Protest

Laverne Johnson stood on the sweltering plaza in front of the Comcast Center, using a bullhorn to shout her opposition to Mayor Nutter's property-tax reform, the Actual Value Initiative. "Comcast pays zero in real estate taxes, while yours are going up, up, and away," she intoned in Thursday's 90-degree furnace. "AVI must go down. " (The Comcast Center skyscraper, at 17th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, has a 10-year tax abatement available to all new construction.) Behind her, a smattering of protesters, mostly activists from the rapidly gentrifying Graduate Hospital neighborhood, stood holding signs.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Thousands of people flooded Istanbul's main square Saturday after a crackdown on antigovernment protests turned city streets into a battlefield clouded by tear gas. Though he offered some concessions to demonstrators, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan remained largely defiant in the face of the biggest popular challenge to his power in a decade in office, insisting the protests are undemocratic and illegitimate. Public anger has flared among urban and secular Turks after police violently broke up an antidevelopment sit-in in the landmark Taksim Square, with protests spreading to dozens of other cities as demonstrators denounced what they see as Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian style.

LONDON - British police charged a second suspect Saturday with the murder of a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street, as right-wing and antifascist groups both demonstrated in response to a slaying that has heightened religious tensions in Britain. The Metropolitan Police said Michael Adebolajo, 28, was charged with the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. Adebolajo also is accused of attempting to murder two police officers, and possession of a firearm. Adebolajo was released from a hospital Friday after treatment for injuries suffered when he was shot by police in the May 22 attack near an army barracks in southeast London.

Outraged by Gov. Corbett's recent remarks about the lack of Latinos in his administration, about two dozen people gathered outside the governor's Philadelphia office Friday and delivered two binders filled with resumés. "If he is genuinely interested in putting Latinos on his staff, we have binders of resumés," said Pedro Rodriguez, who joined a group that gathered to deride Corbett as insensitive. The crowd gathered in front of the Union League about 1:30 p.m. and marched three blocks down Broad Street to the Hyatt at the Bellevue, site of the governor's regional office.

A Common Pleas Court judge has blocked a religious group from holding loud, racially charged demonstrations in front of the entrance to One Liberty Place at 16th and Chestnut Streets. Judge Ellen Ceisler, in a ruling issued Thursday, barred gatherings by a group that the owners of One Liberty Place said spewed hatred toward whites, women, and gays. They said the demonstrations disrupted the peace, disturbed passersby, and interferred with business at nearby shops. The group, which calls itself the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, gathered weekly, bullhorns in hand, and chanted offensive rants, according to a suit filed by the owners of One Liberty Place.

Several hundred people flocked to Center City on Saturday afternoon to join voices around the world in protesting genetically modified food and Monsanto, the agricultural corporation that is a leading producer of engineered seeds. "March Against Monsanto" took place in more than 250 cities around the country, as well as in more around the world, organizers said. Monsanto Co., based in St. Louis, said Saturday that it respects people's rights to express their opinions, but maintains that its seeds improve agriculture by helping farmers produce more from their land while conserving resources such as water and energy.

CHEERING ERUPTED from the demonstrators when 17th Street between Market and Chestnut in front of the Westin Philadelphia hotel was officially closed to provide them a forum. Several hundred of them, with whistles and picket signs, brought their own heated emotions to the already warm afternoon yesterday to protest the deadlock in contract negotiations with the city. Mayor Nutter, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is hosting a "Mayors' Innovation Summit" this week at the Westin.

Making no reference to protesters outside the Westin Hotel, Mayor Nutter welcomed 32 mayors and more than 200 other municipal officials Thursday to a three-day conference on innovation in city got government. The "Mayors' Innovation Summit," cosponsored by the city, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Temple University's Fox School of Business, is designed to let cities share ideas and accomplishments in using technology to improve city services. In opening remarks, Nutter touted some of his administration's own steps, including an open data initiative to share government data with the public, a 311 smartphone application for citizens to report problems and ask questions of city government, and creation of an Office of New Urban Mechanics to try to spur innovation throughout city departments.

TWO ACTIVISTS arrested at a pro-marijuana protest on Independence Mall on Saturday had different reactions to the same bad news in court yesterday. Authorities say Adam Kokesh, a former Marine, and Richard Tamaccio, a comedian who goes by N.A. Poe, "assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, and interfered" with National Park rangers at Saturday's "Smokedown Prohibition. " U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Rueter ordered both men held for a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday after Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Goldberg said Kokesh has been silent and uncooperative and pointed out Tamaccio's alleged "substantial drug use. " "Are you guys serious?