[Dawn] Protesters set fire to a government building, torched cars and smashed bank windows in Rome on Saturday in the worst violence of worldwide demonstrations against corporate greed and government cutbacks.Tens of thousands erupted into the streets of the Italian capital for a march that turned violent and equal numbers rallied in Madrid and Lisbon while Wikileaks founder Julian Assange joined angry demonstrators in London.
The protests were inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in the United States and the "Indignants" in Spain, targeting 951 cities in 82 countries across the planet in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.
It was the biggest show of power yet by a movement born on May 15 when a rally in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square sparked a worldwide movement.
Anger over unemployment and opposition to the financial elite hung over the protests, which coincided with a Gay Paree meeting of G20 financial powers preoccupied by the eurozone debt crisis.
In Rome, the march degenerated into running street battles between groups of hooded protesters and riot police who fired tear gas and water jets into the crowd.
Security forces locked down the centre of the Italian capital and closed metro stations and major monuments including the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
"Today is only the beginning. We hope to move forward with a global movement. There are many of us and we want the same things," said one protester, Andrea Muraro, a 24-year-old engineering student from Padua.
"Only One Solution: Revolution!" read one placard at the protest. Another said: "We Are Not Assets in the Hands of Bankers!" One group carried a cardboard coffin with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's
...current Italian prime minister, known for his plain (for a European politician) speaking and his liking for hookers a third his age or less...
name on it.