Latest developments in the Occupy protests

Some of the latest developments in the Occupy protests taking place in cities across the world:

CALIFORNIA

Police clashed with protesters in Oakland after thousands of demonstrators shut down one of the nation's busiest shipping ports, escalating a movement whose tactics had largely been limited to marches, rallies and tent encampments since it began in September.

An Occupy Oakland protester waves a flag next to
a bonfire in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The confrontation began after protesters started a large bonfire in the middle of a downtown street. Dozens of police in riot gear moved in on hundreds of protesters as the flames leapt more than 15 feet in the air from several large metal and plastic trash bins that had been pushed together.

The clash and subsequent standoff came only hours after thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters shut down one of the nation's busiest shipping ports late Wednesday.

Meanwhile, an Occupy Los Angeles march and rally is winding down. The more than hour-long march through downtown Los Angeles ended with a rally Wednesday night in front of LA Police Department headquarters. About 80 people who remained taped flyers onto a wall outside the building with names of people they say were victims of police brutality.

WASHINGTON

Several hundred Occupy Seattle demonstrators protested in the rain Wednesday night outside a hotel where JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was invited to speak.

Police used pepper spray to clear a side entrance so Sheraton Seattle Hotel patrons could enter or leave, The Seattle Times reported.

Six protesters were arrested Wednesday afternoon for criminal trespass and obstructing at a Chase Bank branch in a Seattle neighborhood.

Police also used pepper spray on that earlier crowd when at least 10 officers were physically assaulted while putting the arrested protesters in a paddy wagon, police spokesman Jeff Kappel said. At least two officers suffered minor injuries, he said.

ENGLAND

A lawyer for protesters camped outside London's St. Paul's Cathedral said Wednesday that authorities have offered to let the tent city stay until next year, as the leader of the world's Anglicans backed a so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions as one way to alleviate the global economic crisis.

The loosely organized demonstration against capitalist excess, inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street movement, has wrong-footed both city and church officials since it began last month, defying pleas to leave and the threat of legal action.

Authorities have suspended legal bids to remove the tents. On Wednesday John Cooper, a lawyer for the protesters, said that local government had offered the protesters a deal "to stay on site until the new year," then leave on an agreed date.

IOWA

Iowa City approved a request from anti-Wall Street protesters for larger tents.

The protesters said they received a donated 10-person tent designed to withstand arctic weather. The City Council decided to allow two such tents, subject to approval by the fire department.

Protesters have been in College Green Park since Oct. 7 as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

MARYLAND

City officials say they're cutting power to outlets in the downtown Baltimore park where Wall Street protesters have been living for the last month.

Mayoral spokesman Ian Brennan said Wednesday the city is taking this step to alleviate a public safety hazard at McKeldin Square near the Inner Harbor. He said a city official visited earlier this week and found fire and electricity hazards.

MASSACHUSETTS

Members of the Occupy Boston movement, students from area colleges and union workers marched through downtown Boston to protest the nation's burgeoning student debt crisis.

The protest started at Occupy Boston's Dewey Square tent city Wednesday and stopped outside Bank of America offices and the downtown Harvard Club before moving to the Statehouse.

Protesters said higher education has gotten too costly, in part because of onerous, high-interest loans. They say total student debt in the U.S. increases by $1 million every six minutes and will reach $1 trillion this year, potentially undermining the economy.

Some called for complete forgiveness of student debt; others said government should more heavily subsidize state colleges and universities.

MINNESOTA

Protesters who have occupied a government plaza in Minneapolis for nearly a month will face new restrictions.

Hennepin County officials said Wednesday they will begin winterizing the plaza. They said protesters will have to consolidate their possessions and can't leave them unattended anymore or they'll be taken. The number of portable toilets is being cut from seven to three, and starting Friday no more signs will be allowed.

NEW YORK

About 100 military veterans marched in uniform Wednesday from the Vietnam Veterans Plaza near Wall Street through Manhattan, joining the Occupy Wall Street protest.

They were fired up by what they called brutality against a Marine veteran in Oakland, Calif., whose skull was fractured.

Marine Sgt. Shamar Thomas, who went toe to toe recently with officers policing activists in Times Square, said soldiers who risked their lives have the right to protest an economy that gives them a slimmer chance of finding jobs than most Americans.

OREGON

If an Iraq War veteran's injury during a California protest comes to stand as a symbol of the Occupy Wall Street movement, protesters in Portland also hope it draws attention to what they say is the city's problem with police violence.

Scott Olsen, whose skull was fractured when police moved in on an Oakland encampment, has become a symbol for protesters in Portland, where the police bureau has recently been accused of excessive force in dealings with the city's black and mentally ill populations.

