Anti-war demonstrators halt rush-hour traffic in Washington as Arab protests continue

Anti-war demonstrators blocked roads near the White House and a bridge leading into Washington yesterday in the kind of protest seen almost daily across the US but which receives little coverage in the media.

Anti-war demonstrators blocked roads near the White House and a bridge leading into Washington yesterday in the kind of protest seen almost daily across the US but which receives little coverage in the media.

Protesters in the capital chained themselves together and halted morning rush-hour traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue, just two blocks from the White House. Police had to cut the score of demonstrators apart to clear the road. The protest was similar to others in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and came 24 hours after more than 200 people were arrested for staging a "Die-In" which paralysed traffic on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

In the Middle East, Jordan witnessed the most dramatic scenes involving anti-war protesters yesterday. Riot police charged a war demonstration without warning, whirling their wooden batons and sending protestors fleeing. Other protests across the region were less fiery than expected.

In Iran, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Tehran, after the hardline cleric Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi preached a sermon against the war that was broadcast on television.

In Syria, where President Bashar Assad is one of the few outspoken critics of the war among Arab leaders, there are huge protests almost daily. But in countries such as Jordan and Egypt, where the leadership is quietly accepting the war – even helping it, in Jordan's case – yesterday's protests were meek, and presented little danger to the regimes.

The demonstrations in the US reflect a significant minority of Americans – about a third of the public – who oppose the invasion of Iraq. But on TV and the radio talk shows especially, the domestic anti-war lobby struggles to make its voice heard. The reason is simple: most viewers and listeners don't want to hear about it and the station that dares give the topic much airtime risks seeing its ratings, and thus its revenues, tumble.

One consultancy, McVay Media in Cleveland, Ohio, was blunt in a memo to clients. "Get the following production pieces in the studio now ... patriotic music that makes you cry, salute, get cold chills! Go for the emotion."