[Mhiz Rebecca]

US actress Shailene Woodley has been arrested
during a protest in North Dakota against a huge oil
pipeline project that will cross four states.
Her arrest at a construction site happened as she
was broadcasting the protest, which involved more
than 200 people, on Facebook Live.
Police say she was one of 27 people arrested on
charges of criminal trespass and engaging in a riot.
The Dakota Access pipeline project has drawn huge
protests.
Native Americans have halted its construction in
North Dakota, saying it will desecrate sacred land
and damage the environment.
In the Facebook Live footage, Ms Woodley, 24, said
she had been walking peacefully back to her vehicle
when “they grabbed me by my jacket and said that
I wasn’t allowed to continue… and they have giant
guns and batons and zip ties and they are not
letting me go”.
As she was led away with her hands cuffed, she
said she had been singled out from hundreds of
other protesters “because I’m well known, because
I have 40,000 people watching”.
The video spread quickly on social media and by
early evening had been viewed more than 2.4
million times.
Ms Woodley, a star of The Divergent Series and the
movie Snowden, has previously joined members of
North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to
protest against the $3.7bn (£2.8bn) pipeline.
The protest on Monday took place at a construction
site about two miles (3.2 km) south of the town of
St Anthony.
The pipeline will run 1,168 miles through Iowa,
Illinois, and North and South Dakota.
Energy Transport Partners, the company behind the
project, has said it will boost local economies and
is safer than transporting oil by rail or road.
But environmental protesters believe the
transporting of up to 570,000 barrels of crude oil a
day will imperil local waterways.
Native American tribes believe the pipeline would
also damage historic sites.