vote Thursday as thousands of antigovernment protesters continued to besiege a number of important government facilities dotted around the Thai capital.
The result was widely expected. Ms. Yingluck’s Pheu Thai, or For Thais, Party enjoys a comfortable majority in the lower house of Thailand’s parliament, and won the vote by 297 votes to 134, with two abstentions and five no votes. Interior Secretary Charupong Ruangsuwan also survived by a similar…

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