"Occupy Wall Street" :Rome counts cost of violence after global protests

 

Rome is counting the cost of its worst violence in years, which erupted on a day of global protests over austerity and banking practices.

Hundreds of hooded protesters in Italy's capital torched cars, smashed bank windows and attacked a church.
Saturday's protests affected 950 cities across 80 countries.
The protests started in New York as "Occupy Wall Street" a month ago and on Saturday there were 70 arrests there during a march on Times Square.
Desecrated church The BBC's David Willey in Rome says scores of victims of violence there, both police and demonstrators, are being treated in hospital.
Some 20 demonstrators have been arrested and charged with crimes relating to the violence, as the city tries to return to normal.

Our correspondent says tourists were out photographing the burned cars, smashed windows and torn up paving stones.
Police said they had found unexploded petrol bombs in several streets.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the 18th-Century church of Santi Marcellino and Pietro was "desecrated" by protesters.
Its parish priest said a statue of the Virgin Mary had been thrown into the street and smashed.
Rome resident Antonino Fiuggi told Reuters news agency: "These kind of things should not happen in a civilised country, these things should not be allowed."
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said those responsible for the violence "must be condemned by everyone without reservation".
Protests were continuing in a number of cities on Sunday.

Police made 45 arrests in Times Square

In London about 250 protesters, who have erected about 70 tents outside St Paul's Cathedral, vowed to occupy the site indefinitely, mirroring the New York protest.
Protester Jane McIntyre told Reuters: "People are saying enough is enough, we want a real democracy, not one that is based on the interests of big business and the banking system."
Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC that protests would not solve the problem, but admitted he had some sympathy for those affected by "too many debts built up by states".
'We got sold out' In New York overnight, police arrested about 70 people as the Occupy Wall Street protesters moved to Times Square.
Forty-five were detained in the square, with another 24 held for alleged trespassing at a branch of Citibank near Washington Square Park.
Organisers of the march from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan to Times Square said about 5,000 people took part.
Protesters chanted: "We got sold out, banks got bailed out" and "All day, all week, occupy Wall Street."
One woman was injured when she fell as police on horseback tried to clear protesters from Times Square.
There were also protests in a number of other US cities, including 5,000 people who rallied outside City Hall in Los Angeles and 2,000 who marched in Pittsburgh.