-Caveat Lector- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20010721/wl/ summit_protests_46.ht ml Saturday July 21 10:16 PM ET Summit Protests Rage for Second Day By LAURA KING, AP Special Correspondent GENOA, Italy (AP) - Street battles raged for a second day Saturday despite pleas for calm from protest leaders and global summit leaders alike, with skirmishes between police and demonstrators continuing past midnight. Police made a sweep of a school that had been used as a headquarters by demonstrators early Sunday and protesters retaliated by attacking a nearby station of the Carabinieri paramilitary police, Italian state television reported. It said 40 protesters were injured and 50 were detained. Protester Michael Siefer, of Belgium, contacted by telephone by The Associated Press at the school, said police burst in and beat demonstrators. Police spokesman Mario Viola said the raid was carried out as a result of the violence over the last two days. Police seized iron bars, baseball bats, and bricks that were being used by protesters, he said. During the raids, one of protesters tried knife a policeman, but officer was wearing a bulletproof vest and was not injured, said Viola. Security remained unusually tight around the summit meeting center well past midnight and police cars zoomed back and forth in the security zone until around 3 a.m. when things seemed to quiet down. Infuriated by the shooting of a fellow protester a day earlier, masked demonstrators ripped up paving stones to hurl at police on Saturday, screaming, ``Assassins! Assassins!'' At least 228 people were hurt, in addition to the more than 200 injured the day before, and dozens of protesters were detained, some facing charges as serious as attempted murder. The violence Saturday hopscotched through Genoa's downtown, a narrow swath of land sandwiched between mountains and the blue Mediterranean. Much of Saturday's fighting took place well away from the city's medieval center where the leaders were meeting for the Group of Eight gathering of industrial powers. Clouds of tear gas billowed into the air as riot police fought running battles with a hard core of militants who broke away from a peaceful mass march. The clashes began at a sunny seaside piazza, where Genoese bathers were swimming just a few hundred yards away, then at a downtown intersection about a mile from the main summit venue, an ornate 14th- century palace. The militants smashed windows, torched cars and set fires, leaving parts of the city so battered that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi promised government aid for repairs during a meeting Saturday with municipal officials. Caught between the combatants were thousands of nonviolent marchers who scrambled up stone stairways and ducked into alleys to flee baton-wielding police. Some were not quick enough to escape a clubbing by police whose ranks - unlike the day before - included a large contingent of plainclothes officers who initially blended with the crowd, then sprang into action when the fighting began. Protesters who hurled paving stones and firebombs at riot police ``were 500 people in a peaceful march of thousands,'' said 31-year-old demonstrator Simona Tatarini, nearly weeping from frustration and the acrid stench of wafting tear gas. ``They had clubs and firebombs - what were we supposed to do to get them out of the march?'' Some of those trying to keep the demonstration peaceful scuffled with the so-called ``black'' group of violent protesters, mainly men in their early 20s, hooded or masked, dressed in black, carrying iron bars or wooden clubs and wearing motorcycle helmets or construction hard hats. Ugo Nassa, from the Italian city of Bologna, was punched in the face when he tried to stop a group of youths from setting fire to a trash bin. ``These people are destroying our march,'' he said, his face swollen from the blow. Summit leaders renewed their expressions of sorrow over Friday's death. ``I'm very concerned about the violence. It's a tragic loss of life,'' President Bush said. But he repeated his contention that ``those who claim to represent the voices of the poor aren't doing so. Those protesters who try to shut down our talks on trade and aid don't represent the poor, as far as I'm concerned.'' The clashes erupted as a peaceful procession of up to 100,000 people - most of whom came to Genoa to express concern over social, economic and environmental fallout from what they view as too- rapid and indiscriminate globalization - moved along a seaside boulevard. The clashes trailed off by nightfall, when at least 228 people, including 73 police and several journalists had been hurt, authorities said. At least 85 people had been picked up on various charges over the two days, and of that group, nearly 70 were booked on a list of charges including attempted murder, assault and unauthorized weapons possessions. Police said the severity of injuries to police led authorities to level the attempted murder charge, which carries a penalty of up to 25 years in prison. The bulk of those arrested were Italians, but also included protesters from Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Greece and the United States. Meanwhile, Italian authorities said they were contemplating manslaughter charges against a 20-year-old paramilitary officer in connection with the shooting of a 23-year-old protester a day earlier - though officials said he apparently acted in self-defense. The policeman was hospitalized for shock. The umbrella group that organized the massive street protests, the Genoa Social Forum, demanded the resignation of Italy's interior minister, who oversees the security forces. While the protest organizers decided against scaling back Saturday's marches, some individual groups pulled out, citing the dangers. ``After the violence of yesterday's demonstrations, we can no longer guarantee the safety of our demonstrators,'' said Andrew Pendleton, a spokesman for the British branch of the group Christian Aid. The shooting provoked sympathetic demonstrations in Canada, Greece, Germany, Spain, France and Sweden. -- Best Wishes All democrats are insane, but not one of them knows it; none but the republicans and mugwumps know it. All the republicans are insane, but only the democrats and mugwumps can perceive it. 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