GERMANY: Czech police arrested more than 30 people after clashes between neo-Nazis and anti-fascist protesters in Prague's historic Jewish quarter on Saturday.
Some 200 Czech, Slovak and German neo-Nazis defied a court order to hold a march in the city a day after the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938, the Nazi-organised night of violent against Jewish homes and businesses.
About 2,000 people - mostly members of Prague's Jewish community and anti-fascist groups - gathered in the Jewish quarter to block them.
Carrying signs reading "Never Again" and wearing yellow Stars of David, the Nazi-era badge to identify Jews, the protesters stood in vigil outside the Pinkas Synagogue.
The inside walls of the building are filled with the names of the 77,000 Jews who perished in wartime Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust.
Also participating in the vigil were foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg and Czech president Vaclav Klaus, who condemned the planned march.
Keeping the two groups apart were more than 1,400 police who donned riot gear and kept water cannon mounted on armoured vehicles.
Despite police reinforcements, some 30 neo-Nazis reached the old town and were confronted by waiting demonstrators, sparking scuffles with black-clad members of anti-fascist groups.
Officers seized a wide array of weapons including sticks, axes, a gas gun and several molotov cocktails.
At least six people were injured in what mayor of Prague Pavel Bem described later as "small brawls".
"We did everything necessary to prevent the anniversary of Kristallnacht being abused for propaganda by an extremist movement," he said, calling on Czech authorities to "cultivate national memory to prevent what's passed happening again".
The Czech Republic's Young National Democrats registered the march ostensibly as a protest demonstration against Czech military involvement in Iraq.
On Saturday morning, three buses of German neo-Nazis arrived in Prague with a Czech police escort.
The Young National Democrats denies it is a neo-Nazi or anti-Semitic organisation but complains on its website that Czech leaders are "puppets" of the "international Jewish lobby".