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The Frankfurt version of the Occupy Wall Street movement has many of the trappings of the New York City original, including a tattered cluster of tents, a location close to the beating heart of financial power and a diverse group of activists trying to come up with a unifying demand.

But the Occupy Frankfurt encampment, spread out on the front lawn of the European Central Bank, is missing one feature of Zuccotti Park in New York: the police.

The Frankfurt authorities, who control the park in the middle of the city, have taken a tolerant attitude toward the encampment, while the activists have generally behaved themselves since taking up residence in October. As a result, there have been none of the polarizing confrontations seen in New York and other cities, much less any violence or pepper spray.

By anarchist standards, the Frankfurt activists are an orderly bunch. They have an outdoor kitchen that serves meals of donated food, a Web site and professional public relations operation, and a tent for community meetings.

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Dallas Police Chief David Brown on Thursday suspended a veteran police officer for one day after an internal investigation found the officer used unnecessary force when he pushed an Occupy Dallas protester from a planter last month.

Brown also restricted Officer Jimmy Hollis, a 19-year-veteran, from working off-duty jobs...

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This weekend marks three months since the start of the Occupy Wall Street protest, and the group Occupy New Hampshire marks the anniversary with a rally at St. Augustine Church in Manchester. They'll use the event to discuss what actions they might take around the New Hampshire Primary, scheduled for January 10th.

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THE POLICE ARE ATTACKING US. NYPD Scooter Just ran over #OWS protester. Please come out and show our numbers. We are the 99% #OWS D17

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Police on scooters charging at marchers. LIVE: http://www.ustream.tv/theother99 #ows #D17

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(Reuters) - The United States has given Egypt an average of $2 billion annually since 1979, much of it military aid, according to the Congressional Research Service. The combined total makes Egypt the second largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel.

The White House said on Friday it would review U.S. aid to Egypt based on events in the coming days amid mass protests aimed at ending President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.

Here are some facts about the aid:

-- In 2010, $1.3 billion went to strengthen Egyptian forces versus $250 million in economic aid. Another $1.9 million went for training meant to bolster long-term U.S.-Egyptian military cooperation. Egypt also receives hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of excess military hardware annually from the Pentagon.

-- The Obama administration has asked Congress to approve similar sums for the 2011 fiscal year.

-- U.S.-Egyptian co-production of the M1A1 Abrams Battle tank is one of the cornerstones of U.S. military assistance. Egypt plans to acquire 1,200 of the tanks. General Dynamics Corp is the prime contractor for the program.

-- Lockheed Martin Corp is building 20 new advanced F-16C/D fighter aircraft for Egypt. The final Egyptian F-16 under contract is to be delivered in 2013, joining the 240 Egypt already has purchased, according to Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's biggest supplier by sales.

-- Egypt was the first Arab country to buy F-16s, widely viewed as a symbol of political and security ties with the United States.

-- The United States also has supplied Boeing Co CH-47D CHINOOK transport helicopters, Northrop Grumman Corp E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning Command & Control aircraft and Patriot air-defense systems built by Lockheed and Raytheon Co.

-- Part of U.S. economic aid is spent on democracy promotion programs in Egypt, a policy that has generated controversy in recent years. "On principle, the Egyptian government rejects U.S. assistance for democracy promotion activities, though it has grudgingly accepted a certain degree of programing," Jeremy Sharp of the Congressional Research Service said in a background report updated on January 28.

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In a move intended to better track criminal suspects, New York City's finest are now photographing the eyes of those they haul in.

Adding eye scans to a list of police identification methods that include mug shots and fingerprinting, New York rolled out a fleet of new iris scanners in an initiative announced earlier this week, city officials said.

The new measures are part of an effort to improve security and safeguard identities, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

"It's a big, complex system," Kelly said. "We want to make sure it's the right person when they get in front of the judge, so this is a common sense way to do that."

Police turned to scanners after two recent incidents in which prisoners escaped using false identities.

Upon arrest, suspects now will be required to look directly into binocular-like devices that photograph the iris -- the circular diaphragm forming the colored portion of the eye -- and store the image in a police database.

