World financial news

The best week for the stock market in more than two years is ending with major indexes nearly unchanged.

A surprise drop in the U.S. unemployment rate sent stocks higher early Friday, but the gains fizzled throughout the afternoon. European stock indexes and the euro rose after German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a speech pushing for tighter rules on government spending.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell less than a point to close at 12,019 payday loans. The S&P 500 index also fell less than a point to 1,244. The Nasdaq rose under a point to 2,627.

More than three stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was below average at 4 billion.

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The newspaper coverage was troubling: London’s huge international showcase was beset by planning problems, local opposition and labor woes _ and the transport was a mess.

It sounds like the 2012 Olympics, but this was the Great Exhibition of 1851 generating stories of late trains, unscrupulous landlords and dangerous overcrowding.

Coverage of the event is found in 4 million pages of newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries being made available online Tuesday by the British Library, in what head of newspapers Ed King calls “a digital Aladdin’s Cave” for researchers.

The online archive is a partnership between the library and digital publishing firm Brightsolid, which has been scanning 8,000 pages a day from the library’s vast periodical archive for the past year and plans to digitize 40 million pages over the next decade.

A glance at the stories of crime and scandal shows some things haven’t changed _ including grumbling letter-writers complaining about disruption caused by the 1851 exhibition, held inside a specially built Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park.

“People were saying, ‘This isn’t good, I can’t ride my horse in Hyde Park,’” said King. One regional newspaper editor complained that the “celebrated p.m. fast train service to London” arrived two hours late and warned visitors “not to trust themselves to the tender mercies of the numerous private housekeepers” renting out rooms at exorbitant prices.

The library hopes the searchable online trove will be a major resource for academics and researchers. The vast majority of the British Library’s 750 million pages of newspapers _ the largest collection in the world _ are currently available only on microfilm or bound in bulky volumes at a newspaper archive in north London, where the yellowing journals cover 20 miles (32 kilometers) of shelves.

“We’ve got 200 years of newspapers locked away,” King said. “We’re trying to open it up to a wider audience.”

There will be a cost to download articles online, though they can be accessed for free at the library’s London reading rooms.

Most of the first batch of 4 million pages are from the 19th century, and include stories about huge international events, freak accidents and local crimes, as well as articles about Victorian celebrities such as Florence Nightingale, whose nursing of troops in the Crimean War made her famous.

There are stories of war and famine, crime and punishment, alongside birth and death notices, family announcements and advertisements for soap, cocoa, marmalade, miracle cures and treatments for baldness.

Crime columns provide a glimpse at rough 19th-century justice. Newspapers printed lists of people transported to Australia for stealing money, silver, cloth, hay and, in one case, “seven cups and five saucers.”

The archive includes national and regional newspapers from Britain and Ireland, as well as more specialized publications. The Cheltenham Looker-On reported on society, fashions and gossip in the genteel English spa town. The Poor Law Unions’ Gazette contained vivid accounts of workhouse life, and descriptions of inmates who had absconded.

King said the library hopes the archive will also help amateur genealogists find information about their ancestors.

Library staff have already highlighted a few links to the famous, including an 1852 appearance in insolvency court by Simon Cowell’s great-great-great grandfather, Michael Gashion, and a local newspaper item about the great-great grandfather of actress Kate Winslet, who was “embedded in a mass of bricks and timber” when a hotel facade fell on him in 1903.

Bob Satchwell of press trade group the Society of Editors welcomed the archive _ some good news for newspapers amid all the negative press from Britain’s ongoing phone hacking scandal.

He said the website “opens up a magical new window on a magnificent treasure trove of real history, recording the lives of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in vibrant communities, rather than merely the cold facts of politics and pestilence.”

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Greece’s incoming prime minister is due to name his cabinet Friday, a day after being appointed to head an interim coalition government that will push through a new European debt deal and secure continued bailout funding to prevent a catastrophic default.

Former European Central Bank vice president Lucas Papademos held talks with the country’s main political parties late into Thursday night to determine who would staff his cabinet, ahead of the formal swearing in early Friday afternoon.

Papademos’ appointment capped two weeks of a political crisis that threatened to derail an EU plan to get a grip on the Greek debt crisis and raised questions about the country’s continued presence in the eurozone.

He was named to take over from outgoing prime Minister George Papandreou, who agreed to step aside half way through his four-year term.

