Sloth Fever: A Growing Concern in the United States

New York : New York Police arrests more than 700 Protesters from Wall Street protest movement as they blocked Newyork's Brooklyn Bridge. 

They were part of a larger group crossing the bridge from Manhattan, where they have been camped out near Wall Street for two weeks. Some entered the bridge's roadway and were met by a large police presence and detained, most for disorderly conduct. 

The group was protesting against corporate greed. They say they are defending 99% of the US population against the wealthiest 1%. 

Occupy Wall Street called for 20,000 people to "flood into lower Manhattan" on 17 September and remain there for "a few months". Several hundred remain camped at Zuccotti Park, a privately owned area of land not far from Wall Street. 

 Some of the protesters said police had allowed them on to the roadway and were escorting them across when they were surrounded and the arrests began. "This was not a protest against the NYPD. 

This was a protest of the 99% against the disproportionate power of the 1%," protester Robert Cammiso told the BBC.

"We are not anarchists. We are not hooligans. I am a 48-year-old man. The top 1% control 50% of the wealth in the USA." Another protester, Henry-James Ferry, said: "It is not fair that our government supports large corporations rather than the people. 

"I only heard about the protest on day one when I came across it. I then decided to go back every day," he told the BBC. 

The protesters have had previous run-ins with New York's police. On Friday, about 2,000 people marched under the Occupy Wall Street banner to New York's police headquarters to protest against arrests and police behaviour. 

Some 80 people were arrested during a march on 25 September, mostly for disorderly conduct and blocking traffic, but one person was charged with assaulting a police officer.

A series of other small-scale protests have also sprung up in other US cities in sympathy with the aims of Occupy Wall Street.