Petros Giannakouris / AP

A riot policeman reacts after he was hit by a petrol bomb thrown by protesters during a nationwide general strike in Athens on Sept. 26. Police clashed with protesters hurling petrol bombs and bottles in central Athens Wednesday after an anti-government rally called as part of a general strike in Greece turned violent.

Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP - Getty Images

Protestors chant slogans in front of the parliament on September 26, 2012 during a 24-hours general strike in Athens. Police in Athens clashed with hooded youths throwing firebombs on the sidelines of a large demonstration against a new round of austerity cuts. AFP PHOTO / LOUISA GOULIAMAKILOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/GettyImages

Aris Messinis / AFP - Getty Images

Demonstrators clash with riot police on Sept. 26 in Athens during clashes with demonstrators at a 24-hour general strike.

By NBC News' Andy Eckardt, CNBC's Julia Chatterley and wire reports

Demonstrators wearing helmets and gas masks and armed with sticks clashed with police in the Greek capital on Wednesday, as a general strike was held to protest the government’s austerity drive.

Riot police fought with the protesters wearing the black clothes favored by anarchist groups for about 45 minutes in the central Syntagma Square, letting off tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. The demonstrators let off flares and a tent in the center of the square advertising an air show was set on fire. The anarchist group appeared to be trying to cause as much damage in the square as possible. Continue reading.

Related content:

• Spain prepares more austerity, protesters clash with police
• German court backs euro rescue fund
• Greek PM faces tough test in deeply skeptical Germany
• Greek seniors protest pension cuts

Dimitri Messinis / AP

A riot police officer kicks a tear gas canister during clashes in Athens on Sept. 26. Police clashed with protesters hurling petrol bombs and bottles after an anti-government rally called as part of a general strike in Greece turned violent. About 50,000 people joined the union-organized march held during a general strike against new austerity measures planned in the crisis-hit country.

Aris Messinis / AFP - Getty Images

Demonstrators run away from teargas shot by riot police on Sept. 26 in Athens during a 24-hour general strike.

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Mahmud Hams / AFP - Getty Images

A relative of Ihab and Akram al-Zaanin, two Palestinian brothers who were killed by Israeli fire, is comforted by family members as she mourns during their funeral in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip on Sept. 6.

Mohammed Salem / Reuters

Relatives of Palestinian militants Akram and Ehab al Zaneen mourn during their funeral in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on Sept. 6.

Reuters reports: Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday and the Israeli military said they were trying to plant explosives near a border fence when they were attacked. The incident followed the killing a day earlier of three militants in an air strike which the military said foiled their attempt to fire rockets from the central Gaza Strip into Israel.

Villagers who knew the men killed in Thursday's attack said they belonged to a small Islamist militant group known as Homat al-Aqsa. Their bodies were taken to a local hospital. Continue reading.

Mohammed Salem / Reuters

A Palestinian woman raises her arms as she tries to approach the bodies of three militants killed by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip Sept. 6.

Mohammed Salem / Reuters

Palestinians watch as others try to approach the bodies of three militants killed by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip Sept. 6. The Israeli military said they were trying to plant explosives near a border fence when they were attacked.

View more photos from Gaza on PhotoBlog.

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Hussein Malla / AP

A Lebanese military intelligence agent holds his gun as he runs during clashes between Lebanese troops and a Syrian gunman who had engaged in an hours-long shootout with the security forces, in Beirut, Lebanon, on May 24, 2012.

Anwar Amro / AFP - Getty Images

Lebanese security forces take position as they storm a building in Beirut's Karakass district on May 24, 2012 following a shootout during the night with a man holed up inside a flat.

Hussein Malla / AP

A Lebanese soldier, right, and a policeman, left, take position in front of the apartment building where clashes erupted.

Reuters reports — Two people were killed when Lebanese soldiers stormed an apartment in Beirut on Thursday where a gunman had exchanged fire with security forces, a security source at the scene said.

The source told Reuters the gunman, a Syrian national, was killed when the soldiers broke into the apartment at around 6 a.m. (11 p.m. ET), following several hours of shooting.

Boiling point: On Lebanon's Syria Street, a civil war brews

They found the body of another man in the apartment, along with rifles and grenades, and two men who were arrested.

Four soldiers were wounded, the source said.

It was not immediately clear whether the incident was linked to recent sectarian violence in the Lebanese capital which has been fuelled by the conflict in neighboring Syria. Read the full story.

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Hussein Malla / AP

Lebanese soldiers help a young girl and her family flee her house via a backyard during the clashes.

Anwar Amro / AFP - Getty Images

Lebanese security forces detain an unidentified man outside a building in Beirut's Karakass district on May 24, 2012.

Rehan Khan / EPA

Pakistani security officials in civilian clothing take position following an operation against alleged criminals in restive Lyari area of southern port city of Karachi on April 27, 2012.

Pakistani police mounted an operation against alleged criminals in a restive district of Karachi on Friday, EPA reports. The Lyari area has been the site of a gang war that has cost many lives in recent years. 

Pakistan's Express Tribune reported that police were targeted with rockets and hand grenades during the operation, and that three people including two policemen had been killed.

