Topless protesters detained at forum

Swiss resort town of Davos, the Ukrainians arrived at the entrance to the complex where the World Economic Forum takes place every year.
With temperatures around freezing in the snow-filled town, they took off their tops and tried to climb a fence before being detained.
“Crisis! Made in Davos,” read one message painted across a protester’s torso, while others held banners that said “Poor, because of you” and “Gangsters party in Davos.”
Davos police spokesman Thomas Hobi said the three women were taken to the police station and told that they weren’t allowed to demonstrate.
He said they would be released later.
The activists are from the group Femen, which has become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests to highlight a range of issues including oppression of political opposition.
They have also conducted protests in some other countries.
“We came here to Switzerland to Davos to explain the position of all poor people of the world, to explain that we are poor because of these rich people who now sit in the building,” said Inna Schewcenko.
Protesters from the Occupy movement that started with opposition to practices on Wall Street held a separate demonstration in Davos on Saturday.
A small group of protesters are camped in igloos in Davos to call for more help for the needy.
About 40 Occupy protesters gathered in front of the town hall. Some held placards with slogans such as “If voting would change anything, it would be illegal” and “Don’t let them decide for you, Occupy WEF.”
Meanwhile, protesters from Occupy DC, facing a clampdown on their encampment last Monday, stripped down for a topless street party outside a black-tie gala for Washington’s biggest movers and shakers.
President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle topped the guest list for the 99th gathering of the exclusive Alfalfa Club, which convenes once a year in a five-star hotel for a lavish dinner and some witty speech-making.
Up to 200 members of the local offshoot of Occupy Wall Street pogo-danced to Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” as bemused police officers looked on behind barricades.
Leading the revellers were several young women who gleefully bared their breasts, including one who wrote “freedom of expression” on the belly of another.
Several men also stripped to the waist despite the winter chill.
On YouTube, Occupy DC posted a video of Senator Joe Lieberman being hit with glitter as protesters shouted “shame, shame” at him and other well-heeled guests making their way to the soiree.
“Government and corporate elites are in there, colluding against the rest of us,” Travis McArthur, a member of Occupy DC’s action committee, told AFP.
“We hope at least to make them feel ashamed at what they’re doing.
“I’d never heard of the Alfalfa Club before,” said protester David Varrows (64), a Washington artist who turned up in tuxedo, a pig’s nose and a sign that read “Brother, can you spare a billion?”
“I guess it’s how people mess over America – they join these clubs and devour whatever they can . . . It’s about who you know, rather than what you know,” he told AFP.
In a related development, police in Oakland, California, have used tear-gas and flash-grenades as a 2 000-strong Occupy Oakland march turned violent, with some protesters claiming that rubber bullets were also fired into the crowd. At least 300 people were arrested.
The demonstrators had attempted to take over vacant buildings to use as their headquarters.
They also broke into City Hall and tried to occupy a YMCA.
Police took many protesters into custody as they marched through the city’s downtown area, with some entering a YMCA building.
Oakland has seen one of America’s largest and most vocal Occupy protests, with thousands of people attending since the demos started in October.
Some 300 people have been arrested since then.
The Occupy Wall Street movement started in September in New York and claims to represent the 99 percent of Americans, who suffer from corporate greed and economic injustice. – AP/AFP/RT.