ROME (Reuters) - A fire bomb exploded outside the offices of Italian tax collection agency Equitalia in the northern city of Verona on Friday, police said. 
 
 Another device planted in the entrance failed to explode, and was made safe by firemen after the first blast smashed glass doors at the tax office in the early hours of Friday morning, a police spokesman said. Nobody was hurt. 
 
 Equitalia offices have been the target of a series of threats and attacks this year. 
 
 The agency is widely associated with tax hikes imposed by the technocrat government of Mario Monti, who has cut spending and led a crackdown on fiscal evasion in a bid to cut public debt that has made Italy a focus of the euro zone crisis. 
 
 Tough methods adopted by Equitalia have made it a focus of ill-feeling, particularly in Italy’s economically prosperous north where tax increases are apt to be seen as props for poorer and corruption-riddled southern regions. 
 
 The image of such agencies was further tarnished this week, when the head of a different tax collection agency and four employees were arrested on charges of stealing 100 million euros ($130 million) from revenue they gathered. ($1 = 0.7689 euro) ||||| ROME Students clashed with Italian police in widespread protests on Friday against austerity measures imposed by Prime minister Mario Monti's government. 
 
 Thousands of university and high school students marched in major cities, including Rome, Milan and Naples, chanting slogans and carrying banners such as "Save schools not banks". 
 
 The protests were the latest in a string of strikes and large-scale street protests against Monti's spending cuts and economic reforms. 
 
 "The protest is to renew the political class, to get rid of those who are corrupt," said Giulio Bianco, 18. 
 
 "The politicians make the ordinary people pay. These are heavy sacrifices, and it is a risky policy to keep imposing them," the high school student from Rome said. 
 
 Up to six policemen were wounded in Rome, police said, after students wearing motorcycle helmets and carrying home-made shields pelted them with stones and tried to rush a police van before being driven back in a baton charge. 
 
 TV pictures from Bologna showed students throwing eggs at a branch of UniCredit bank and trampling on a BNP Paribas flag, while in Palermo protesters burnt copies of political manifestos. 
 
 Young people have borne the brunt of rising joblessness in Italy, where the youth unemployment rate is 35 percent, more than three times the overall level. 
 
 "We are worried about our prospects and about the future of our country," Madalina Ursu, 19, told Reuters. 
 
 (Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Dan Lalor)
– Thousands of angry students protested government austerity measures across Italy today and injured up to six policemen in Rome, hitting them with stones while hiding behind homemade shields, Reuters reports. The students also tried rushing a Rome police van but were driven back by batons. Other protests against the policies of Prime Minister Mario Monti's government were staged in major cities like Naples, Milan, and Rome. "The protest is to renew the political class, to get rid of those who are corrupt," said a high school student in Rome. "The politicians make the ordinary people pay. These are heavy sacrifices, and it is a risky policy to keep imposing them." Meanwhile in Verona, a bomb detonated outside a tax collection office and another one failed to go off—but no one got hurt. The office, called Equitalia, has been hit and threatened several times this year for being associated with government tax hikes, reports Reuters.