Anti-War Drums Still Loud Overseas

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators shut down airports and banks, snarled traffic with bicycles and called for boycotts of American products in the second day of global protests against the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

In Yemen, police clashed with anti-war demonstrators trying to storm the U.S. Embassy on Friday, leaving a policeman and protester dead amid a barrage of bullets, rocks, water cannons and tear gas canisters.

Dozens more people were injured, and three protesters were hospitalized in serious condition. A crowd of about 30,000 protesters chanted "Death to America!" as outrage over the U.S.-led attacks on Iraq spilled into the streets for a second day Friday.

The policeman was shot by demonstrators, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

A protester also was shot, he said without elaborating, although witnesses said the protester was hit by police gunfire.

Scores of soldiers in at least a dozen armored vehicles were called in to contain the demonstration, the most violent in the Yemeni capital since price-hike riots six years ago.

Yemen, where the government has been outspokenly opposed to war, has seen some of the largest and most volatile demonstrations recently in the region, where anti-American sentiment has risen and is expected to increase as the U.S.-led attack on Iraq continues.

In Greece, a four-hour nationwide strike called in opposition to the war brought the country to a standstill Friday. More than 150,000 people demonstrated in Athens, and more than 60,000 outside the U.S. Consulate in the northern port of Thessaloniki.

The strike in Greece shut down airports, banks, mass transportation and stores. Consumer unions called for a boycott of all American products, from clothes to movies. The Socialist government, which holds the European Union presidency, openly supported the protests.

Activists briefly blockaded a key U.S. military headquarters in Germany. More than 5,000 rallied in the streets of Melbourne after the Australian military confirmed its special forces were in Iraq with British and U.S. forces identifying targets for coalition aircraft and monitoring enemy troop movements.

Dozens of activists converged on the American Embassy in Buddhist Thailand. About 7,000 Muslims in Kota Baharu in eastern Malaysia burned British and U.S. flags as well as effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, demonstrators threw eggs and vegetables at the British Embassy in the capital, Jakarta, as small-scale protests spread across the nation.

Several thousand people demonstrated against the war in at least six cities, including some 800 who rallied outside the U.S. Consulate in the second-largest city, Surabaya. Elsewhere, groups besieged U.S. fast food restaurants and banks, and blocked traffic.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri has condemned the war as a violation of international law and Indonesian Muslim leaders have called President Bush a terrorist.

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir used tear gas to disperse about 50 protesters when they began hurling stones and bricks after emerging from Muslim prayers Friday. In China, police watched as two dozen foreigners carried protest placards in a Beijing park.

In Britain, scores of anti-war protesters on bicycles shouted anti-war slogans as they rode by Blair's office on their way to blocking Parliament Square in central London, where they caused havoc in a "Pedal for Peace" protest.

In Stuttgart, German police broke up a one-hour peaceful sit-down protest by about 80 activists outside the U.S. military's European Command — responsible for operations in 93 countries in Europe, Africa and parts of the Middle East.

In Tokyo, at least 11,000 people marched in warm spring weather after Bush called Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to thank the officially pacifist nation for joining his "coalition of the willing."

Koizumi has promised to provide aid for refugees and help rebuild Iraq after the fighting is over. But opinion polls show any kind of participation is extremely unpopular in a country with bitter memories of its crushing defeat in World War II and a pacifist constitution that prohibits the deployment of combat troops abroad.

Students and families carrying placards and giant paper birds — symbols of peace — were joined by flag-waving opposition politicians and labor union members.

"If our government can't stand up to the United States, then we citizens have to," said housewife Fumiko Nakajima, 38, marching with her husband and their two children.

Another 500 rallied on the southern island of Okinawa — home to more than half the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan. Additional protests were expected over the weekend.

In Pakistan, the nation's religious right called for peaceful protests against the war but withdrew demands for a nationwide strike, saying it would hurt ordinary Pakistanis.

In Bangladesh, thousands took to the streets after Muslim prayers under the tight watch of riot police. Wearing traditional long robes and prayer caps, they braved a drizzling rain to rally outside the central mosque in the capital, Dhaka.

The demonstrators then marched through the streets, shouting slogans such as "Stop the attack on Iraq" and "Bush is a war criminal."

The government of Bangladesh — a mostly Muslim nation — has expressed regret at the war.

Polish protesters, unhappy with their government's support for Washington, took gibes at the U.S.-led war effort with banners that read "Bombs for peace are like sex for virginity" in a rally in Warsaw.

Unhappy over a decision by Prime Minister Leszek Miller and President Aleksander Kwasniewski to commit 200 troops to the war, the 500 protesters also held banners reading, "Miller, Kwasniewski Bush's two dogs."

Friday's demonstrations came a day after thousands of activists around the United States launched a barrage of anti-war protests, chaining themselves together, blocking traffic, walking out of classes and parading in mock chemical suits.

But the anti-war groundswell also brought out thousands of counter-demonstrators. One in Mississippi carried a sign saying, "Support the U.S. or keep your mouth shut."