Students protests held in cities across Italy

A series of student protests took places in cities across Italy on Friday to oppose the cutting of education funding, according to local media. Earlier this morning, a group of student protesters managed to hang a huge poster over one of Rome's most famous monuments, The Altar of the Homeland, depicting Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti as a vampire. The marble monument commemorates the soldiers that contributed their lives to the country, known as the Italy's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which also features an equestrian sculpture of Victor Emmanuel II, honoring the nation's first king. "Unfortunately, today we are once again faced with the problems caused by a protest in our city. Only 1,000 students have managed to paralyze the capital. Romans are fed up and once again we turn to the interior ministry to lay down some rules, if not we risk suffocating," Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno told local media. In Milan, some 1,000 students, according to the organizer, clashed with the police outside the headquarters of the Lombardy Region, where a conference was taking place, causing several injuries. Similar protests broke out in Naples, Turin, Palermo and other parts of the country. Some students and police are reported injured, while some students have been detained for "unauthorized" protests, according to ANSA news agency.