Last night in Seattle, thousands of protesters assembled in front of the King County Jail demanding the release of anti-World Trade Organization activists. Meanwhile, hundreds of nonviolent protesters remain behind bars. According to the Direct Action Network, organizers of the anti-WTO activities, they say two victims were subjected to physical abuse during arrest and while in custody. They say one woman said she was taken to a police station, and officers told her, “There are no video cameras here. We can hurt you. No one will see you.” She also testified that she had been dragged, tossed around and strapped to a chair. She said she was placed in isolation for 18 hours and not informed of her rights, and that when she was released, she said that the officers dumped her in the police-established no-protest zone during the city’s curfew period. This as protesters plan a massive rally today in Seattle bringing together labor, religious and student groups and outraged community members. Negotiations between protest organizers and the city continue.

In a move that threatens to undermine a key multilateral investment agreement, the European Union Commission yesterday said it would reverse a long-standing position and agree to bring the issue of biotechnology within the World Trade Organization. Environmental groups say putting biotechnology under the WTO could, among other things, limit governments’ ability to control the import of genetically modified food products and undermine national labeling schemes designed to promote the consumers’ right to know about GMOs.

President Clinton, looking for a positive symbol for his stand on labor practices, yesterday signed a treaty committing the United States to international laws that ban the worst forms of child labor. The treaty was worked out at the International Labour Organization in Geneva. It bans forced or slave labor for children and putting children to work in unsafe places. Clinton said children worldwide should get out of abusive workrooms and into classrooms. Meanwhile, at a news conference yesterday inside the World Trade Organization convention center, activists said that the ILO agreement — that’s the International Labour Organization agreement — would be WTO illegal.

CBS Evening News reported last night that President Clinton has decided to follow the wishes of Puerto Rico’s government and people and continue a moratorium on bombing and military exercises on the island of Vieques.

Northern Ireland became master of its own political fate yesterday, ending its status as a place under the direct rule of London and subject to the territorial claims of Dublin. Home Rule powers moved from London to Belfast. Ireland struck from its constitution its territorial claim on the north, and Protestant and Catholic rivals exercise authority in government jointly for the first time, as envisaged in the peace agreement of April 1998. Legislation approving the move was rushed through parliament over two days.

This news from Washington: The National Capital Planning Commission today unanimously approved a site among presidential memorials for a monument to slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The site is the northwest side of the Tidal Basin, home to many of the blossoming cherry trees that draw tourists every spring. The memorial, approved in a 10-0 vote, would sit on a line between the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and close to the more recent one honoring Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

A Chinese official yesterday denied reports that Beijing authorities have detained more than 35,000 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement since the government banned the group four months ago. A Hong Kong-based human rights group, the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, reported that a vice premier and member of the Communist Party’s supreme decision-making body said in a speech that 35,792 detentions took place in Beijing between July and October.

Authorities increasingly suspect that frame-ups in the Los Angeles Police Department’s troubled Rampart Division went beyond then-partners Rafael Pérez and Nino Durden and now are investigating allegations that another officer planted drugs on a man and then committed perjury to send him to prison.