Protests against Iraq war simmer in Asia, Mideast<\/p>\n
Agencies, Dhaka<\/p>\n
Opponents of the U.S.-led war against Iraq rallied outside U.S.
\nembassies in Asian and Middle Eastern countries on Tuesday,
\nkeeping up a barrage of criticism of President George W. Bush and
\nurging a boycott of U.S. movies and music.<\/p>\n
Protests were held in the Muslim-majority countries of
\nBangladesh and Malaysia. In Indonesia, the world's most populous
\nMuslim nation, there were calls to boycott Western movies and
\nmusic.<\/p>\n
In Australia's cold and damp Tasmania, women stripped to the
\nbuff and lay down to spell out \"No War\".<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators again took to the
\nstreets of Middle East capitals on Tuesday to protest against the
\nwar on neighboring Iraq, burning U.S., British and Israeli flags.<\/p>\n
Members of the crowd in Damascus called Bush a \"pig\" and a
\n\"criminal\" and described British Prime Minister Tony Blair as
\nBush's \"lackey and dog\".<\/p>\n
\"We will sacrifice ourselves for Iraq,\" they chanted as they
\nmarched from the Hijaz train station to parliament.<\/p>\n
\"Bush, Blair, (Israeli President Ariel) Sharon, the triangle
\nof international terrorism,\" read their placards.<\/p>\n
The demonstrators, mostly civil servants, students and members
\nof Syria's Baath party-led ruling coalition, also carried
\nportraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Iraqi
\ncounterpart Saddam Hussein.<\/p>\n
Syria has been a strong critic of the ongoing war.<\/p>\n
Antiriot police posted around the U.S. Embassy prevented the
\ndemonstrators from approaching the mission.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the Arab world, thousands of Libyans as well as
\nother Arab and African nationals demonstrated in Tripoli, where
\nthey burnt effigies of war allies Bush and Blair.<\/p>\n
\"With our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Iraq,\"
\nchanted the crowd estimated to number 30,000 outside the Iraqi
\nembassy.<\/p>\n
Police cordoned off roads leading to the embassies of Britain
\nand Kuwait, where a Kuwaiti flag was torn down on Sunday by
\nprotesters angry at the emirate's support for the war on its
\nneighbor Iraq.<\/p>\n
In Egypt, thousands of students kept up their daily pro-Iraq
\ndemonstrations held around the country since the start of the war
\naimed at toppling Saddam, organizers said.<\/p>\n
\"Open the borders, let us go fight,\" students chanted in Kafr
\nal-Sheikh, north of Cairo. \"Bush, Blair, Sharon, go to hell.\"<\/p>\n
More than 3,000 students at Menufiya university, also north of
\nCairo also demonstrated, as did 2,000 from the women's section of
\nAl-Azhar Islamic university in the capital.<\/p>\n
Students in Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast said they
\nhad launched a solidarity campaign, calling random telephone
\nsubscribers in Iraq to pledge their support for Baghdad.<\/p>\n
Nearly 2,000 antiwar protesters scuffled with security forces
\nin the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka as they broke through police
\nlines set up to guard the U.S. Embassy.<\/p>\n
Police chased and dispersed the protesters, who stormed
\nthrough the barbed wire barricade set up several blocks away from
\nthe embassy, witnesses said.<\/p>\n
The protesters, chanting \"Drop Bush, not bombs\" and \"No war
\nfor oil\", burned a U.S. flag and an effigy of Bush.<\/p>\n
In Malaysia, about 100 ruling and opposition party supporters
\nprotested together outside the U.S. embassy in a rare show of
\nunity, demanding an immediate end to the attack on Iraq.<\/p>\n
It was the first street protest in the capital Kuala Lumpur
\nsince the war began and came a day after the parliament of the
\nmostly moderate Muslim country passed a motion condemning the
\nattack.<\/p>\n
Protesters shouted \"Bush is a devil\" and \"The U.S. is a
\ngangster\". Others chanted \"Allahu Akbar\" (God is greatest) and
\nrecited Muslim prayers.<\/p>\n
The opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) called for a
\nreview of economic ties with the United States and defense ties
\nwith Australia and Britain. Britain and Australia are the main
\nU.S. allies in the war against Iraq.<\/p>\n
\"We should also apply economic pressures against the U.S.,\"
\nPAS youth leader Mahfuz Omar told reporters.<\/p>\n
In neighboring Indonesia, a youth wing of the vice president's
\nparty called on cinemas in a major city to stop showing movies
\nfrom the United States, Britain and Australia, a radio reported.<\/p>\n
The Muslim-oriented group also called on radio stations to
\nstop playing songs from the three countries, said Jakarta-based
\nRadio Elshinta.<\/p>\n
In the southern Australian island of Tasmania, 35 women
\nstripped off and lay down in a paddock to spell out \"No War\" in a
\ndisrobe for disarmament protest.<\/p>\n
With the temperature around five degrees Celsius (41
\nFahrenheit), they were naked for about 40 minutes, after which
\nmost headed off to work.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, antiwar demonstrators thronged the streets of San
\nFrancisco on Monday, blocking entrances one of the city's top
\nlandmarks as part of a dogged campaign against the U.S. war on
\nIraq, police said.<\/p>\n
The protests were among scores that have erupted across the
\nUnited States since U.S.-led forces attacked Iraq last week.<\/p>\n
More than 150 people were arrested in Germany after scuffles
\nbroke out Monday as some 20,000 protesters, most of them school
\nstudents who skipped class, protested at the war on Iraq, police
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Police used water cannon after some demonstrators in the
\nnorthern port city of Hamburg had pelted them with stones. The
\nmarchers had already moved away from the agreed route to try to
\nreach the U.S. consulate, but it was sealed off.<\/p>",
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