Hundreds of protestors, including many South Asians, staged an unusual protest on March 27 -- they lay down in the middle of Manhattan's Fifth Avenue during the morning rush hour as a "die-in" protest against the war.

The ad-hoc coalition of students, community groups, labour organisations -- and the generic demonstrators who seemed to be intent on having a very good time -- converged on New York's landmark Rockefeller Centre in midtown Manhattan.

Many then lay down on the intersection of 49th Street and 5th Avenue while others chanted or stood around with hand-lettered protest signs that said 'No Business As Usual', 'No Blood for Oil', and 'No War, No Profit'.

Police arrested more than a hundred people, putting plastic handcuffs on them and carting them off in view of a phalanx of photographers and television crews. As some demonstrators were led away they managed to smile for the cameras.

Protestors, calling themselves M27 [for March 27], said they chose Rockefeller Centre, where major media outlets are headquartered, to draw attention to "the extreme bias currently characterising war reporting".

The protestors, however, did not seem to be quite as united as the press pronouncements would indicate. There were gay liberation activists, legalise marijuana activists, green party activists, anti-big business activists and many who were simply there to participate in a giant block party.

"Our views have been disregarded and misrepresented for too long," said a press release by the group. "We now seek to follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, Jr and Mahatma Gandhi in adopting tactics of non-violent civil disobedience."

The protest was "a spontaneous uprising of a very diverse group of New Yorkers who have one thing in common: We are fed up with the media blackouts, corporate profiteering, political posturing and outright lies that have led our country into this unjust, dangerous, and destabilising war on Iraq".

A steady procession of protest has clogged the city's streets and thoroughfares since US and British troops landed in Iraq.

On February 15, an estimated 350,000 [police claimed only 100,000] people took part in a huge protest centred on First Avenue, near the United Nations, on Manhattan's east side.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg's administration drew criticism from many quarters for not giving protestors permission to rally. On subsequent occasions the city provided required permits and things were peaceful, except for the crowd-pleasing shenanigans of those out to be arrested.

The week the war began separate rallies saw between 150,000 people [according to police] and 250,000 people [according to organisers] in protests that brought some parts of the city to a virtual standstill.