Riot police disperse G-8 protesters

By land and sea _ and even stark naked _ protesters mounted a concerted effort to break through the police cordon around the Group of Eight summit Thursday, with officers on horseback chasing some away from a security fence and police boats ramming others on the Baltic Sea.

Some protesters blocked roads, while riot police skirmished with a large group near the main entrance gate along the seven-mile security fence sealing off the summit, firing repeated blasts from four water cannons.

One makeshift barricade of logs was quickly cleared from the road in front of the entrance, while protesters blocking the road nearby used tarps to shield themselves from the water before police dragged them away.

Later, a line of an about 200 riot police stood between nearly 2,000 protesters and the razor wire-topped fence. Demonstrators ignored warnings to move back, instead taunting police until they blasted them with water cannons atop four trucks.

Police drove them back with repeated blasts of water and charges into the crowd, only to have them immediately return to their places nose-to-nose with the officers, chanting "We're peaceful, what are you?"

Authorities had a hard time stopping protesters from streaming across rolling farmland toward the fence, and helicopters ferried in dozens of police reinforcements. However, police said the fence was never breached and they arrested 137 people.

On the Baltic Sea, 24 activists from the Greenpeace environmental organization _ with banners reading "G-8, Act Now" _ led police on a boat chase. One of the police boats ran over an inflatable Greenpeace vessel, spilling the activists into the water. The group said they suffered bruises and one was hospitalized for observation.

Other protesters chose less confrontational ways to voice their displeasure with the summit _ stripping off their clothing and strolling down a key road. Fourteen men and women wore nothing except slogans written on their backs that read "Naked without violence!"

They walked for less than five minutes before police surrounded and escorted them back to their departure point, where they put their clothes on.

One protester, Jule, a 25-year-old woman from Berlin, wore only sunglasses with her bright pink dreadlocks pulled into a pony tail. She said the aim of the march was to counter the media's fixation on violence among the demonstrators.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting the leaders of the United States, France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Canada and Japan for a meeting focusing on climate change and aid to Africa. The summits draw protesters every year.

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Associated Press writers Vanessa Gera reported from Bad Doberan; David Rising from Bad Doberan and Hinter Bollhagen.