When the suspect appears in court, police will match the scan to see whether the image corresponds with records in the system, Kelly said.

But the tiny cameras are drawing opposition from civil liberties groups who call the new police measures excessive.

"The police department is hitting a fly with a sledgehammer," said Steven Banks, attorney in chief of the city's Legal Aid Society. "There's been an extensive legislative debate in New York state in which the legislature only permits the police department to collect DNA evidence in certain kinds of cases. So it's incumbent upon the police department not to find a whole new technology and then forge ahead without any legislative authority."

Proponents of the devices say the new initiative falls within existing identification measures.

"We are authorized to take pictures," Kelly said. "This is just a picture of your iris. ... We're matching that iris to see if you're the same individual. Our lawyers say we don't need any mandate to do it."

Twenty-one machines will be set up throughout the city, Kelly said, which includes scanners employed in Manhattan earlier this week.

Police put the price tag at $500,000, paid for through a U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant, which raises the question whether the device could be potentially used an anti-terrorism tool.

"That's not our intention here, but it has potential," Kelly said. "Just like all technology has potential for growth, for innovation, for development," he added. "But right now, this is simply a process to help us better identify someone and prevent us from making mistakes."

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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Occupy Des Moines activists on Saturday vowed to shut down President Barack Obama's campaign offices and set up a camp outside they plan to maintain around the clock.

"We have every intention to keep this place closed down until we are satisfied," said Frank Cordaro, an activist and founder of the Catholic Worker group in Des Moines.

A handful of activists went to Obama's nondescript office in a downtown strip mall after larger rallies to mark the three-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. They had hoped to read a statement demanding Obama cut military spending by half and "dismantle our U.S. military empire ... so we can create jobs, balance the budget, meet our peoples' needs here and help the human community to heal our dying planet."

When they arrived, they found the doors locked.

"You wouldn't even have known this was a campaign office," said Julie Brown, an activist who recently moved to Des Moines.

To highlight its tenets, the protesters put up a hand-written sign on cardboard: "Obama's Former Headquarters."

Brown backed Obama four years ago – "he was the lesser of two evils," she said – but has since soured on the whole political system.

"We need a real leader who will put this country back to work," she said.

That anti-establishment flavor runs through the growing Occupy movement that has sprouted up across the country.

"This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. This is about the whole system being against us. The corporate elites own all of the politicians and they set the agenda," Cordaro said. "What we are doing here is trying to win back our bought-and-sold political empire. We need to dismantle it because there is no difference between George Bush and Obama."

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt declined to comment.

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"We are authorized to take pictures," Kelly said. "This is just a picture of your iris. ... We're matching that iris to see if you're the same individual. Our lawyers say we don't need any mandate to do it."

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Cairo (CNN) -- Pro-democracy demonstrators battled Egyptian police for a third straight day Sunday, their anger stoked by images of a military police officer stomping on a woman's exposed stomach over the weekend.

The latest round of street clashes has left at least 10 people dead and 500 wounded since Friday, said Dr. Hisham Sheeha, a spokesman for Egypt's health ministry. An 11th person, a boy arrested Saturday, died in police custody from his wounds, the boy's attorney, Ragia Omran, said Sunday.

Cairo's stock exchange plunged amid the new turmoil, while Saturday's images of the woman's beating appeared to draw more people to the streets.

"I will go down and fight the army and retrieve the honor of this woman and those martyrs killed for the sake of Egypt's future," taxi driver Ahmed Fahmy told CNN.

The woman and a male companion were set upon by more than 20 police officers during Saturday's demonstrations in Cairo. She been dressed in a traditional robe and headscarf -- but as police clubbed her and dragged her down the street, those items were pulled away, exposing her midriff and blue brassiere in a country known for its Islamic conservatism.

Then one of the police officers aimed a foot at her upper abdomen and stamped squarely on it, while another officer jumped on the man as he lay on the pavement nearby.

"The army were like vultures who found a prey," said Mohamed Zeidan, who filmed the beating from a balcony overlooking Tahrir Square. He said after he stopped filming the beating out of fear of being discovered, "The soldiers even beat an older couple who tried to help her up."

