TORONTO - Violent protests competed with weighty issues like the global economy in the Sunday headlines of the international media covering the G20 summit.
Media outlets from many countries ran prominent stories about the
roving group of masked protesters who splintered from a larger, peaceful protest Saturday to smash windows and set several police cruisers on fire. On Sunday, the situation remained tense with police taking no chances.
While the world's leaders continued their talks ensconced behind two high security fences, international media were tasked with juggling protests with politics as they turned their lenses on the city's usually peaceful streets.
Some south of the border zoned in on the violence, likening Toronto to a war zone.
"The streets of Toronto have become a battlefield," wrote the New York Daily News.
"Violence, vandalism rock G-20 protests," declared a CNN headline. "Black Bloc tactics mar Canada's G-20 summit," said another in the Christian Science Monitor.
Across the Atlantic, some British outlets devoted entire articles to the violent rout of downtown Toronto.
"Black-clad demonstrators burned police cars and smashed windows with baseball bats and hammers when rioting broke out at the G20 summit," wrote the Daily Mail in a the piece accompanied by a photograph of a police cruiser going up in flames.
The article noted the proximity of the violence to the summit leaders, but also added a comment from the city's mayor David Miller who said 'This isn't our Toronto."
U.K.-based Reuters news agency focused on the police presence in some of their coverage while noting the "surprising violence on Toronto's normally tranquil streets."
The Guardian's coverage of the rout was the top international story on the newspaper's website and included details on Jesse Rosenfeld, a Canadian journalist associated with the publication, being arrested.
"Witnesses said he was punched by police," wrote reporter Mark Tran, who also included reports of police firing plastic bullets and herding crowds while on horseback.
In India, the media which has so far focused heavily on the policy work of their own leader, devoted substantial coverage to the havoc downtown.
"Toronto, also the country's largest city, resembled a police state early Sunday, with security personnel everywhere and city crews cleaning up debris from Saturday's mayhem," wrote The Hindu.
The newspaper called the action in the streets "an unprecedented fury of violence" while the Times of India pointed to the price of securing the summit.
"Canada spent more than a billion dollars to secure this week's back-to-back G8 and G20 summits, hoping to avoid the serious street battles that have marred most recent gatherings of these global forums," the Times wrote.
Chinese Xinhua News Agency questioned just how secure the summit was, despite its hefty price tag.
"What occurred Saturday has left many uncertainties about the securities of the summit," the agency wrote.
Meanwhile, some of the more pointed commentary came from Germany's Die Tageszeitung.
"For the leaders of the G8 and the G20...the summit because of disagreements and lack of expected results have been a little disappointing - for the police in Toronto, it was a complete disaster," the media outlet wrote.
"The demonstration is likely to trigger a major debate on Canada's security strategy."
