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A new wave of weekend anti-war protests engulfed world cities as the US-led war with Iraq entered its ninth day on Saturday.
In New York, over 1,000 Arab-Americans rallied along Broadway in downtown New York in the first large-scale demonstration organized by Arab-American groups since the war started on March 19.
Demonstrators with kaffiyehs on their heads and necks chanted "We don't want your racist war," "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Some protesters carried Palestinian flags.
One organizer said the march was aimed to link the Iraq war with the conflict between Palestine and Israel. The demonstration coincided with "Day of the Land," a Palestinian holiday commemorating the deaths of six Palestinians at the hands of Israeli soldiers on March 29, 1976.
The protesters ran into about 10 pro-war demonstrators at 31st Street, who marched along the sidewalk with American flags and signs saying "New York supports our troops" in a counter-protest. The two sides traded cries of "Shame on you," but they were separated by a long line of police officers.
Following the outbreak of the war, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has summoned some 6,700 Iraqi Americans for questioning. This massive questioning on the basis of national origin and background has led to criticism among civil right groups in the United States.
German protesters formed a 50-kilometer-long human chain as part of the anti-Iraqi war activities staged throughout the country.
About 40,000 people joined hand in hand in the human chain, which ran along a highway between Osnabrueck and Muenster.
Elsewhere in Germany, some 25,000 demonstrators rallied in Berlin and listened to anti-war speeches, and others formed a human chain around the perimeter of the US European Command in Stuttgart. About 1,100 mounted a sit-in at the main gate to a US Air Force Base in Frankfurt.
Thousands of people marched across Britain on Saturday to protest the war, in a bid to keep pressures on the British government, which has sent 45,000 troops.
Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop The War Coalition and a keyanti-war campaigner in the country, said protests were staged in 40 to 50 cities all over Britain.
At mid-day, about 300 people held demonstration outside the BBC television offices in London as part of a campaign for promoting media coverage of deaths and injuries to civilians.
"BBC, ITV, how many lies have you told me," the protesters shouted.
Also on Saturday, the first march in support of troops was staged by armed forces families in Exeter, Devon, and southwestern England. Some 250 people joined the march.
Ken Hill, a former member of the Royal Corps Signals and the march's organizer, told reporters that the march was not pro-war but specifically aimed at letting the troops know that people in Britain were backing them.
Peace demonstrations took place across Italy on Saturday, including one outside an air base in Ghedi near Brescia.
Organizers said 10,000 pacifists took part in the peace march in Ghedi, which began at the city's monument to the fallen from the Second World War and ended in front of the air base.
Some protesters hurled objects like bottles and stones over the fence surrounding the base.
Italian public security officials said a total of 43 demos against the US-led war on Iraq were held in Italy, involving almost 100,000 demonstrators.
They said some 10,000 police were put on duty to "ensure the demos were staged in a peaceful manner."
The biggest rallies were in Bologna, Naples and Turin, and there were reports of minor clashes between protesters and police.
Italy's center-right government has taken a pro-US line on the Iraqi crisis despite opposition from the center left and strong anti-war sentiment amongst the Italian public.
In Athens, Greece, about 15,000 demonstrators chanting "We'll stop the war" marched to the American embassy, with some of them splashing red paint on the road outside the embassy building and onto the front windows of a nearby McDonald's restaurant.
In Veria, northern Greece, 2,000 protesters gathered near a meeting of European Union justice and interior ministers who ended two days of informal talks Saturday.
Several thousands of protesters also gathered in the northern city of Salonica.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the street in France. Organizers said 60,000 people took part in the protests in Paris, police put the figure at 18,000. Demonstrations were also held in Lyon, Marsaille and Lille.
Thousands of people in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, including students, intellectuals and members of the Iraqi, Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian communities there, participated in a march on Saturday to reject the invasion of Iraq.
The protesters marched peacefully to the Los Museos Square, in downtown Caracas, and condemned the crimes committed by the United States and its allies against the Iraqi people.
They also shouted slogans against the United States and its president George W. Bush, which read, "Bush, murderer" and "No more blood for oil."
Over 100 Argentine young men on Saturday posted anti-war slogans both inside and outside a McDonald's restaurant in central Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, and burnt US flags in front of the restaurant.
Over 3,000 Peruvian civilians, holding candles and chanting anti-war slogans, marched in the capital of Lima on Friday night. They asked the United States and Britain to stop military action in Iraq immediately and requested that the Peruvian government denounce and reject the war.
Protesters in Chile and Cuba also held peaceful rallies against the war in Iraq.
In Bangladesh, angry protesters burnt a US flag and an effigy of US President George W. Bush in front of the US embassy in Dhaka.
In the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, police used tear gas to disperse a crowd outside the Australian embassy. Australia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq.
Demonstrations were also held in South Korea, Poland, Hungary, and Russia.
(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2003)
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