NYC Demos Keep On Comin'

Thousands of abortion-rights activists marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, the latest in a growing procession of protests leading up to the GOP convention.

Protesters were expected to gather late in the day in Central Park and at the World Trade Center site, where demonstrators against President Bush planned to ring 2,749 bells - one for each victim of the Sept. 11 attacks there.

Separately, a U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national were arrested in an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan, and possibly other locations around the city, police said Saturday.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the men were not believed to be connected to al Qaeda or any other international terrorist organization, although he said they expressed hatred for America.

The men had been under police surveillance and had discussed placing explosives at the Herald Square subway station and stations at 42nd and 59th streets, Kelly told reporters. The men never obtained explosives, he said.

"It was clear that they had the intention to cause damage, to kill people," Kelly said. "They did not immediately have the means to do it."

Kelly said the men visited the Herald Square station - one block from Madison Square Garden, site of next week's Republican National Convention - on Aug. 21.

Kelly identified the men as Shahawar Matin Siraj, 21, a Pakistani national living in the Jackson Heights section of Queens, and James El Shafay, 19, a U.S. citizen living on Staten Island.

The men were being charged with conspiracy to blow up the Herald Square facility, Kelly said. They appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in Brooklyn federal court and were ordered held without bail. Attorney Tom Dunn, who represents El Shafay, said his client would plead not guilty. Siraj's attorney, Heidi Cesare, had no comment.

While Kelly said the men did not appear to be part of a terrorist group, a law-enforcement source told The Associated Press that Siraj was once an associate of suspects in an ongoing federal terrorism and money-laundering investigation.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the group of suspects distanced themselves from Siraj because they considered him "a loose cannon."

The Herald Square station, which sits under the junction of 34th Street, Sixth Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan, is central to a large commercial district, including Macy's flagship department store.

The men also scouted three police stations on Staten Island and a jail there, Kelly said. They drew maps of those sites and a map of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to Staten Island, Kelly said.

Though there was no clear tie to the convention, authorities moved to arrest the two men before the convention began, two law-enforcement sources told The Associated Press.

"Their motive was generally hatred for America," Kelly said. He said one of the men had also made anti-Semitic statements.

The Brooklyn Bridge march, organized by the abortion rights group Planned Parenthood, attracted thousands of people on a hot, humid day. They crossed the bridge in a line 10 people wide and about a half-mile long.

"I demand and cherish that right," said Sara Breman, 22, a student from Austin, Texas. "Under Bush that right is being threatened through their way of teaching sexual education - by teaching abstinence."

Some of the marchers chanted: "What does democracy look like?" While others answered, "This is what democracy looks like!"

Police on foot and in cars were monitoring the protests. There were no early reports of arrests.

Once the protesters crossed the bridge, they were headed for a rally at City Hall. Actress Kathleen Turner, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi and Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt were among the marchers.

Police on foot and in cars were monitoring the protests, but there were no early reports of arrests.

On Friday night, 264 people were arrested for disorderly conduct in a protest bicycle ride that snaked through the city and passed by Madison Square Garden, where the convention opens Monday.

The bike ride represented the first major clash between police and demonstrators converging on the city for the convention.

Later Saturday, an anti-war group called the ANSWER coalition was encouraging people to gather in Central Park. But the park was peaceful early, with its usual assortment of sunbathers and softball players.

Also Saturday, a group called Ring Out planned to encircle Ground Zero in lower Manhattan and ring 2,749 bells to honor those who died at the World Trade Center. The group has said it intends to show President Bush does not speak for trade center victims or New Yorkers.

Still, the protests were expected to be a mere prelude to Sunday, when a huge anti-war march was to pass by the convention site and end at Union Square Park in Manhattan.

Organizers of that march have said it could draw 250,000 people. The city refused to allow a rally in Central Park, but organizers suggested protesters could spontaneously gather there anyway after the march.