Although the composition of the new cabinet had not been announced by midmorning, many key ministerial positions were expected to remain unchanged, with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos widely expected to retain his post.

Venizelos was deeply involved in negotiating the latest debt deal _ a package agreed as recently as Oct. 27. The euro130 billion ($177 billion) debt deal took months to work out, and includes provisions for private bondholders to forgive 50 percent _ or some euro100 billion _ of their Greek debt holdings.

The latest political turmoil was sparked by Papandreou’s Oct. 31 surprise announcement that he would put the deal to a referendum. His plan infuriated European leaders, rocked global markets and led many of his own Socialist party lawmakers to rebel and call for his resignation.

Papandreou withdrew the public vote plan after the main conservative opposition said they backed the deal, and agreed to step aside.

After days of intense power-sharing talks, Papandreou’s Socialists and the conservatives, led by Antonis Samaras, along with a smaller right-wing party, appointed Papademos as interim premier.

Papademos’ government will be called on to pass the debt deal and secure the next euro8 billion installment of the country’s initial euro110 billion bailout. Without the funds, Greece will default in a matter of weeks.

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Nicaraguan president and one-time Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega appears headed for victory Sunday in an election that his critics say could be the prelude to a presidency-for-life.

Since returning to power in 2007, the 65-year-old Ortega has boosted his popularity in Central America’s poorest country with a combination of pork-barrel populism and support for the free-market economy he once opposed.

Now, riding on a populist platform and World Bank praise for his economic strategies, he seeks a third term _ his second consecutive one _ after the Sandinista majority on the Supreme Court overruled the term limits set by the Nicaraguan constitution.

With nearly 50 percent of voter support and an 18-point lead over his nearest challenger in the most recent poll, Ortega could end up with a mandate that would not only legitimize his re-election but allow him to make constitutional changes guaranteeing perpetual re-election.

He leads his closest competitor, opposition radio station owner Fabio Gadea of the Liberal Independent Party, by 18 points. Conservative Arnoldo Aleman, a former president and perennial candidate, has 11 percent support in the poll taken between Oct. 10-17 with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

Ortega led the Sandinista movement that overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, and withstood a concerted effort by the U.S. government, which viewed him as a Soviet-backed threat, to oust him through a rebel force called the Contras.

The fiery, mustachioed leftist ruled through a junta, then was elected in 1984 but was defeated after one term in 1990. After two more failed runs, he softened his rhetoric, took a free-market stance, and regained the presidency in the 2006 election.

To his supporters, he is just plain Daniel, while opponents say that in his new incarnation, he has espoused “Orteguismo,” a politics of personality based on Christianity, socialism and free enterprise.

In his most recent term, Ortega has built wide support among the youth and the poor in a country of 5.8 million people, more than 40 percent of whom live on less than $2 a day.

He also has maintained ties to the U.S. even as he has grown closer to Venezuelan socialist President Hugo Chavez, signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement and cultivated Nicaragua’s large business sector. Per capita income, one of the lowest in Latin America, has grown steadily since 2006, according to the World Bank, which has praised Ortega’s macroeconomic policies as “broadly favorable.”

Still, he has been helped immensely by Chavez, who according to estimates has provided at least $500 million a year in discounted oil and outright donations.

Many warn his success comes at democracy’s expense. Claims of widespread fraud in the 2008 municipal elections led Washington to cancel $62 million in development aid.

The 2006 election drew more than 18,000 election observers. This time election observation is much more difficult and local observers are being denied credentials.

The European Union and the Organization of America States have negotiated access to Sunday’s vote. The Carter Center, whose Nicaragua delegation was led by former President Jimmy Carter in 2006, has elected not to observe because of the restrictions.

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General Motors will officially announce this morning that its Wentzville plant will build the next generation of Chevrolet Colorado midsized pickups, according to a source familiar with GM’s plans.

The new assembly line will bring more than 1,200 jobs to Wentzville and St. Charles County, the source said, in addition to more than 400 new jobs planned for a second shift of existing van production.

The expansion marks a stunning turnaround for the plant, where languishing demand for full-sized vans had kept assembly work limited to a single shift.

GM executives, UAW leaders and public officials will gather at 11 a.m. in Wentzville to formally announce the addition of the new truck line. The announcement, confirming recent speculation by analysts, comes notably on the 100th anniversary of the Chevrolet brand.

