Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 18 december 2019
France on strike: Power cuts, schools shut, no Eiffel Tower

By ANGELA CHARLTON up with lengthening life
ELAINE GANLEY expectancy and slowing
Associated Press economic growth. Macron
PARIS (AP) — French union argues that France needs
activists cut electricity to to do the same. Tourists
nearly 100,000 homes or canceled plans and Paris
offices. Eiffel Tower staff commuters took hours to
walked off the job. Even get to work Tuesday, as
Paris opera workers joined train drivers kept up their
in Tuesday's nationwide strike against changes to
protests across France, a system that allows them
singing an aria of anger as and other workers under
workers rallied against the special pension regimes to
government's plan to raise retire as early as their 50s.
the retirement age to 64. "Monument Closed" read
Despite 13 days of crippling a sign on the glass wall cir-
train and subway strikes, cling the base of the Eiffel
French President Emmanu- Tower, which was shut for
el Macron and his govern- the second time since the
ment stayed firm. The prime strike, one of the most pro-
minister declared his "total" tracted France has seen in
determination to reshape a years, started Dec. 5.
pension system that unions "It's very frustrating for us,
celebrate as a model for A protester passes by flares during a demonstration in Lyon, central France, Tuesday, Dec. 17, unfortunately," South Afri-
the rest of the world but 2019. can tourist Victor Hellberg
that he calls unfair and des- Associated Press said, gazing up at the 19th
tined to collapse into debt. century landmark. "We had
Lighting red flares and — people from across the tling France's costly but oft- tries have raised the retire- decided to be here for one
marching beneath a blan- French workforce joined in envied welfare state. ment age or cut pensions day and that's life I sup-
ket of multi-colored union the strikes and protests in Workers from the hard-left in recent years to keep pose." q
flags, thousands of work- higher numbers than the CGT union on Tuesday car-
ers snaked through French last cross-sector walkout ried out what they called Leaders of Russia, Turkey
cities from Brittany on the last week. The retirement "targeted" blackouts on
Atlantic to the Pyrenees in reform that has brought electricity networks around discuss fighting in Libya
the south. Hospital work- them together is just one of Lyon and Bordeaux to call
ers in scrubs, Air France their many gripes against attention to their grievanc-
staff in uniforms, lawyers Macron, a business-friendly es, and their power.
wearing long black robes centrist they fear is disman- Several European coun-

In this Aug. 14, 2017 file photo, rebel Libyan commander
Khalifa Hifter, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov in Moscow, Russia.
Associated Press
Associated Press a weak U.N.-supported
MOSCOW (AP) — The government led by Prime
leaders of Russia and Tur- Minister Fayez Sarraj and
key discussed the fighting a rival administration in
in Libya in a phone call the east led by the self-
Tuesday, the Kremlin said. styled Libyan National
It said in a statement that Army chief, Gen. Khalifa
Russian President Vladimir Hifter.
Putin and Turkish President Hifter on Thursday de-
Recep Tayyip Erdogan clared a final push to take
voiced their readiness to Tripoli from Sarraj's govern-
help establish contacts ment, unleashing heavy
between the warring par- clashes on the southern
ties and expressed sup- edges of the city.
port for mediation efforts Russia has maintained
by the United Nations and contacts with both con-
Germany. Libya plunged flicting parties in Libya, but
into turmoil after the 2011 the government in Trip-
civil war that ousted and oli has recently charged
killed long-time dicta- that Russian military con-
tor Moammar Gadhafi. tractors were fighting
The country has been alongside Hifter — which
split into two parts, with Moscow has denied.q