Civil Disobedience

Over the centuries, the French have cultivated the fine art of rebellion. The list of targets encompasses tyrants, wars, colonialism and, above all, capitalism in its many manifestations. The latest enemy may seem unlikely: billboards. The Dismantlers, as a nationwide group of anti-ad crusaders call themselves, aren't violent or loud or clandestine. In fact, they invite the police to protest rallies where they deface signs. With a copywriter's flair, one of their slogans warns: "Attention!

Father Louis Vitale has lost track of how many times he has been arrested. More than 200, he figures, maybe 300. The gaunt Franciscan friar figures he's spent a year and a half behind bars. At 76, he is ready to go to jail again. Last month, he appeared before a federal magistrate in Santa Barbara.

Take world-class traffic congestion. Add protesters, tens of thousands of them, until streets become a thick, impenetrable mass. Let angry horn-blowing begin. Repeat, over and over. There are times in Mexico's teeming capital when you can't get there from here. Usually, it's a question of too many cars on too few streets. But on many other days -- Wednesday, for example -- the paralysis is caused by street demonstrations, which are as worthy an emblem of Mexico City as the Angel of Independence statue on Paseo de la Reforma, where marchers often gather.

A national community organizing group Thursday announced a campaign of civil disobedience designed to help families resist eviction and remain in their homes after foreclosure. Activists with ACORN, the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, said they would encourage people facing eviction to use text messaging and cellphones to quickly summon volunteers to their homes.

Before thousands of anti-government demonstrators could finish packing up their giant woks, folding cots, golf clubs and other articles of airport occupation today, their leader was warning of the possibility of more crippling protests.

Young Harel-David Rosenthal squirmed and screeched in his grandfather's arms as if he knew what was coming. The rabbi's practiced hands moved quickly and efficiently, and more than 100 relatives and well-wishers quietly whispered Hebrew prayers to comfort the infant and mute his outraged screams. It was a bris -- the circumcision of a newborn boy, whose parents are among the 23 families staking a claim here.

Police clubbed protesters and dragged them into waiting buses Saturday in response to a demonstration against the Kremlin in the heart of President Vladimir V. Putin's hometown. Several thousand members of liberal and leftist groups chanted "Shame!" as they marched down St. Petersburg's main avenue to protest what they said was Russia's rollback from democracy. The demonstration, called the March of Those Who Disagree, was a rare gathering of the country's often fractious opposition.

When students demanding a living wage for campus employees took over a Harvard University administration building six years ago, their occupation lasted 21 days and ended with relatively mild reprimands. Hunger strikers seeking an expanded Chicano studies program camped out at UCLA for two weeks in 1993 without penalties or arrests.

SACRAMENTO -- As she was led off to prison in handcuffs Thursday, former inmate advocate Kathleen Culhane had few regrets about falsifying documents in an attempt to spare the lives of four convicted murderers. Earlier during a brief hearing -- shortly before she was sentenced to five years in prison -- Culhane had called capital punishment "a brutal legacy of lynching," adding that "I cannot have remorse for a government that kills at midnight and invests millions of dollars in the process."

Protesters in Chinese-controlled Tibet were arrested during a riot that erupted after two Buddhist monks were taken into police custody, according to the government's news agency. The monks were arrested after a dispute with a shopkeeper, and the subsequent unrest triggered a crackdown, according to the New China News Agency. The incident occurred in mid-November but was only recently reported in China.