Nearly 1,000 climate protesters released

Demonstrators gather outside Bella Center, the venue of the Climate Conference, on December 12, 2009. The UN climate change conference is underway in Copenhagen to way out how the world will be protected from global warming. Photo: APAP, Copenhagen

Danish police said they have released hundreds of activists who were detained during a mass rally to demand an ambitious global climate pact.
Police also said only 13 of the 968 people detained during the demonstration in Copenhagen remain in custody Sunday. Of those, three — two Danes and a Frenchman — are set to be arraigned in court on preliminary charges of fighting with police.
An estimated 40,000 people joined Saturday's mostly peaceful march toward the suburban conference center where the 192-nation U.N. climate conference is being held.
Riot police detained activists at the tail end of the demonstration, when some of them started vandalizing buildings in downtown Copenhagen.