The company has previously requested incentives to build a half-million square foot addition to its existing 3.7 million plant. The company provided no timeline for construction.

With more than 1,300 current employees at the Wentzville plant, the expansion could bring the total workforce to about 3,000 during the next few years, though it is unclear how many area residents might be hired.

GM will give preference to laid-off employees, locally and nationally, as required under the new labor pact that paved the way for the expansion. In addition, some active workers from GM’s plants in other states have already accepted transfers for the new van shift.

GM has not disclosed how many workers could exercise recall rights. But the United Auto Workers Local 2250, which represents Wentzville hourly workers, said only about 20 workers have recall rights cash advance no fax. Nearly two dozen laid-off GM workers have already returned to the plant for training to prepare for the second shift.

GM also will ask its existing employees to refer people for jobs, which could put people who were laid off from local Ford and Chrysler plants back to work, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the Center for Automotive Research’s Labor and Industry Group.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Offering good wages and benefits, automotive production jobs can ripple through a local economy, Dziczek said. Each new auto assembly plant job can spawn three or four other jobs statewide, she says, including everything from parts suppliers to restaurant and construction workers.

“When people think about the additional jobs, they think of parts. But it’s much broader than that,” Dziczek said.

Officials and business leaders in St. Charles county are counting those broader effects.

“They’re adding a half-million-square-foot expansion,” said Wentzville Mayor Paul Lambi, “which will put hundreds of contractors, architects, steelworkers and engineers to work.”

The economic downturn slowed development in Wentzville, which ballooned from 5,000 people two decades ago to a population of nearly 30,000 in the 2010 census. The recession caused homebuilders to pull back on construction.

“We have over 3,000 existing home lots available for development, so yes, we have room to grow,” Lambi said.

With the region’s housing market stagnating, the staff of real estate firm Dutchman Realty is down to five employees

European stock markets shot higher Thursday as investors waded into riskier assets, emboldened by EU leaders’ pre-dawn agreement to slash Greece’s massive debts.

Oil prices rose above $92 per barrel while the euro gained strongly following the European summit dedicated to fixing a debt mess in Greece before it provokes a bigger debt crisis across the continent.

European trading was buoyant from the outset. Britain’s FTSE climbed 2.1 percent to 5,670.12. Germany’s DAX jumped 3.7 percent to 6,243 and France’s CAC-40 gained 3.9 percent to 3,297. Wall Street also headed toward gains, with Dow Jones industrial futures rising 1.6 percent and S&P 500 futures gaining 1.8 percent.

The Greek market rallied on hopes the early morning deal would finally lift the specter of government bankruptcy.

Shortly after opening Thursday, shares on the Athens Stock Exchange were up 3.46 percent at 800.55, with banking stocks up more than 10 percent _ after suffering heavy losses earlier this week.

The hard-fought European deal requires banks to take on 50 percent losses on Greeks bonds. Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund will also provide an additional euro100 billion ($140 billion) in rescue loans as a second bailout package for Greece.

EU leaders “stopped the hemorrhaging,” said Marc Touati, chief economist at Assya Compagnie Financiere in Paris. “(They) have saved the Eurozone and that’s the good news and that’s why the markets are reacting positively.”

European leaders agreed early Thursday on a plan to provide Greece with more rescue loans to help relieve its crushing debt obligations. It will involve private investors taking bigger losses on the value of their Greek bonds, which would make Greece the first nation that uses the euro currency to be rated in default on its debt.

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said the deal will reduce Greece’s debt to 120 percent of its gross domestic product in 2020. Under current conditions, it would have grown to 180 percent.

In addition, the euro440 billion European Financial Stability Facility will be used to insure part of the losses on the debt of wobbly countries like Italy and Spain, rendering its firepower equivalent to around euro1 trillion ($1 paydayloans.4 trillion).

Loose ends still need to be worked out, and the fundamental problem of low economic growth in the euro zone has not been resolved by the crisis summit, some economists warned.

“(They) have only saved it temporarily,” Touati said. “Unfortunately the fundamental problem concerning the absence of growth has not been resolved.”

Shares in Asia posted solid gains earlier in the day. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 2 percent to close at an eight-week high of 8,926.54. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.5 percent to 1,922.04. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 3.3 percent to 19,688.70.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 2.5 percent to 4,348.20 after trading resumed following a 4-hour technical glitch.

