SAN FRANCISCO, May 28: Demonstrators interrupted a speech by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday by recreating an image of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in which a hooded prisoner stood with his arms outstretched attached to electric wires. Amid tight security at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, three women and one man pulled on black hoods and cloaks and stood on their seats, acting out the scene caught in one of the photographs of abuse that undermined US prestige abroad.

Condoleezza Rice initially continued her speech on American foreign policy under President George Bush, but paused when the protesters shouted ‘Stop the torture. Stop the killing. US out of Iraq,” as police led them out of the auditorium.

Medea Benjamin, one of the protesters, said ‘we were kept in police custody for about an hour and a half and then released with a misdemeanor citation’. —Reuters