From MSNBC:
PROTESTERS JAMMED midtown and lower Manhattan, with tens of thousands of people marching down Broadway, in a demonstration that extended from Herald Square to Washington Square Park.
Crowd estimates varied. New York City police officials first reported 40,000 participants, but later said it could have been larger. Demonstration organizers claimed 200,000 protesters. NBC News’ Don Lemon, characterizing the situation as “controlled chaos,” cited one police official who estimated there were as many as 4,000 people on each block of the 30-block demonstration.
NBC’s Lemon reported that 12 New York City police officers suffered minor injuries in Saturday’s demonstration, eight of which were due to being maced by protesters.
“We all want peace,” read one of the signs in the crowd, which included actors Roy Scheider, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, a Korean war veteran, said joining the march was not a rejection of patriotism.
“We support the troops, but we do not support the president,” Rangel said.
In Chicago, about 600 to 700 people rallied in support of the war at Federal Plaza, coming within 20 feet of antiwar activists in a standoff outside a federal building. The protesters shouted “Killers, killers, killers!” A military supporter yelled back “Idiots, idiots, idiots!”
‘THIS IS REALLY JUST THE START’
Demonstrations were smaller in Washington, the nation’s capital. Between 200 and 300 people rallied across from the White House in Lafayette Park for about an hour before marching through the streets, chanting “No blood for oil!”
From candlelight vigils to traffic disruptions, antiwar demonstrations that began on Friday in Boulder, Colo., San Francisco and other western cities were expected to continue as U.S. troops marched toward Baghdad. California officials braced for more actions in San Francisco and other locations, including Vandenberg Air Force Base.
“We will sustain this for many days. This is really just the start,” said Jamie Hurlbut, an office worker who joined protesters blocking downtown San Francisco traffic Friday after eight hours in police custody.
IRE IN BRITAIN
March 22 — Approximately 120,000 people marched through the streets of New York City on Saturday to protest the war in Iraq, NBC’s Don Lemon reports.
Demanding “Blair out!” and “Bring Our Boys Home!,” tens of thousands of antiwar protesters marched in central London on Saturday to denounce British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government over the Iraq conflict.
“I think Blair has gone totally against the wishes of the British people,” said Rick Edwards, out with his 8-year-old daughter for a demonstration that organizers said had swelled to at least 250,000 people by late afternoon.
A police spokesman put numbers much lower, at “upwards of 60,000.”
Blair’s commitment of 45,000 British troops alongside nearly a quarter of a million Americans for a war without U.N. blessing has divided Britain and presented Blair with the most serious, sustained opposition of his six-year premiership.
Police said 30,000 people marched in Bern, Switzerland. In Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, police said about 25,000 marched against the war, while organizers claimed 75,000.
In Berlin, about 40,000 protested and one placard declared “Dresden 1945, Baghdad 2003: The same crime” — a reference to the Allied firebombing of the eastern German city at the end of World War II.
FRANCE: MCDONALD’S A TARGET
Saturday’s biggest protests were in Europe, with dozens of demonstrations involving tens of thousands of people in Britain, France, Germany, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and other countries.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in San'a, the capital of Yemen. Police trying to control a march to the U.S. Embassy shot two rioters dead and wounded dozens of others.
A few radicals scuffled with police on the fringes of some rallies, but there were no reports of significant clashes or arrests. Dozens of protesters hurled rocks and paint at police who used tear gas and dogs to stop them reaching the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway.
Police said 90,000 people marched in Paris.
French protesters singled out the McDonald’s fast-food chain as a symbol of American influence. Protesters pelted rocks at a restaurant in Strasbourg and others burst into a McDonald’s in Lyon.
Protesters also gathered outside U.S. military bases in Europe.
About 5,000 people protested at an Air Force base in Fairford, England, from where U.S. B-52 bombers have been flying sorties. They lay flowers at the main gate for “the death of democracy.”
FROM SUDAN TO FINLAND
In the African nation of Sudan, anti-riot police shot dead a 19-year-old university student during a protest in the capital, Khartoum, his cousin told The Associated Press. Police were not immediately available for comment. No further details were available.
Jaakko Kartano, a student at a march in Helsinki, Finland, said “People ask what’s the use of this, but our task is to instill faith in people and try and prevent anything like it [the war] happening again.”
In New Zealand, demonstrators marched through the streets of the three main cities, calling for an immediate end to the conflict. Protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in Wellington demanded that U.S. diplomats be expelled. Thousands more marched in Auckland and Christchurch.
New Zealand had called for a U.N.-mandated solution to the crisis. Neighboring Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, has sent 2,000 military personnel to fight alongside the Americans and British.
An unidentified masked protester points at police guarding the American Embassy in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, on Saturday. Protesters shouted for U.S. diplomats to be expelled from New Zealand.
PROTESTS ACROSS ASIA
In Tokyo, hundreds of antiwar demonstrators held up photographs of Iraqi children wounded in the 1991 Gulf War and carried banners with peace messages.
“Prime Minister [Junichiro] Koizumi supported America’s war on Iraq ... but we want to let the world know that we citizens do not,” said Kensaku Ikeda, 69.
Newspaper polls showed Koizumi’s disapproval ratings rising because of his support for President Bush.
Demonstrators in Seoul, South Korea, condemned their country’s decision to send non-combat troops to support the war in Iraq. About 2,000 activists rallied and waved placards that read “No war” and “We oppose dispatching troops to the war.”
At a later rally, protesters burned an American flag and a portrait of Bush. Some carried placards that read: “Iraq now, Korea next.”
In India, hundreds of protesters were stopped from reaching the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. Antiwar demonstrations also were reported in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, home to a sizable Muslim population.
U.S. MIDEAST EMBASSIES CLOSE
U.S. embassies and diplomatic offices in some Persian Gulf countries remained closed Saturday, a day after violent protests in several Middle Eastern countries, including one in which three people were fatally shot outside the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
“There is a great deal of anti-American sentiment prevailing in the region following the war in Iraq,” said a U.S. official in Saudi Arabia, explaining the decision to keep the embassy in Riyadh and consulates in Jiddah and Dhahran, as well as the American school, closed for another day.
About 2,000 protesters rallied outside the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, shouting anti-U.S. slogans before marching to the U.N. office a few blocks away.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country and generally a U.S. ally, has long opposed attacking Iraq. Political and religious leaders have warned a strike could spark a widespread, possibly violent reaction.
MALAYSIA: ‘DESTROY AMERICA’
In Muslim Bangladesh, protesters in the capital, Dhaka, burned American flags and called for an immediate halt to hostilities.
In neighboring Muslim-majority Malaysia, about 8,000 people shouted “Destroy America” as they took part in a “peace run” in eastern Kelantan state. Officials cancelled a similar event in the capital Kuala Lumpur, fearing it could stoke emotions as the U.S.-led war entered a third day.
In Bangladesh, protesters in the capital, Dhaka, burned American flags and called for an immediate halt to hostilities.
The war prompted Pakistan to canceled its National Day celebrations, scheduled for Sunday.
“In view of the sad and tragic developments in Iraq and the deep anguish caused to the people of Pakistan, the government of Pakistan has decided to cancel the Pakistan day parade,” said a government statement.