Meanwhile, strong economic reports helped send Wall Street higher on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.4 percent to 11,869.04. The S&P 500 index rose 1.1 percent to 1,242. The Nasdaq composite added 0.5 percent to 2,650.67.

Reports in the U.S. showed businesses ordered more heavy machinery and other long-lasting manufactured goods last month. That indicates businesses are still spending on equipment despite worries about a weak economy and Europe’s debt problems. Sales of new homes rose in September after falling for four straight months.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up $1.98 at $92.15 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.97, or 3.2 percent, to end the day at $90.20 in New York on Wednesday.

Brent crude was up $1.87 at $110.78 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

In currencies, the euro climbed to $1.4003 from $1.3908 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar weakened to 75.83 yen from 76.20 yen.

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Managed-care company Cigna says it will pay about $3.8 billion to buy fellow health insurer HealthSpring in a deal that boosts Cigna’s Medicare Advantage business.

The Bloomfield, Conn., company will pay $55 per share in cash for HealthSpring, which is based in Nashville, Tenn. Cigna says that price represents a 37 percent premium over the stock’s Friday closing price of $40.16.

Cigna says the boards of directors for both companies have approved the deal. It is expected to close in the first half of 2012 guaranteed online personal loans.

Medicare Advantage plans are privately run versions of the government’s Medicare program. They are subsidized by the government and offer basic Medicare coverage topped with extras or premiums lower than standard Medicare rates.

HealthSpring has about 340,000 Medicare Advantage customers in 11 states.

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Even higher fares couldn’t pull American Airlines out of its financial nosedive.

American’s parent, AMR Corp., said Wednesday that it lost $162 million in the third quarter, as fuel spending jumped 40 percent, wiping out higher revenue from fare increases and passenger fees.

It was AMR’s fourth straight losing quarter and 14th in the last 16. In last year’s third quarter _ often the strongest of the year for airlines because of heavy summer travel _ AMR earned $143 million, or 39 cents per share.

AMR hasn’t turned a full-year profit since 2007, and it has lost more than $12 billion since 2001, adding to speculation that it could be headed toward bankruptcy protection.

American has high costs, a heavy debt load, too many gas-guzzling planes in its fleet, and years of labor problems.

AMR spent $2.3 billion on fuel, easily topping wages and benefits as the biggest third-quarter expense and swamping American’s average fares increase of 7 percent.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $6.38 billion. While that was $30 million better than analysts expected, the loss of 48 cents per share was wider than analysts’ forecast of 43 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Investors were disappointed. The company’s shares fell 11 cents, or 4.1 percent, to $2.71 in morning trading.

Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey said the third quarter was “challenging for American Airlines,” but said the company was moving aggressively to improve. The top goal, he said, was to control costs.

As recently as 2008, American was the world’s largest airline, but has since been surpassed by Delta, which bought Northwest, and United, which bought Continental. American is trying to compensate for its smaller size by expanding partnerships with British Airways and Japan Airlines to win more lucrative international travel.

As other airlines merged and returned to profitability in the last two years, analysts and investors have grown impatient with AMR management, skewering executives for failing to show enough urgency in fixing American’s problems.

The last few days provided another example of AMR’s woes. The company raised expectations it would settle labor negotiations with American Airlines pilots and win money-saving schedule flexibility, but there was no weekend deal and AMR’s stock fell 6 percent on Monday.

American and the pilots’ union could still reach an agreement any day, allowing American to argue that it is doing something to control costs and boost productivity.

The airline is also taking steps to update its fleet. It announced in July that it will buy 460 new jets from Boeing Co. and Airbus over several years. That should reduce fuel and maintenance spending, but the improvement will be gradual.

American said advance bookings are about the same as last year, but with a weak economy, it has cut the late-fall and winter flights by 3 percent compared with last winter. That should ease pressure to slash fares and help the airline cope with a high number of pilot retirements.

But American said fourth-quarter costs per mile will rise more than 6 percent over the same period last year. That figure doesn’t include fuel costs.

AMR’s stock price has fallen 64 percent this year _ far more than any other major U.S. airline company _ reflecting speculation that the company could be forced into bankruptcy protection like so many other carriers over the past decade.

Most analysts think that won’t happen anytime soon because the company has about $4.3 billion in unrestricted cash and short-term investments that could be liquidated in a pinch.

Standard & Poor’s analyst Jim Corridore said he doesn’t see a need for bankruptcy in the next year but called AMR shares “high risk.” He said problems include pilot retirements, lack of movement on labor talks, and AMR’s need to borrow money.

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A senior prison officer was killed by his subordinates as he tried to stop mass prison breaks during Egypt’s popular uprising against President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian rights group said Monday.

The case of Mohammed el-Batran is key to the mystery surrounding the mass prison break in Egypt in one weekend in late January, when nearly a quarter of Egypt’s prisoners escaped.

Some allege the mass prison break was engineered by an embattled regime trying to cling to power by creating anarchy, though other testimony suggests there may not have been a single guiding hand.

Chaos struck Egypt’s prisons as inmates watched the uprising against Mubarak unfold on television staring Jan.25.

An official investigation has yet to be completed into the escape of more than 23,000 inmates and deaths of at least 120.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said witnesses say el-Batran opposed an alleged official plan to unleash anarchy in the country as a way of derailing the popular uprising against Mubarak.

At the time, authorities and state media said el-Batran was killed by rioting inmates in al-Qatta prison on the outskirts of Cairo.

“This is a version that has been refuted by many witness accounts,” the report said. “There were many stories during the revolution that he refused to let the prisoners out.”

The report reviews witness accounts of inmates and prison officials, as well as forensic evidence describing the circumstances surrounding the death of el-Batran, the head of the prison investigation department in the Interior Ministry, on Jan.29.

El-Batran had argued with a prison official, asking him to leave so he could handle the angry inmates, the report related.

As he walked out of the cell block with hundreds of prisoners following him, a police officer opened fire at the crowd from a watchtower, killing el-Batran and others, the report said.

The findings confirm an earlier report by a national fact-finding mission, which was ignored by the authorities until a new forensic report came out this summer.

“Was this all part of a plan and upon orders, or was it because of the pressures the officers were under, we don’t know yet,” said Ghada el-Shehbandar, a member of the EOHR board. “But we accuse the (former interior minister) of negligence and creating chaos.”

The police vanished from the streets three days after the revolt began, and the military took over. The police have yet to full redeploy, and the country is suffering a serious increase in crime, further complicating Egypt’s transition to a new regime.

The group said some prisoner escapes involved organized and heavily armed attempts to free relatives. But there is enough evidence, the report said, to suggest that some prison breaks were orchestrated by security officials “to spread chaos and instability and to bury the revolution.”

At one lockup, prisoners said they were left for days without food or water after the wardens fled, and only armed guards manning watchtowers remained behind.

Also Monday, Justice Ministry officials said two sons of Mubarak have an estimated $340 million in Swiss bank accounts.

Assem al-Gohary said Swiss authorities are investigating whether one of the sons, Alaa, was involved in money laundering along with other ex-regime figures.

At home, Mubarak and his sons have been charged with corruption and all three are under arrest. Mubarak is also charged with complicity in the killing of about 850 protesters during the uprising.

Switzerland has already frozen the assets of the Mubarak family and other ex-Egyptian regime figures, which al-Gohary estimated at nearly $450 million. He added that most of those assets belong to the sons.

Al-Gohary also said that the wealth of Mubarak’s top associate, tycoon Hussein Salem, and his family exceeded $4 billion. He added that Salem and his family have transferred funds overseas in the past six months, including to Hong King, the United Arab Emirates.

The 77-year-old Salem is co-defendant in the Mubarak corruption trial and faces charges in relation to lucrative land and other deals, including exporting gas to Israel. He is also under arrest in Madrid, Spain.

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From coast to coast and North to South, the Occupy Wall Street protest against corporate greed that started out with a few young people in a lower Manhattan park grew to vocal thousands with weekend rallies in about two dozen states and supporters joining in from Canada and overseas.

Tens of thousands nicknamed “the indignant” marched in cities across Europe on Saturday. Violence broke out in Rome and dozens were injured.

Marches in the United States remained largely nonconfrontational, although dozens of people were arrested in New York when police moved to contain overflowing crowds or keep them off private property. Two police officers in New York City were injured and had to be hospitalized.

In Times Square, thousands of demonstrators mixed with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan.

“Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” protesters chanted from within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away.

