Protesters Worldwide Demand End to War

There was a sense of frustration among marchers in London. The turnout was well down from last month's mass rally, which drew at least 750,000 people, with police estimating turnout Saturday at 200,000. A new poll showed growing support for Blair, whose backing for war against Iraq has sparked opposition among Britons generally and within his governing Labor Party. In the United States, anti-war activists marched in dozens of cities, marshaling well over 100,000 in Manhattan. Tens of thousands protested in San Francisco after two days of anti-war rallies in which about 2,200 were arrested. In Washington, several hundred protesters, chanting "No blood for oil," rallied in front of the White House. In the Spanish capital Madrid, police fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters for the second day running. In Barcelona, police said 150,000 protested, while city hall officials estimated up to half a million. Dozens of protesters hurled rocks and paint at police who used tear gas and dogs to stop them from reaching the U.S. embassy in Oslo, Norway. About 90,000 people marched in Paris, police said. French protesters singled out the McDonald's fast food chain as a symbol of American influence, with protesters pelting rocks at a restaurant in Strasbourg and others bursting into a McDonald's in Lyon. Police said 30,000 people marched in Bern, Switzerland, where organizers estimated between 40,000 and 50,000. In Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, police said about 25,000 marched against the war, while organizers claimed 75,000. In Berlin, about 40,000 protested and one placard declared "Dresden 1945, Baghdad 2003: The same crime" -- a reference to the Allied firebombing of the eastern German city at the end of World War II.