Police on horseback and wielding batons clashed with rock and bottle-throwing demonstrators outside a meeting of some the world's top financial officials yesterday, turning what had been promised as a peaceful rally against poverty into running street skirmishes.
One officer was taken to hospital with a wrist broken by a toppled steel barricade and several other police received scratches and bruises but stayed on duty, police said.
Two demonstrators were arrested, and more arrests were expected, Victoria state Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said.
"They threw missiles and rocks, bins -- anything they could get their hands on they threw it at police and damaged property," she told reporters. "We have not had anything like this, any kind of violent demonstration in the last six years."
Police on horseback and other uniform and riot officers brandishing shields and batons kept protesters out of the plush hotel where US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and top officials from Europe, Asia and Latin America opened two days of talks on global economic issues.
Protesters ripped apart traffic barricades and sprayed slogans on at least one building, reporters and photographers at the scene said.
At one place, about 200 demonstrators rained stones, glass bottles and plastic garbage bins down on about one dozen police standing near a police car and truck parked outside the security perimeter, an AP photographer said.
The police ducked behind the vehicles to avoid the barrage, until a contingent of mounted police charged from behind the security fence and drove the protesters off.
About 200 charging demonstrators threw brown smoke grenades at a line of mounted police at a barricade but were beaten back by officers wielding batons. It was unclear whether anyone was injured.
About 3,000 people rallied at a city park around midday yesterday, then marched on the meeting of the Group of 20 finance minister and central bankers. But most of the violence appeared to center around a group of about 200 demonstrators dressed in white coveralls with red bandanas tied around their faces.
The group ran from one location to another near the venue, challenging police before retreating.
The unrest recalled the widespread violence at anti-globalization protests that marked the WTO's meeting in Seattle in 1999, and a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne the following year.
"There is a hardcore militant and violent element among these protesters," Australian Treasurer Peter Costello, the G20 meeting's chairman, told a news conference after the day's deliberations.
"These are people who want to trash the streets of Melbourne and trash the reputation of Australia," he said. "We won't stand for that."
Nixon blamed the violence on fewer than 100 protesters dressed in white whom police knew were coming with the intention of creating violence. She would not name the group they represented, saying she did not want to give them publicity.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS