More than 200 people were arrested across the US on Wednesday as protesters marking the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq obstructed downtown traffic and tried to block access to government offices.
There were 32 arrests in Washington after demonstrators attempted to block entrances to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), while 30 others were arrested outside a congressional office building, police said.
Protesters had hoped to shut down the IRS, the US tax collection agency, to highlight the cost of the war. Police cleared the building's entrances within an hour.
In San Francisco, long a center of anti-Iraq War sentiment, police arrested more than 100 people who protested through the day along Market Street in the central business district, a spokesman said.
Sergeant Steve Maninna said officers had arrested 143 people on charges including trespassing, resisting arrest and obstructing traffic.
Four women were also detained for hanging a large banner off the Golden Gate Bridge and then released, said bridge spokeswoman Mary Currie.
On Washington's National Mall, about 100 protesters carried signs that read: "The Endlessness Justifies the Meaninglessness" and waved upside-down US flags, a traditional sign of distress.
"Bush and Cheney, leaders failed, Bush and Cheney belong in jail," they chanted, referring to US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
One hour after the IRS standoff, several dozen protesters waved signs that read: "Stop Paying to Kill" and "How Much Longer?" as a ragtag brass band played. IRS employees were easily able to enter the building.
"We wanted to put our bodies between the money and what that money goes to fund -- the war, the occupation, the bombs," said Frida Berrigan, an organizer with the War Resisters League.
The war has cost the country US$500 billion since the invasion to topple former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein began in March 2003 and is a major issue in November's US presidential election. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and millions more displaced, with almost 4,000 US soldiers killed.
Later, scores of noisy protesters blocked a busy intersection in Washington's business district. They picketed in front of the offices of the Washington Post and threw red paint on the building that houses the Examiner newspaper and Bechtel National Inc, which has handled major reconstruction projects in Iraq.
In New York, about 30 members of the "Granny Peace Brigade" gathered in Times Square, knitting in hand, to demand troops be brought home now.
"We're out here to show people that this war is madness. We never should have gotten into this war in the first place," said Shirley Weiner, 80.
Police in Boston arrested five people who blocked access to a military recruitment center by lying on a sidewalk dressed as slain Iraqi civilians, an Iraqi mourner, a slain US soldier and a US citizen in mourning.
"The war is not going to end," said Bob McGee, 67, from Livermore, about 70km east of San Francisco. "It doesn't matter who wins the election. The only thing that's going to stop it is the destruction of the economy."
"I feel like there's more and more dissent, even in Congress, but I'm not so sure that I trust them to represent the people's will," said Stephanie Alston, 33, who brought her nine-month-old daughter, Calliope, to the San Francisco march
"And it's already five years too late," she said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS