"Wielding red flags and hurling crude gas bombs, dozens of militant youths clashed with Greek riot police in central Athens on Saturday, signaling swelling social unrest as the cash-strapped government here prepares to announce additional austerity measures required to win rescue loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
"The clashes came during massive May Day protests unleashed by Greece's powerful trade unions and left-wing political parties in a desperate bid to block government designs to press ahead with additional wage cuts, tax hikes and pension reductions.
"'The bill should go to those who looted this country for decades, not to the workers," blared Spiros Papasirou, head of Greece's powerful Adedy civil servants union. "This is the most savage, unjust and unprovoked attack workers have ever faced.'"
"The clashes came during massive May Day protests unleashed by Greece's powerful trade unions and left-wing political parties in a desperate bid to block government designs to press ahead with additional wage cuts, tax hikes and pension reductions.
"'The bill should go to those who looted this country for decades, not to the workers," blared Spiros Papasirou, head of Greece's powerful Adedy civil servants union. "This is the most savage, unjust and unprovoked attack workers have ever faced.'"
"Saturday's protests drew nearly 20,000 workers to the streets of the capital, bringing traffic and trade to a standstill as demonstrators filed by the country's finance ministry chanting hostile slogans against the government, the EU and the IMF.
"But fighting erupted when youths tried to punch through a police cordon blocking access to the nation's sprawling all-marble parliament. Riot police retaliated, firing at two least rounds of tear gas that sent militant protesters into a retreat, hurling rocks against authorities, setting dumpsters ablaze and targeting two television vans with petrol bombs."
"But fighting erupted when youths tried to punch through a police cordon blocking access to the nation's sprawling all-marble parliament. Riot police retaliated, firing at two least rounds of tear gas that sent militant protesters into a retreat, hurling rocks against authorities, setting dumpsters ablaze and targeting two television vans with petrol bombs."
"In other capitals across the world, hundreds of thousands of workers engaged in spirited but generally peaceful May Day rallies. In Turkey, about 140,000 people gathered in Istanbul's, Taksim Square, and hundreds of thousands marched through Havana's Revolution Square, most in red shirts and many waving red flags.
"In Moscow, a rare protest by hundreds of opposition activists was held, with a crowd yelling slogans comparing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. And in Macao, at least eight people were injured when police employed water cannons and pepper spray on protesters."
"In Moscow, a rare protest by hundreds of opposition activists was held, with a crowd yelling slogans comparing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. And in Macao, at least eight people were injured when police employed water cannons and pepper spray on protesters."
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