Huge Protest Ahead of G8 Summit

Tens of Thousands Demonstrate In Scotland To Demand Action On Poverty

(AP) 
However, about 150 anarchists and anti-globalization protesters dressed in black joined the march, many wearing hoods or covering their faces with bandanas. Some had T-shirts bearing the anarchist symbol of the letter "A" inside a circle; one had a placard that said "No nation, no order."

Some pushed over a barricade and charged a line of police before running away down side streets. One activist threw a bottle, while another tipped over a refuse bin. Police described the incident as a minor disturbance and said no one had been arrested.

Organizers had expected more than 100,000 people but police said they had no immediate crowd estimate.

Britain's two main Roman Catholic leaders headed the procession and Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of Scotland's Catholics, read a message from the Vatican. He said Pope Benedict XVI urged those in rich countries to bear the burden of reducing debt for the poor and call on their leaders to fight poverty.

"His Holiness prays for the participants in the rally and for the world leaders soon to gather at Gleneagles, that they may all play their part in ensuring a more just distribution of the world's good," said the message from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano. He conveyed the pope's "ardent hope that the scourge of global poverty may one day be consigned to history."

The marchers jammed streets in Edinburgh's ancient center and its modern commercial districts. Some banged drums or blew whistles as they walked. Police were out in force but had little to do.

At a rally before the march began, tens of thousands turned the Meadows, Edinburgh's main park, into a sea of white, the anti-poverty movement's trademark color.

Some of the Edinburgh marchers carried banners bearing religious imagery such as crosses while others espoused a socialist viewpoint.

"Make Capitalism History," read one group's red T-shirts; "Make Bush History," said another. Many placards bore the messages "Drop the Debt" and "Trade Justice."

Thandiwe Letsoalo, who traveled from Soweto, South Africa, for the march, lost two daughters to HIV-related illnesses and is caring for eight grandchildren and two unemployed sons on a small pension.

"The G-8 leaders have to increase aid but ensure that the governments they are giving aid to are not corrupt so that the money can trickle down to the people," she warned.