Argentine Protests Injure 13

Argentine riot police firing tear gas clashed with dozens of demonstrators in the capital late Friday, marring what was a peaceful but noisy nationwide protest against economic austerity measures.

At least 10 police officers and three people in the crowd were reported injured, including a man who collapsed with rubber-bullet wounds to his back. One officer was hospitalized with serious injuries, police said. At least a dozen people were seen being detained by police.

The violence flared after thousands of peaceful demonstrators had already left the downtown Plaza de Mayo, which fronts the government palace.

More than 10,000 middle-class, corporate and unemployed Argentines stood side by side on the square for hours early Friday night, calling for an end to the tight banking curbs and other government steps taken to end the nation’s recession.

Police stood guard behind iron barricades as President Eduardo Duhalde’s government strengthened security.

After the Plaza de Mayo clashes subsided early Saturday, several hundred demonstrators regrouped near Congress, blocks away.

Raucous pan-beating protests flared in various districts across Buenos Aires and in cities throughout Argentina, including Mar del Plata, a popular Atlantic beach resort, and Salta, a western provincial city.