Demonstrations Italy

Stores in Italy pulled two popular brands of Christmas cakes from their shelves Friday because an animal rights group said it injected some of them with rat poison. The news agency ANSA said the Animal Liberation Front sent cakes to its offices in Bologna and Florence on Thursday along with messages saying it was protesting genetic engineering. Both cakes tested positive Friday for enough rat poison to make someone seriously ill, ANSA said.

Returning smartly dressed from a New York business trip, Tiziana Bocus landed here Sunday on one of the first flights into her city's smartly designed Malpensa 2000 air terminal--a $1.1-billion effort to stake a place for Italy among the continental economic elite. By the time she cleared customs and stepped onto the polished marble floor of the arrivals hall--two hours later and missing her luggage--Bocus' civic pride had turned to livid shame. "This is just disgusting!" she said.

Police stormed the bell tower in St. Mark's Square on Friday and arrested eight separatists who occupied it in an armed protest that put concern about secession back on Italy's political agenda. A team of 24 masked paramilitary police commandos ended the protest about five hours after the group of young men, some dressed in combat fatigues, broke into one of Venice's best-known landmarks.

Tens of thousands of people, including thousands of immigrants calling for a "world without borders," protested in Rome on Saturday against Italy's plans to crack down on immigration. There were no immediate reports of violence as the march moved through the streets accompanied by drums, music, chants, dances and flags. Organizers said there were more than 100,000 protesters. Police did not provide an estimate.

More than 100,000 people marched behind Italy's re-energized center-left opposition leaders Saturday to denounce government measures aimed at shielding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from criminal prosecution and the loss of his multibillion-dollar business empire. The festive, peaceful demonstration was the biggest against the country's richest individual since his center-right coalition swept to victory last May and bigger than any rally of the election campaign that preceded it.

Tens of thousands of activists marched through Paris and Rome on Saturday in protests demanding Israel stop its offensive in the West Bank and expressing solidarity with the Palestinians. More than 20,000 people marched here to the Place de la Bastille, where hundreds of police stood by. Some protesters carried shredded American flags and shouted slogans against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Lobbing rocks and swinging pieces of wood, thousands of protesters clashed with police who used tear gas and clubs to keep them from reaching a forum on information technology in Naples. Although the protest was called to denounce globalization, some turned out to publicize other causes, Italian news agencies reported. About 70 demonstrators and 50 officers were slightly hurt, police said.

Judging from magazine covers, Luca Casarini's outfit is all the rage in Italy this summer--white overalls, plexiglass shield and a helmet over his long, disheveled hair. It's more than a fashion statement. The White Overalls is a militant leftist band whose activists, led by the burly 34-year-old, are coming here to disrupt this week's summit of the Group of 8 industrialized nations. Sister Patrizia Pasini, 60, is more subdued in her style but not in her politics.

Bucking a tide of anti-immigration sentiment in Europe, about 30,000 people, some here illegally from poor countries, called Thursday for freer movement of job seekers across borders. "A global village without borders," demanded one of the hundreds of banners at the event, the first in a series of planned protests against leaders of the world's major industrialized nations who convene here today.

Amid daylong spasms of violence that left one demonstrator dead, the leaders of the largest industrial democracies sought a unified attack Friday on sluggish economic growth. They promised to fight global poverty and advanced an international campaign against AIDS.