Rioters cancel first ladies' hospice visit

STRASBOURG, France, April 4 (UPI) -- Protests in Strasbourg forced U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to cancel an outing to a cancer hospice.

The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday that Obama and French first lady Carla Bruni had to call off their trip amid protests in which Molotov cocktails and scaffolding poles were thrown at police.

"We've had to cancel a planned visit to the hospice because of the danger to all involved," a spokesman for the French president was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The Telegraph said about 1,000 protesters chanted and waved banners outside the hospice. One banner accused the leaders' wives of being "spoiled tools of capitalism."

There are 26 world leaders in the French city, including U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The meeting marks NATO's 60th anniversary.