The majority of those arrested were given citations for disorderly conduct and were released, police said.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence, or violent co-annihilation." martin luther king. 4 april 1967.ny

Nobody can predict the moment of revolution.

Crisis-weary Icelanders pelt lawmakers with eggs at opening of new parliamentary session


REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Icelanders angry about the price debt-burdened citizens are paying for their country's economic crisis pelted lawmakers with eggs Saturday during a protest at the opening of the new parliamentary session. One legislator was slightly injured.

The protesters were demanding the government do more to help households crippled by debt since the tiny country's banks collapsed in 2008, bringing the economy to a standstill.

More than 1,000 people gathered outside Iceland's parliament, the Althingi, in central Reykjavik, with some banging pots and pans and hurling food and fireworks at the building. As lawmakers, dignitaries and the country's president walked to the traditional start-of-term Mass at a cathedral next door, they were hit with yoghurt and eggs.

Lawmaker Arni Thor Sigurdsson of the Left Green Movement fell to the ground after being hit on the head by an egg and was helped into the cathedral by colleagues.

Police formed a cordon to protect the politicians as they emerged from the church service, but more eggs rained down as they walked back to the parliament building. The protest broke up soon afterward and no arrests were made.

Noisy demonstrations have become common in Iceland, a North Atlantic island nation of 320,000 that, until the credit crunch hit, had a fast-expanding economy and one of the world's highest standards of living.

The country's major banks all collapsed within a week in October 2008, its krona currency plummeted and a series of demonstrations dubbed the "saucepan revolution" toppled the centre-right government.

The left-wing coalition that replaced it has also faced protests against plans for debt-slashing austerity measures.

While the economy is slowly recovering, many Icelanders took out foreign-currency loans and mortgages during the boom years that they have struggled to repay since the krona's collapse.

The organizers of Saturday's protest handed the government a 34,000-signature petition demanding debt relief for hard-hit households.

Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said the government was doing its best to "lighten the load" on homeowners.

"These are difficult times that the nation is going through," she told broadcaster RUV. "The best thing would be if we could work together to handle these problems. They are still there but are much smaller than a year ago. We are working through this and I hope we can work together to make this a better society."

President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said in his opening speech to the session that the protest revealed a dangerous rift between people and politicians that parliament would

time to open up the FEMA camps

In a system where you can be battered for expressing yourself ... looking for a reason to treat people like they are animals... I question a lot of things that could've been prevented... Subtly they push people to stop protesting for what is right... arresting without cause...can't the police make their quotas in other ways?

NEW YORK — More than 700 protesters demonstrating against corporate greed, global warming and social inequality, among other grievances, were arrested Saturday after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down a lane of traffic for several hours in a tense confrontation with police.

The group Occupy Wall Street has been camped out in a plaza in Manhattan's Financial District for nearly two weeks staging various marches, and had orchestrated an impromptu trek to Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon. They walked in thick rows on the sidewalk up to the bridge, where some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway, police said.

The majority of those arrested were given citations for disorderly conduct and were released, police said.

Some protesters sat on the roadway, chanting "Let us go," while others chanted and yelled at police from the pedestrian walkaway above. Police used orange netting to stop the group from going farther down the bridge, which is under construction.

Some of the protesters said they were lured onto the roadway by police, or they didn't hear the calls from authorities to head to the pedestrian walkway. Police said no one was tricked into being arrested, and those in the back of the group who couldn't hear were allowed to leave.

"Multiple warnings by police were given to protesters to stay on the pedestrian walkway and that if they took roadway they would be arrested," said Paul Browne, the chief spokesman of the New York Police Department.

Erin Larkins, a Columbia University graduate student at who says she and her boyfriend have significant student loan debt, was among the thousands of protesters on the bridge. She said a friend persuaded her to join the march and she's glad she did.

"I don't think we're asking for much, just to wake up every morning not worrying whether we can pay the rent, or whether our next meal will be rice and beans again," Larkins wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "No one is expecting immediate change. I think everyone is just hopeful that people will wake up a bit and realize that the more we speak up, the more the people that do have the authority to make changes in this world listen."

Several videos taken of the event show a confusing, chaotic scene. Some show protesters screaming obscenities at police and taking a hat from one of the officers. Others show police struggling with people who refuse to get up. Nearby, a couple posed for wedding pictures on the bridge.

"We were supposed to go up the pedestrian roadway," said Robert Cammiso, a 48-year-old student from Brooklyn told the Daily News. "There was a huge funnel, a bottleneck, and we couldn't fit. People jumped from the walkway onto the roadway. We thought the roadway was open to us."

Earlier Saturday, thousands who joined two other marches crossed the Brooklyn Bridge without problems. One was from Brooklyn to Manhattan by a group opposed to genetically modified food. Another in the opposite direction marched against poverty organized by United Way.

Elsewhere in the U.S. on Saturday, protesters assembled in Albuquerque, N.M., Boston and Los Angeles to express their solidarity with the movement in New York, though their demands remain unclear. Occupy Wall Street demonstrators have been camped in Zuccotti Park and have clashed with police on earlier occasions. Mostly, the protests have been peaceful, and the movement has shown no signs of losing steam. Celebrities including Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon made recent stops to encourage the group.

During the length of the protest, turnout has varied, but the numbers have reached as high as about a few thousand. A core group of about two hundred people remain camped throughout the week. They sleep on air mattresses, use Mac laptops and play drums. They go to the bathroom at the local McDonald's. A few times a day, they march down to Wall Street, yelling, "This is what democracy looks like!"

There has been a growing swell of coverage in mainstream media, but there has been loud complaining the cause hasn't been championed fast enough — or in the way protesters want.

Misinformation has added to the confusion. For instance, a rumor sprang up on Twitter that the New York Police Department wanted to use tear gas on protesters — a crowd-control tactic the department doesn't use. The claim was eventually retracted, one of several such retractions over the past several days. On Friday, a message said Radiohead would be performing in solidarity for the cause, but the band's management said it wasn't playing.

Earlier clashes with police have resulted in about 100 arrests. Most were for disorderly conduct. Many were the subject of homemade videos posted online.

One video surfaced of a group of girls shot with pepper spray by NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna. The woman claimed they were abused and demanded the officer resign, and the video has been the subject of several news articles and commentary. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said internal affairs would look into whether Bologna acted improperly and has also said the video doesn't show "tumultuous" behavior by the protesters.

A real estate firm that owns Zuccotti Park, the private plaza off Broadway occupied by the protesters, has expressed concerns about conditions there, saying in a statement that it hopes to work with the city to restore the park "to its intended purpose." But it's not clear whether legal action will be taken, and police say there are no plans to try to remove anyone.

Seasoned activists said the ad-hoc protest could prove to be a training ground for future organizers of larger and more cohesive demonstrations, or motivate those on the sidelines to speak out against injustices.

"You may not get much, or any of these things on the first go-around," said the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a longtime civil rights activist who has participated in protests for decades. "But it's the long haul that matte