World / Nation Briefs October 17, 2011

Thousands of protesters fill New York City's Times Square

NEW YORK - Thousands of demonstrators protesting corporate greed filled Times Square on Saturday night, mixing with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan.

"Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" protesters chanted from within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away.

Sandy Peterson of Salt Lake City, who was in Times Square after seeing "The Book of Mormon" musical on Broadway, got caught up in the disorder.

"We're getting out of here before this gets ugly," she said.

Sandra Fox, 69, of Baton Rouge, La., stood, confused, on 46th Street with a ticket for "Anything Goes" in her hand as riot police pushed a knot of about 200 shouting protesters toward her.

"I think it's horrible what they're doing," she said of the protesters. "These people need to go get jobs."

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators had marched north through Manhattan from Washington Square Park earlier in the afternoon. Once in Times Square, they held a rally for several hours before dispersing. Over the course of the day, more than 80 people were arrested.

After midnight, about 10 people were loaded into a police van after refusing to leave Washington Square Park, where protesters had returned to convene a meeting following the Times Square rally. The police had warned protesters that the park had closed, and began massing in riot gear and on horses a few minutes before then; most people had left by then.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said 42 people were arrested in Times Square on Saturday night after being warned repeatedly to disperse; three others were arrested while trying to take down police barriers.

Two police officers were injured during the protest and had to be hospitalized. One suffered a head injury, the other a foot injury, Browne said.

Five people wearing masks were arrested earlier in the day, and two dozen were arrested on charges of criminal trespass when demonstrators entered a Citibank bank branch near Washington Square Park and refused to leave, police said. One protester was arrested on a charge of resisting arrest.

Citibank said in a statement that police asked the branch to close until the protesters could be taken away. "One person asked to close an account and was accommodated," Citibank said.

Earlier in the day, demonstrators paraded to a Chase bank branch, banging drums, blowing horns and carrying signs decrying corporate greed. Marchers throughout the country emulated them in protests that ranged from about 50 people in Jackson, Miss., to about 2,000 in the larger city of Pittsburgh.

A few protesters went inside the bank to close their accounts, but the group didn't stop other customers from getting inside or seek to blockade the business.

Police told the marchers to stay on the sidewalk, and the demonstration appeared to be fairly orderly as it wound through downtown streets.

66 dead in Central America after days of downpours

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Authorities said at least 66 people have died in flooding and landslides provoked by six days of heavy rains in Central America. Evacuations are under way amid forecasts of more rain.

Salvadoran civil protection director Jorge Melendez said most of his country's 24 dead were buried in their homes by landslides.

Melendez told a news conference Sunday that residents are being evacuated from the flanks of the San Salvador volcano, where hundreds died in landslides in 1982.

The Guatemalan president has declared a state of emergency for his country, where at least 23 have died, and Honduras has seen at least nine deaths and evacuated more than 1,000 people. Rains have started to ease in Nicaragua, where at least five have died.

Libyans bulldoze Gadhafi's Tripoli compound

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libyan revolutionary forces bulldozed the green walls surrounding Moammar Gadhafi's main Tripoli compound on Sunday, saying it was time "to tear down this symbol of tyranny."

The sprawling, fortress-like compound known as Bab al-Aziziya has long been hated by Libyans who feared to even walk nearby during Gadhafi's more than four decades in power and its capture was seen as a turning point in the civil war as revolutionaries overran the capital in late August.

Ahmad Ghargory, commander of a revolutionary brigade, said the area will be turned into a public park accessible to all Libyans.

"It's the revolutionary decision to tear down this symbol of tyranny," Ghargory said. "We were busy with the war, but now we have the space to do this."

Already, the courtyard in front of Gadhafi's former house, which he used for many fiery speeches trying to rally supporters during the uprising, has been turned into a weekly pet market. Tripoli residents roam the premises as if at a museum, with vendors selling revolutionary flags and other souvenirs.

Libyans are eager to move on after decades of repression, even though fighting persists on two fronts and tensions between supporters of the former regime and revolutionary forces remain high.

- The Associated Press