Thousands of people gathered in cities across Turkey on Saturday

Thousands of people gathered in cities across Turkey on Saturday to protest against the country's International Monetary Fund pact and called on the government to quit over its handling of a punishing economic crisis. The IMF has agreed to loan Turkey $19 billion to help it emerge from the crisis which has slashed the value of the lira in half, left hundreds of thousands of people jobless and plunged the nation into its worst recession since World War Two. -- Reuters