WISCONSIN

A photographer from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who was among three people arrested Wednesday at a rally connected to the Occupy Wall Street movement was not part of the protest and was only doing her job, the newspaper said.

The Journal Sentinel said Kristyna Wentz-Graff texted the newsroom to say she was being arrested. Two others were also arrested.

Milwaukee police say all three ignored officers' repeated commands to clear the street, and that the three were released from custody within two hours. The Milwaukee city attorney is expected to review the cases.

The paper issued a statement Wednesday saying Wentz-Graff did not ignore the commands of any of the officers and should not have been arrested.

Source: The Associated Press

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Englands's dramatic mid-innings collapse in the fifth ODI against India

Final Score: India 271 for 8 (Dhoni 75*) beat England 176 (Jadeja 4-33, Kieswetter 63) by 95 runs 

England chose a particularly humiliating route to their second 5-0 whitewash in consecutive ODI tours of India, as they allowed their resolve to collapse twice in one match - first with the ball, as MS Dhoni walloped 75 not out from 69 balls to take his series tally to 212 runs without loss - and then with the bat, as they squandered a 20-over scoreline of 129 for 0 to lose all ten of their wickets for 47 runs in exactly 100 balls.

India's stars with the ball, as in the first match of the series in Hyderabad, were once again the spinners, Ravindra Jadeja, who claimed 4 for 33 in eight overs, and R Ashwin, 3 for 28 in nine. They joined forces with the part-timers Manoj Tiwary and Suresh Raina, to choke England's innings in a sea of slogs and dot-balls. Of England's last nine batsmen, only Samit Patel (18) and Graeme Swann (10 not out) reached double figures. The rout was sealed with 13 overs to spare when Steven Finn top-edged an Ashwin carrom ball to the keeper and triumphant captain, Dhoni.

For the first two-fifths of the innings, England's progress could hardly have been more serene. Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter saved their best performances of the series for the very last gasp. Kieswetter brought up his half-century from 49 balls - and England's 100 with it - with a savage carve through the covers off Varun Aaron, and Cook was scarcely any tardier, reaching his own milestone from 51. For the majority of their stand, England were consistently 20 runs ahead of the required rate, without having needed to take any risks whatsoever.

The innings, however, was derailed by the extra pace of Aaron, who came round the wicket to extract Cook's off stump for 60 from 61 balls - the exact same score he had managed in the first match at Hyderabad. Eight balls later, Kieswetter followed suit for a run-a-ball 63, as Jadeja pinned him lbw on the front foot, and suddenly the innings was wide open.

Bell, playing in his first match of the series after Kevin Pietersen had been ruled out with a chipped bone in his thumb, scratched around for 2 from six balls before snicking Ashwin to the keeper, and three balls later, all hope had been truly lost when Jonathan Trott, England's likeliest middle-order ballast, pushed loosely at Jadeja and edged a simple chance to slip for 5.

In Jadeja's next over, England's innings went even further off-track, as the overawed Jonny Bairstow tried to hit his way out of trouble but instead skidded a thick outside edge to Ajinkya Rahane at backward point. Ravi Bopara squandered the chance to be a hero when he was bowled round his legs for a 16-ball 4 by Ashwin, and Tim Bresnan - so often England's most combative tailender - confirmed the general air of surrender when he chipped a loose drive off Tiwary for a fourth-ball duck.

Long before the final indignity, England had already blown their best chance to salvage some pride in the series thanks to another scruffy fielding performance which undermined another superb display of fast bowling from England's only shining light of the series, Finn. From a comfortable 71 for 0 after 15 overs, India slumped to 81 for 3 in subsequent bowling Powerplay, with Finn sparking the loss of three wickets for no runs in ten balls with a brilliant double-wicket maiden.

First to go was Gautam Gambhir for 38, in near-identical fashion to his dismissal by Finn at Mumbai, as a lifting delivery outside off nipped off the inside edge and into the stumps. Then, after welcoming Virat Kohli with a series of excellent deliveries in the channel outside off, he bowled him with a final-ball beauty that zipped off the seam and crashed into off stump as the batsman offered no stroke.

Four balls and no runs later, and Tim Bresnan was into the act as well, as Kieswetter atoned for an earlier drop with a soaring leap to his right to cling on to a flying edge. A second consecutive maiden for Finn was then followed by an equally frugal first over from Bopara, and India's collapse should have been four wickets for one run in 25 balls when Swann at second slip dropped an absolute dolly off Suresh Raina.

