Turkish police have used water cannons and tear gas to disperse May Day protesters in Istanbul as tens of thousands of labour activists turned out worldwide to defend their rights at a time of austerity.
As Turkish police and protesters engaged in pitched battles in some districts of Istanbul on Friday, violent clashes also broke out in the Italian city of Milan at the opening of the Expo 2015.
Istanbul governor Vali Sahin said 203 people had been arrested, and six police and 18 protesters had been wounded in a day of clashes around Istanbul.
This is the first May Day in Turkey, a national holiday in the country, to be marked after parliament passed a controversial security bill this year giving the police greater powers to crack down on protests.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration - shaken by weeks of deadly anti-government protests in May-June 2013 - is hugely nervous about public demonstrations ahead of June 7 legislative elections.
Meanwhile, thousands of people packed into the centre of Athens in response to a call from public and private unions, joined by the country's controversial anti-austerity Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
In Moscow, tens of thousands of workers and students paraded on Red Square, waving Russian flags and balloons and many with T-shirts of President Vladimir Putin, in a spectacle harking back to Soviet times.
In Milan, Italian police clashed with protesters at the opening of the Expo, firing tear gas at the masked demonstrators who had pelted officers with stones.
In South Korea, tens of thousands of workers held May Day rallies, vowing to wage an 'all-out general strike' if the government pushes through with planned labour reforms, while in Germany some 400,000 people took to the streets.
AAP
As Turkish police and protesters engaged in pitched battles in some districts of Istanbul on Friday, violent clashes also broke out in the Italian city of Milan at the opening of the Expo 2015.
Istanbul governor Vali Sahin said 203 people had been arrested, and six police and 18 protesters had been wounded in a day of clashes around Istanbul.
This is the first May Day in Turkey, a national holiday in the country, to be marked after parliament passed a controversial security bill this year giving the police greater powers to crack down on protests.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration - shaken by weeks of deadly anti-government protests in May-June 2013 - is hugely nervous about public demonstrations ahead of June 7 legislative elections.
Meanwhile, thousands of people packed into the centre of Athens in response to a call from public and private unions, joined by the country's controversial anti-austerity Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
In Moscow, tens of thousands of workers and students paraded on Red Square, waving Russian flags and balloons and many with T-shirts of President Vladimir Putin, in a spectacle harking back to Soviet times.
In Milan, Italian police clashed with protesters at the opening of the Expo, firing tear gas at the masked demonstrators who had pelted officers with stones.
In South Korea, tens of thousands of workers held May Day rallies, vowing to wage an 'all-out general strike' if the government pushes through with planned labour reforms, while in Germany some 400,000 people took to the streets.
AAP
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