Lively protests staged aroind the globe

Lively protests staged aroind the globe

Agencies, Manila/Bogota

Lively demonstrations against the U.S.-led strike on Iraq were staged in several cities across the globe on Friday.

Doves were set free in Pakistan and antiwar protesters scuffled with police outside the National Assembly in South Korea, a traditional U.S. ally.

Inside, lawmakers postponed a vote for a second time on a bill to authorize the dispatch of 700 non-combat military personnel to the Gulf.

Many lawmakers say they'll oppose the bill, even though President Roh Moo-hyun says support for the United States is in his country's strategic interest as rival North Korea stands accused of restarting its nuclear weapons program.

In Bogota, Colombians threw home-made hand grenades outside the U.S. Embassy as thousands of demonstrators, some waving Iraqi flags, staged a violent antiwar protest in which at least 10 people were injured.

Riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd of mostly university students, who were challenging Colombia's diplomatic alliance with the U.S. over the war in Iraq.

"Yankees Go Home!" read dozens of banners, a phrase often used in university protests against U.S. involvement in Colombia's drug-fueled guerrilla war. Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine, and the United States has poured about US$2 billion in mostly military aid into the war on drugs.

In Amman, about 1,000 antiwar protesters clashed with riot police who blocked them from reaching the Israeli Embassy. The police used baton charges to drive the demonstrators away from the embassy.

In Cairo, more than 15,000 protesters marched from the Al- Azhar mosque through the old part of the city, chanting "with our soul and blood, we redeem you Baghdad".

In Dhaka, thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims took to the streets of the capital after weekly Friday prayers to protest the U.S.- led military attack on Iraq, witnesses said.

More than 5,000 activists from the Islamic Oikkya Jote, a small partner of the ruling alliance headed by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, marched through the streets shouting slogans against the war, President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a series of demonstrations in Laos to protest the war in Iraq, Radio Vientiane reported on Friday.

The official Laos government mouthpiece, monitored in Bangkok, said five demonstrations were held on Thursday in the provinces of Xieng Khong, Saravan, Houaphan, Phonsali and Savanakhet.

In Manila, an estimated 5,000 people staged a peaceful demonstration in the Philippine capital's financial district on Friday to denounce the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, witnesses said.

Muslim women joined Roman Catholic nuns, office workers, university students and leftist groups as they marched on Ayala Avenue, the key artery of Makati district, the headquarters of most of the country's top businesses.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, shops were shut and roads deserted for a second day on Friday in the city of Srinagar, where an outlawed Muslim rebel group called a strike to protest the war.

About 300 Muslims in Cambodia prayed for Iraqi civilians, while Christian and Muslim clerics marched against the war in Iraq in the Philippines.

They gathered at a mosque near Phnom Penh to pray for Iraqi civilians.

"Their pain is our pain too. We pray to Allah to help safeguard them from all dangers and misfortune," Sae Lee, a 68- year-old Muslim leader, said through a loudspeaker.