The center of the Scottish capital Edinburgh was brought to a standstill on Monday as hundreds of anti-capitalist demonstrators and anarchist groups clashed with police in a series of protests against the G8 summit.
A stand-off between police and a core of 300 protesters continued in the evening as mounted police and officers dressed in riot gear corralled them in Princes Street, Edinburgh's main shopping thoroughfare.
Police blamed "a hard core of determined activists" intent on causing trouble for the scuffles. They said the protesters were highly organized, using maps, radios and mobile phones to plan their actions to cause maximum disruption.
PHOTO: AP
Weapons were seized from some protesters and some police officers were attacked with sticks and staves. Police said "key ringleaders" were arrested.
Police and protesters clashed at several locations across Edinburgh. In one confrontation in Princes Street Gardens, police drew their batons and forced back people who were throwing missiles.
A small group of demonstrators, who had their faces hidden behind black scarves and are believed to be part of the Black Bloc hardline European anarchist group, then began attacking police officers.
Injured officers retreated to the other side of the street, some bleeding from cuts, others caked in mud after protesters tore up plants and flowers to use as missiles.
Last night the violence intensified across Edinburgh.
Violent clashes broke out between police and a group of about 1,000 protesters in Rose street as a faction began throwing missiles.
Police drew their batons and charged, dispersing protesters into side streets.
At other locations protesters were seen digging up cobbles to throw at police and several tried to pull down fences to make improvised weapons.
Locals on their way home from work were caught up in the clashes.
Monday's protest was organized by the umbrella group Dissent. It is believed to be the first of a series of protests designed to cause disruption in Edinburgh and around Gleneagles, the summit venue, north of the city.
One anarchist, who declined to be named, said: "This is just the start of it. Nobody wants to get arrested ahead of Wednesday. We've got a lot more planned."
Police said they had intelligence that trouble will intensify in Edinburgh as the week progresses.
Another protester, Jay, 20, from Edinburgh, speaking from the top of a bus shelter, said the authorities had made the situation worse by warning that protests could get ugly.
"They've spent all week making it out like everyone coming up is terrorists and anarchists. And now the families have left after the weekend protests, the police are a lot more hardline. If there's fighting like this, people are going to get hurt," he said.
Anarchists from Italy, Spain and France are all believed to have taken part in yesterday's protests.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS