Hundreds of thousands around the country and around the world converged today the protest the Bush Doctrine on the first anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Indymedia from San Francisco: 2:15pm: Police have formed a diagonal line through the crowd of thousands crowding into the intersection of Polk and Grove. It appears that they are trying to restrict anyone from the main march from breaking off and joining any breakaway marches. 2 pm: Photos Report of 6 different breakaway groups forming up. 1:15pm: March is at Van Ness and Market Street, with a confirmed report from ANSWER officials that the march is definitely 50,000+ people, with both sides of Market Street completely shut down. About 200 police officers are marching at the front of the march, on the right side of the street, refusing to allow people to join the march from the right. They are creating a protective shield in front of the businesses lining the right side of the street, but don't seem too concerned about damage to any of the low-income housing units on the left side of Market. Call-outs are being made for people to break loose from the restrictive march and meet back up at 2pm for the breakaway march. 12:35pm: A large Bikes Not Bombs contingent is forming at 16th/Mission and heading towards downtown in 10 minutes. Indymedia New York: 1:25: The march has begun. UPDATE: All reports so far indicate a fairly postive vibe at the rally; beautiful day. Lots of people, as well as police and barricades. UPDATE: The police have begun to close access from some side streets along the march route. GETTING TO THE MARCH: According to UFPJ, "Flow south on Madison Avenue from 42nd Street until you join the crowd ... Despite our best negotiating efforts with the police, it will NOT be possible to enter Madison Ave. from or around 23rd or 34th Streets, so please do not even try!) IndyMedia Chicago: 1:31 PM Confirmation of one arrest, that of Superior and Wabash. Being held in wagon. Confirmed of numbers: about 5000 people. 1:32 PM Buses that are cutting off east and west street. 1:35 PM On Randolph, reports of a massive police presence of correctional vans. "They look ready". 1:39 PM Milwaukee reports taht some 1000+ protesters are marching there. 1:42 PM Clark and Wacker report. March is heading south. 1:58 PM Correction. The Clark march is the sanctioned march. It headed east on Chicago and Pearson. Then it went down Clark street, eventually over the river. Federal Plaza is becoming the central locale for the march. 2:18 PM Report of an incident perhaps 45 minutes earlier of a protester who was evidently penned by police. This took place at/near Grand and Clark. 2:46 PM Huge, and I mean huge, rally at Federal Plaza. Speeches are going on. Incredibly massive, almost daunting, police presence. 2:59 PM There appear to be two arrests as a result of the massive Clark street march. The two arrestees are being taken to State and Adams. 3:02 Reports have come in of pro-war protesters at Jackson and Dearborn. 3:06 PM A moment of possible confrontation between protesters and "motorcycle people" has passed. All is calm. 3:32 PM A report has come in that there were actually three confirmed arrests, not two. Bulatlat from the Phillipines: More than six feet away from the police along T.M. Kalaw Street in Manila, the frontliners of the rally-mostly students and community-based youth-got a taste of the salty and sandy water from the fire hose. It did not matter to the police that between them and the demonstrators stood a number of mediamen who were covering the rally, held last March 20, in commemoration of the first anniversary of the U.S. attack on Iraq; some of them got their own dose of the water spray. But the demonstrators, numbering more than a thousand, stood their ground and were able to hold a program less than 500 meters from the U.S. Embassy, notwithstanding occasional taunts by burly policemen in civilian clothes. From CNN: In Cairo, Egypt, protesters burned a U.S. flag and called Bush a liar, though riot police far outnumbered the protesters. Thousands of demonstrators braved a downpour in Tokyo, Japan, to express their displeasure with the U.S.-led effort. Some carried signs depicting the Statue of Liberty about to launch a missile. In Bangkok, Thailand, a man in a mask depicting President Bush carried an oil can and led another man -- wearing a mask of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- by a leash. Protesters carried signs in London, England, calling Bush the "world's worst terrorist" and labeling Prime Minister Tony Blair a "Bliar." Two protesters scaled Big Ben, then stood for hours just beneath the face of the clock tower with a sign reading "Time for Truth." In Rome, Italy, demonstrators set off colorful smoke flares at the residence of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. In the United States, rallies were also scheduled Saturday for Los Angeles, California; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Crawford, Texas, where Bush has a ranch. Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Muslims had come together to rally in Baghdad on Friday, one year after the beginning of the war.