G20 protesters besiege London banks

About 4,000 have held a series of protests in Britain's capital, one day before the city hosts a meeting of leaders of the G20 countries to discuss the global financial crisis.While anti-capitalist protesters and those angry over the economic crisis converged on London's financial district on Wednesday, climate-change and anti-war activists gathered in other parts of the city.While most of the protesters were peaceful, some smashed the windows of the offices of the Royal Bank of Scotland, whose dire financial situation prompted a government takeover, and wrote "thieves" on the side of the walls of the bank.Other demonstrators threw fruit and eggs at police officers during the protests.Riot police confined most of the activists to Threadneedle Street, next to the Bank of England, who responded with "shame on you" chants.Police said a number of their officers had been injured in the protests.In a statement police added there had been "a number of missiles thrown at officers and a number of surges at the police cordons, and increasing levels of violence towards police".At least two dozen were arrested during the demonstrations, with police mounting one of Britain's biggest security operations.