A CNN crew that managed to escape Saturday's chaos witnessed other beatings, with children, the elderly and people on their way to work finding themselves on the end of police truncheons.

Images of the woman's treatment were splashed across the front pages of Egyptian newspapers on Sunday and zipped around the world on social media networks. But a spokesman for the military, which has ruled Egypt since February's ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, had no apologies.

"What was woman like her doing in a conflict zone?" asked the spokesman, Maj. Mohamed Askar. "She must have participated in the attacks on the military and the Cabinet."

Askar questioned why the woman has not come forward to identify herself.

"Our troops do not just attack people for no reason," he said. "If she had nothing to hide then she would have presented herself. Where is she?"

Two people who know her, including the man seen being beaten alongside her in the video, told CNN the woman is a political activist and student. She does not want to speak to reporters now, but a journalist who saw the incident and was beaten as well said the woman suffered "serious bruises and cuts" as a result.

"I started to run, but she froze and fell to the ground when another protester bumped into her," said Hassan Mahmoud, the journalist. "I tried to help her get up, but the soldiers were brutal even when I told them I was a journalist. They even continued to beat her after her body was exposed."

Some Egyptians questioned the authenticity of the video. Cairo businessman Shehab Ali said there was "something fishy" about it to him.

"The army officer is wearing a pair of sneakers, which is not standard military attire considering they are all in full gear and wearing flak jackets," he said. "And how come the woman is not wearing a t-shirt or anything else under the traditional Arabic robe, although it's freezing cold and winter now?"

But cabdriver Fahmy said the images brought tears to his eyes.

"I grew up admiring our army and chanted, 'The army and the people, one hand,' " he said. "This seems like the enemy."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the reports of violence on Sunday and said her thoughts are with the families of those killed or injured.

"I urge Egyptian security forces to respect and protect the universal rights of all Egyptians, including the rights to peaceful free expression and assembly ... Those who are protesting should do so peacefully and refrain from acts of violence," she said in a statement.

Tahrir Square has been the epicenter of anti-government demonstrations since last January, when the revolt against Mubarak began. Fresh protests sprouted in November, when the generals named Mubarak-era premier Kamal Ganzouri as a caretaker prime minister until parliamentary elections are complete.

Hundreds of police and troops swept through the plaza on Saturday, barricading nearby streets, chasing off protesters and setting tents on fire. Authorities arrested 14 people Friday and 150 on Saturday, nine of them women, said Adel Saeed, the spokesman for the general prosecutor's office.

"They have been accused of inciting violence, resisting arrest, throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at security forces, burning public property," Saeed said.

Sunday, demonstrators hurled more rocks and Molotov cocktails and police and soldiers, injuring 58 of them, Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Marwan Mustapha said.

Protesters captured an army officer in uniform and beat him before debating whether to swap him for a demonstrator who has been captured by the military. Several newly elected lawmakers and religious leaders from Cairo's al-Azhar University tried to negotiate a truce between protesters and security forces, but failed and were asked to leave.

The Egyptian stock market went into a nosedive amid the latest violence, losing 6 billion Egyptian pounds (about $1 billion) at its opening Sunday and finishing down nearly 3.5%.

Ganzouri criticized the unrest as an "attack on revolution" Saturday and condemned protesters for throwing stones and damaging public property. He also denied that security forces were using live ammunition against demonstrators.

In addition, 213-year-old Egyptian maps and other artifacts were destroyed after a library in Cairo was set ablaze during Saturday's clashes, officials said.

The original manuscript of the "description of Egypt" and "irreplaceable maps and historical manuscripts preserved by many generations since the building of the Scientific Center in August 1798 during the French Campaign" were destroyed in the fire, Ganzouri said in a statement.

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The reality is 'aid' just a way to funnel taxpayers money to US military export companies while providing Egypt fascists with toys to control its population so they and their resources can continue to be exploited.

Buddy wrote..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dOGEc7p....
"I guess everyone's getting a lesson on the reality of the police force today, the armed fist of the capitalist state"