Nuclear waste stirs protest

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against nuclear waste travelling to a storage site in northern Germany, and some tried to block railway tracks in a protest fuelled by a Government move to extend the country's use of atomic energy.

Demonstrators turned fields outside the town of Dannenberg into a sea of yellow-and-red flags with the slogan "Nuclear Power - No, Thanks."

Police estimated the crowd at 25,000, while activists put the number at more than 50,000.

The waste crossed into Germany from a reprocessing plant in northwestern France.