Anger on the streets at asylum centres, wages and fuel prices

Peaceful rallies mixed with political tension.

Australia

Police on horseback charged demonstrators after 500 people blockaded offices of a company that runs asylum seeker detention centres.

Belgium

Parties from left and right staged peaceful rallies across the country. Supporters of the ultra-nationalist Flemish Bloc met in Bruges while Liberal, socialist and ecologist party leaders called for unity to stop the rise of extremist politicians.

Croatia

Around 5,000 workers marched through Zagreb to protest at the government's plan to reduce labour rights.

Cuba

Authorities called out more than a million citizens to protest at Latin American criticism of Cuba's human rights record.

Germany

Police in Berlin used teargas to quell overnight clashes with anarchists who threw rocks, started street fires and looted a supermarket. An estimated 5,000 police turned several parts of the capital into restricted zones. Some 700 supporters of a far-right fringe party marched through a suburb, escorted by nearly 2,000 police.

Greece

Around 3,000 protesters burned effigies of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and the US president, George Bush, in Athens, in several peaceful gatherings through the country.

Hong Kong

More than 500 pilots took to the streets alongside Filipino maids demanding a minimum wage in a march protesting at the widening wealth gap.

India

Nearly 3,000 prostitutes from India, Bangladesh and Nepal held a parade in Calcutta demanding legal status and social security.

Indonesia

Thousands of workers took to the streets calling for May Day to be made a national holiday, higher minimum wages and a halt to subsidy cuts on fuel and electricity demanded by the International Monetary Fund.

Italy

Some 75,000 union members, many clutching red carnations, attended a rally in Bologna with the slogan: "For peace, employment, the defence of rights and against terrorism."

Malaysia

Police arrested 17 peaceful protesters leading workers to a rally in Kuala Lumpur, and then roughed up some workers as they tried to flee on buses. The main rally never took place.

Philippines

Thousands of demonstrators were met by riot police amid coup rumours. Police said they thwarted two possible terrorist attacks, including one that might have targeted President Gloria Arroyo.

Russia

Hundreds of thousands of Russians attended marches and rallies, many carrying red banners, flags, and other symbols of the Soviet past. In Moscow at least 140,000 took part in demonstrations.

Spain

Around 60,000 people took part in a Madrid demonstration headed by leaders of labour groups, who have threatened a general strike if the government of Jose Maria Aznar tries to push ahead with plans to shake up unemployment benefits.

Singapore

The secretary general of the opposition Singapore Democratic party, Chee Soon Juan, and his party associate, Gandhi Ambalam, tried to give anti-poverty speeches outside the presidential palace. Both were arrested.

Turkey

Tens of thousands gathered in the streets of Istanbul to celebrate May Day. Many waved Palestinian flags, while others carried placards condemning the government's IMF-backed economic policies. Security police clashed used armoured vehicles to break up a protest in eastern Turkey.