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Portland declares a riot as police union HQ set alight

AUTHORITIES in the north-western US city of Portland declared a riot on Saturday night and cleared protesters from outside the Portland Police Association building after a group broke in and set it alight.

Officers drove back crowds with smoke bombs a day after clashes in which protesters pelted them with fireworks, stones and hard-boiled eggs, in a sign that the huge protests prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement that have rocked the city for weeks are not abating.

City authorities had clashed with the Donald Trump administration over its deployment of federal agents to break up protests and spirit demonstrators away in unmarked cars, but the confrontation was defused after Oregon Governor Kate Brown negotiated a phased withdrawal of the officers with US Vice-President Mike Pence.

Nevertheless feelings continue to run high as a protester was nearly killed with a rubber bullet fired by federal officers, while two of the latter were permanently blinded by lasers wielded by protesters.

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