India needed no further invitation to make England pay. Raina was eventually run out for 38 from 46 balls when his bat bounced in the crease as a direct hit came in from square leg, but it was the crunching hitting of the irrepressible Dhoni that left England's prospects in the dust. He saved his most savage assault for the new boy, Meaker, whom he battered for a massive six over wide long-on in a penultimate over that went for 21. Patel fared scarcely any better in the 50th of the innings, in which a further 18 runs were scalped.

By the end of it all, Dhoni had added 330 ODI runs since England last dismissed him at The Oval in September, and his personal dominance was a perfect reflection of a series in which the tables of the summer had been emphatically turned.

Source: Cricinfo

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Kohli secure emphatic India victory

A series of double-strikes at vital junctures in England's innings helped India limit the visitors to a below-par total in good batting conditions at the Feroz Shah Kotla and secure a 2-0 lead in the five-ODI series. The first occurred at the beginning of the innings, the second at the halfway stage and the third at the start of the slog. They forced England to revert to a watchful approach, when they had been well placed to surge, leaving India's batsmen with a modest chase on a fast outfield with small boundaries.

Virat Kohli made England's 237 look like very little at the
Feroz Shah Kotla © AFP

Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir made short work of it. After surviving a fiery new-ball spell from Steven Finn and helping India build after the early loss of the openers, both batsmen settled down to score with a fluency that had been visible only in patches in England's innings. Their 209-run partnership, during which Kohli raced to a century and Gambhir made a half-century, helped achieve the target of 238 with eight wickets in hand and 13.2 overs to spare.

The ease with which India chased on a dewy evening put their bowlers' effort, and that of Vinay Kumar who took a career-best 4 for 30, in perspective. India inflicted the first double-strike within the first two overs. Alastair Cook hoped to make best use of a pitch he felt would get slower as the match progressed but his duck was a setback to those plans. The fourth ball off the match, from Praveen Kumar, was short and wide and Cook cut it straight to Ravindra Jadeja at point. While Praveen was fortunate to strike with an ordinary delivery, Vinay Kumar produced a sharper ball in the second over to dismiss Craig Kieswetter - it bounced and seamed away from the right-hand batsman and took the outside edge of the tentative prod to a wide first slip.

The second brace of wickets occurred in the 25th and 26th overs. Bopara didn't pick a straighter one from R Ashwin and was lbw and Kevin Pietersen, who had found his fluency after a slow start, drove at and edged a wide ball from Umesh Yadav to give MS Dhoni a low catch.

Despite being reduced to 0 for 2 and 121 for 5, though, England hit boundaries regularly and had partnerships that helped them recover. What they didn't do well was take singles and twos - there were 172 dot balls in the innings. India would have only 108 dot balls in theirs. The first partnership, between Bopara and Pietersen, was worth 73, and the second, between Jonny Bairstow and Samit Patel, 86. All of those batsmen, in addition to Jonathan Trott, began to create problems for India but no one stayed long enough to cause significant damage.

Bairstow and Patel had led England to 207 in the 42nd over, when they also fell in successive overs - the third and decisive double-strike. Patel got a skiddy delivery from Yadav that kept low and struck him plumb in front, while Bairstow was caught on the long-off boundary. He had hit Jadeja hard and far but Kohli took the catch at head height just inside play. England had slumped to 211 for 7 and this time there was no recovery. The tail, which had caused India so many problems in England, did not contribute.

After 8.2 overs of the chase India were 35 for 2. England had been exactly the same in their innings. Tim Bresnan had dismissed Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane, but he wasn't England's most dangerous bowler. Finn was.

Finn clocked speeds of 150 kph and above consistently in his first spell. He beat Kohli with sheer pace after inducing an edge that went past slip for four. In the 10th over, Gambhir edged Finn past his stumps to the fine-leg boundary while attempting a cover drive. With three slips in place there was a huge gap between cover point and mid-off and Gambhir was aiming for it. He tried to steer once again, and Finn watched the outside edge fly wide of third slip once more. There was a third boundary in the over - Gambhir clipped a half-volley off his pads through square leg. Finn's frustration began to show and India began to pull away fast.

The other England bowlers caused no problems. Kohli pulled Jade Dernbach with a trace of arrogant dismissiveness, he drove Ravi Bopara with grace through cover, and Gambhir cut Graeme Swann behind point to bring up the 50-partnership off 42 balls.

Kohli reached his half-century off 45 balls, Gambhir got to his off 62. Both batsmen were level on 58 after 25 overs but thereafter Kohli began to race ahead with frequent boundaries and a constant turning over of the strike. He got to his century off only 89 balls with a deft glance off the pads against Jade Dernbach. He celebrated his seventh ODI hundred with a fist-pump. A few overs later, Kohli was fist-pumping again, after smashing Dernbach through midwicket to finish the game.

Source: ESPN EMEA Ltd.

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