Washington looks for political implications as the Occupy Wall Street protests gain strength.
Officials in both countries said the men left in the afternoon, before the protests gathered strength.
See articleFloods and landslides killed more than 70 people in south-eastern Brazil, almost 30 of them when a hotel in Ilha Grande, in Rio de Janeiro state, was buried.In Canada protests gathered strength against the decision by Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister, to prorogue Parliament until March.
But as protests gathered strength, the governing party withdrew its support from the bill and all 141 senators present voted against it.
March organiser Alan Barrett said the numbers of people who had turned out for Saturday's protest showed the strength of feeling in the city against the move.
Bobby Chen, an immigration specialist from Central London Law Centre said the raids were not intelligence-led while professor Les Back, a sociologist from Goldsmiths, said the Chinese community was not known for taking public action so this protest showed the strength of feeling against the raids.
One of the estate's former residents, who was forced to move her family to Hendon in April and who didn't feel like telling me her name, told me that the protest shows the strength of the community: "I lived here for 15 years, but now I'm lost.
Please give generouslyApr 23rd 2009The protests lack the strength of a past effort in 2000, which toppled a president.
Last Tuesday, when claims of vote rigging were mounting and protests were gathering strength, one priest wrote on his Facebook page: "Falsification of the choice of the people is a grievous sin.
Over the last month, though, the pace and strength of protest and crackdown has intensified.
We need to keep gathering strength and protest until the court officially removes her from office".