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Rehan Khan / EPA

A woman cries as security officials take up positions following an operation against alleged criminals in the restive Lyari area of Karachi on April 27, 2012.

Rehan Khan / EPA

People stand outside their house during the police operation in Lyari, Karachi, on April 27, 2012.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Mohammad Sajjad / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

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AP

Baseball players belonging to the Saraperos de Saltillo team and spectators take cover during an intense shootout that broke out in the parking lot of the stadium in the city of Saltillo, northern Mexico, on March 13, 2012.

A gunbattle near a baseball stadium in the Mexican city of Saltillo killed three suspected gunmen and sent players scurrying for cover on Tuesday, The Associated Press reports.

Sergio Sisbeles, a state security spokesman, said the gunbattle broke out after gunmen opened fire on a state police patrol on a street near the stadium while the Saraperos team was playing an exhibition match against a local youth team.

Police chased the gunmen, killing three and wounding another. Local media reported there were no injuries among the players or fans.

 Drug cartels are active in the region, but police did not say whether the suspects belonged to a gang. Read more.

• See more pictures of Mexico's ongoing cycle of violence on PhotoBlog

AP

Baseball players belonging to the Saraperos de Saltillo team take cover during the shootout.

AP

A special tactics state police officer smokes next to an injured and handcuffed man as he lies on the ground after the shootout.

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Reuters

The dead body of a man, wrapped in a blanket, is seen lying near the wall of a private school in the municipality of Ecatepec on the outskirts of Mexico City on Jan. 3, 2012. Neighbors notified the police when they saw the body on the street, according to local media.

The body was found outside a primary school named after William Shakespeare on the northern outskirts of the Mexican capital.

According to a report in El Sol de Toluca, the victim, who had yet to be identified, had gunshot wounds to his head and body. Police sources said that the killers had left a message signed La Familia. The body was taken to the Justice Center in San Cristobal for investigation.

Reuters reports that the drug violence that has raged across Mexico is creeping into its capital city, which had been seen as an oasis of relative peace for several years. Police reported more than 300 gangland killings in the greater Mexico City area in 2011.

La Familia, a bloodthirsty cartel that started in the central state of Michoacan, is now said to be a major player in the capital, alongside the widely-feared Zetas and a criminal cell called Mano con Ojos - or Hand With Eyes. Read more.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Trick-or-treaters encounter real-life crime scene in Ciudad Juarez
• Horrific scene where gunmen dumped 35 bodies on a busy street in Veracruz
• Blood on the streets of beachy Acapulco
• 45 dead in attack on casino in Northern Mexico
• Soldier, gunman reported dead after shootout
• Just another day and night of violence in Ciudad Juarez

Slideshow: Narco culture permeates Mexico, leaks across border

Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion.

Launch slideshow

GRAPHIC WARNING: This post contains graphic images which some viewers may find disturbing.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A woman sweeps the floor of a barber shop in Guatemala City. Guatemala City is a place where people live in fear.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Passengers travel on a packed public bus in Guatemala City.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Police officers take cover from the rain under a plastic sheet in Guatemala City.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Evangelical pastor Esbin Bar Flores, preaches on a microphone as Noe Laria holds his speaker in La Terminal popular market in Guatemala City.

AP reports: GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala City is a place where people live in fear.

Dire poverty, gang violence and drug trafficking, and the failure of the government to provide a safety net, have contributed to the creation of a society where people isolate themselves from each other and make sure others keep their distance and where many seek solace in religion.

Squalor and poverty are constants in this city of 3 million. Paint peels from walls. Shantytowns sprawl along the sides of mountain ravines.

"We're a sad people, living in a depression," says Marco Antonio Garavito, a psychologist and director of the Mental Hygiene League. "It's hard for us to help each other because we live inside a shell that keeps us away (from others). We have a hard time with physical contact, with giving a good handshake.

Read the full story here.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Homeless men gather at the La Terminal popular market in Guatemala City.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Blanca touches the hair of an exhumed body as she walks through the the main cemetery with her grandchildren in Guatemala City. In Guatemala bodies are exhumed if relatives don't pay, six years after the burial, to renew the graveyard permission for another period of 4 years. After sending a telegram, if there is no payment, cemetery workers destroy the individual graveyards, and throw the skeletons into a collective graveyard.

Normally, I wouldn't publish such a shocking image, but in this case, I think the news warrants it. The violence in Mexico has been rising and is now at a level where such a brazen act occurred in a highly populated area with witnesses. Estimates from various groups put the number of deaths at somewhere between 35,000 and 42,000 since President Calderon launched a campaign against drug cartels in late 2006.

Veracruz, a port city, has been relatively free from the kind of violence that has taken over other areas, especially the U.S. border cities, until now.  Continue to scroll to see the image.

AP reports:

Masked gunmen blocked traffic on a busy avenue in a Gulf of Mexico coastal city Tuesday and dumped the bodies of 35 slaying victims as horrified motorists watched, authorities said.  Continue reading...

Veracruz En Red / EPA

The crime scene where two trucks were found with 35 bodies along an avenue in Boca del Rio, Veracruz metropolitan zone, Mexico, on Sept. 20. According to authorities, the victims, 23 men and 12 women, were alleged members of Los Zetas cartel and were killed by their rivals of Gulf cartel.