Police use tear gas as protesters keep up pressure on gov't over US beef скачать в хорошем качестве

Police use tear gas as protesters keep up pressure on gov't over US beef

(1 Jun 2008) SHOTLIST ++NIGHT SHOTS++ 1. Tilt-down from the presidential office side to crowd in street 2. Protesters holding sign on top of bus 3. Crowd of protesters gathered around bus 4. Wide of crowd 5. Protesters breaking off screens on bus windows 6. Various of protesters pushing buses through crowd 7. Various of police using tear gas on crowd 8. Protesters covered in dust from tear gas 9. Police on top of bus 10. Various of crowd STORYLINE Thousands of protesters occupied a major downtown thoroughfare near the United States embassy in the South Korean capital on Sunday, demanding the government drop a plan to resume imports of American beef. Protesters, holding candles and carrying signs and banners, called for the agreement to be scrapped and for President Lee Myung-bak to resign. Police said some 20-thousand people joined the evening rally, the second night in a row of large-scale demonstrations in Seoul after a rally of some 38-thousand people resulted in clashes with police on Saturday night. AP Television showed footage of angry protesters pushing public transport buses through the crowd. Police, eventually, fired tear gas into the crowd in an effort to disperse the mass of protesters. Meanwhile, Lee showed no signs of dropping the plan, though media reports said he was considering a shake-up of his cabinet this week, which would include replacing the agriculture minister. The weekend protests were the biggest yet against the government's determination to carry out a much-criticised import agreement with Washington that opponents say could expose South Koreans to beef tainted with mad cow disease. South Korea agreed on April 18 to reopen what was formerly the third-largest overseas market for US beef. It had banned US beef for most of the past four and a half years after the first US case of mad cow disease was found in Washington state in 2003. But on Thursday, the government announced that it would implement the agreement and resume beef imports this week. The beef issue has emerged as the biggest political challenge for President Lee's fledgling administration which took office on February 25. The timing of the April deal - just hours before Lee's summit with US President George W. Bush at his Camp David retreat - struck a raw nerve among South Koreans. Protesters claim Lee was too quick to concede to US demands for access to win favour with Washington and garner support in Congress for ratification of a separate free trade agreement. His office had no comment on the latest protests. The government, however, remained concerned about the escalating unrest with legal officials meeting to discuss how to calm public anger after the weekend clashes. South Koreans have held almost daily rallies for a month, claiming US beef is unsafe and blasting Lee for ignoring their concerns and negotiating the deal with Washington. Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The US banned recycled feeds in 1997. In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the cattle disease is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...