Sandra Fox, 69, of Baton Rouge, La., stood, confused, on 46th Street with a ticket for “Anything Goes” in her hand as riot police pushed a knot of about 200 shouting protesters toward her.

“I think it’s horrible what they’re doing,” she said of the protesters. “These people need to go get jobs.”

The Times Square rally lasted several hours before the crowd dispersed. Over the course of what was billed as “a global day of protest,” city police arrested more than 80 people in demonstrations at Times Square, Washington Square Park and a nearby Citibank bank branch. Police cited violations such as wearing masks, criminal trespass, and refusing to leave the park at midnight when police warned them it was closed.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said one of the police officers hospitalized suffered a head injury, the other a foot injury. Two dozen were arrested when demonstrators entered the Citibank bank branch and refused to leave, police said.

Citibank said in a statement that police asked the branch to close until the protesters could be taken away. “One person asked to close an account and was accommodated,” Citibank said.

Earlier in the day, as many as 1,000 demonstrators paraded to a Chase bank branch, banging drums, blowing horns and carrying signs decrying corporate greed. A few protesters went inside the bank to close their accounts, but the group didn’t stop other customers from getting inside or seek to blockade the business.

Lily Paulina of Brooklyn said she was taking her money out because she was upset that JPMorgan Chase was making billions, while its customers struggled with bank fees and home foreclosures.

“Chase bank is making tons of money off of everyone … while people in the working class are fighting just to keep a living wage in their neighborhood,” the 29-year-old United Auto Workers organizer said.

Police told the marchers to stay on the sidewalk, and the demonstration seemed fairly orderly as it wound through downtown streets.

Sergio Jimenez, 25, said he quit his job in Texas to come to New York to protest. He participated in an anti-war march to mark the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War.

“These wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all based on lies,” Jimenez said. “And if we’re such an intelligent country, we should figure out other ways to respond to terror, instead of with terror.”

Throughout the country _ from about 50 people in Jackson, Miss., to some 2,000 in Pittsburgh _ the protest gained momentum.

Nearly 1,500 protesters gathered for a march past banks in downtown Orlando, Fla. Hundreds marched on a Key Bank branch in Anchorage, and declared it be foreclosed. In Colorado, about 1,000 people rallied in downtown Denver to support Occupy Wall Street. Nearly 200 people spent a cold night in tents in Grand Circus Park in Detroit, donning gloves, scarves and heavy coats to keep warm. Helen Stockton, a 34-year-old certified midwife from Ypsilanti, said they planned to remain there “as long as it takes to effect change.”

“It’s easy to ignore us,” Stockton said. Then she referred to the financial institutions, saying, “But we are not going to ignore them. Every shiver in our bones reminds us of why we are here.”

Hundreds more converged near the Michigan’s Capitol in Lansing with the same message, the Lansing State Journal reported.

Rallies drew young and old, laborers and retirees. In Pittsburgh, marchers included parents with children in strollers. The peaceful crowd stretched for two or three blocks.

“I see our members losing jobs. People are angry,” said Janet Hill, 49, who works for the United Steelworkers, which she said hosted a sign-making event before the march.

Retired teacher Albert Siemsen said at a demonstration in Milwaukee that he’d grown angry watching school funding get cut at the same time banks and corporations gained more influence in government. The 81-year-old wants to see tighter Wall Street regulation.

Around him, protesters held signs reading: “Keep your corporate hands off my government,” and “Mr. Obama, Tear Down That Wall Street.”

In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick visited protesters in Boston’s Dewey Square for the first time. He said after walking through the camp that he better understands the range of views and was sympathetic to concerns about unemployment, health care and the influence of money in politics.

The Rev. Al Sharpton led a march in Washington that was not affiliated with the Occupy movement but shared similar goals. His rally was aimed at drumming up support for President Barack Obama’s jobs plan. Thousands of demonstrators packed the lawn in the shadow of the Washington Monument to hear labor, education and civil rights leaders speak.

Hundreds protested in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. Some announced plans to camp out indefinitely in St. James Park. Protests were also held in other cities across Canada from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Overseas, tens of thousands nicknamed “the indignant” marched in cities across Europe, as the protests that began in New York linked up with long-running demonstrations against government cost-cutting and failed financial policies in Europe. Protesters also turned out in Australia and Asia.

In the violence that broke out in Rome, police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters who broke away from the main demonstration, smashing shop and bank windows, torching cars and hurling bottles.

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