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NEW YORK, Sept 2: Almost 1,200 people were arrested in Manhattan on Wednesday during protests outside the venue of the Republican Party's convention.
A spokesman for New York's criminal court said the arrests were "historic in that we had a record number 1,191 convention-related arrests in one borough for one day".
A total of 1,760 people have been detained so far during seven days of relentless convention-related protests _ a record for a US political convention. Nearly 600 protesters were detained during the rioting that marred the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.
Most of the New York protests have been peaceful, but one police official was beaten unconscious in a fracas blocks from the Madison Square Garden site on Monday night. Five thousand people protesting high job losses formed a five-kilometre unemployment line in Manhattan on Wednesday and AIDS activists disrupted a Republican meeting on the third day of the party's convention to nominate the president to a second term in office.
The unemployment line snaked from Wall Street to central Manhattan, with participants passing out leaflets that said "The Next Pink Slip Could Be Yours", referring to the paper notice given to people who are being laid off.
The economy has lost 1.1 million jobs since President George Bush took office. Democrats argue the figure is proof the administration's economic policies are inadequate, but Republicans say Mr Bush's tax cuts have helped pull the country out of its recession and that greater job creation would ultimately follow.
Police said 12 people were arrested on Wednesday when AIDS activists from the ACT UP group breached the convention hall and briefly interrupted White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card as he addressed a young Republican meeting attended by President Bush's twin daughters.
The ACT UP said activists stood on chairs and held signs to urge the administration to relieve billions of dollars in debt of poor countries to help fund HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes.
GUANTANAMO ON HUDSON: Hundreds of people on Wednesday protested the conditions under which those arrested during the convention are being held before going to court, calling the facility "Guantanamo on the Hudson", a reference to the US naval base in Cuba housing prisoners from Afghanistan.
They said the site, a bus depot at a Hudson River pier, was contaminated with oil and asbestos, a charge the police department denied. President George Bush arrived in New York on Wednesday evening and about 15 supporters greeted him with chants of "Four More Years" as he met fire fighters in the borough of Queens. Some 50 detractors signs and chanted nearby.
"After robbing the people of the popular vote and stealing the last election, the Bush administration's policies give me a pain in my gut," said Leon Comeau, 33, of Queens, who participated in the protest.
Tens of thousands other protesters gathered for two hours in a designated demonstration area two blocks from the convention arena in support of more union jobs in the United States. Speakers at the union rally accused the Bush administration of encouraging the outsourcing of jobs overseas and weakening workers' rights to form unions. -Reuters
