Although tear gas was fired at some crowds in central Tehran it was not clear by whom there was no renewal of the fierce crackdown that took place in June and July.

Hardliners instituted a fierce crackdown on nationalism of all kinds, Albanian and Serbian alike.

More than 1,600 people have been killed in Syria since protests began, and thousands more have been detained, but the regime's fierce crackdown has failed to stop growing calls for Assad to eventually face justice.

In a fierce crackdown they destroyed gold dredges operating within forest reserves.

While other Politburo members have been drawn into the fierce crackdown on the democracy movement, Mr. Li has been rushing around the country gaining publicity for his quixotic campaign against pornography.

Turkey also has been conducting one of the fiercest internal crackdowns against the Kurdish separatists in over a decade.

The tensions between eastern Turkey's predominantly Kurdish population and government security forces are tied to the war that Kurdish rebels have waged in this mountainous area for 15 years, prompting fierce crackdowns.

But motorists say a fierce crackdown against illegal parking has made the use of a car more difficult than ever.

In April 2007, the Tehran police began the most fierce crackdown on "bad hijab" in more than a decade.

The issue has taken on added urgency at a time when Israeli forces are waging a fierce crackdown in Gaza against Hamas, the militant Islamic group.