Page 12 - Aruba Today
P. 12
A12
WORLD NEWSWednesday 18 May 2016
French labor unrest: Tear gas, blocked roads, president firmÂ
ANGELA CHARLTON Hooded or masked youth hold a poster reading “All banned Truck driver John Bosco doned.
SYLVIE CORBET from demonstration†during a protest in Paris, Tuesday, May 17, in Vitrolles, near Marseille, Protests against the bill
Associated Press 2016. said the law could cut have often turned violent.
PARIS (AP) — Tear gas 1,000 to 1,500 euros ($1,130 Hollande said those who
briefly choked a Left Bank Associated Press to $1,700) from his annual come to protests just “to
neighborhood and truck- income. break things†would be
ers blocked highways in tear gas that rose up in the roads around Marseille and “I will not back down†on punished, saying that 350
Provence and Normandy in surrounding streets. A bus the western cities of Nantes the bill, President Francois police officers have been
new tensions over a French stop was scrawled with and Le Mans. They fear a Hollande said Tuesday on injured in recent weeks and
labor bill Tuesday — but the graffiti in English reading drop in income because Europe-1 radio, arguing 60 people convicted.
president insisted that he “Tourist go home, refugees the bill cuts overtime pay. that the new law is neces- Paris police chief Michel
won’t abandon the con- welcome.†The march later Marseille union leader Lau- sary to boost hiring and in- Cadot blamed the vio-
tested reform. resumed. rent Casanova said the vestment. lence on 100-150 people,
France is facing a tense Truck drivers joined in the goal “is to paralyze traffic ... mainly ultra-leftists — a
week of strikes and other protests Tuesday, blocking and block the economy.†“There are too many smaller number than in
union action against the governments that have previous demonstrations.
bill, which has met fierce re- backed down, which is why Cadot, speaking on BFM-
sistance in Parliament and I found the country in such TV, said a dozen people
in the streets. a state in 2012,†he said. were arrested and there
France’s economy has were no major injuries.
A peaceful march Tuesday stagnated for years after Paris police banned 40
by union members that successive governments people from taking part in
wound through Paris’ tour- tried reforms but failed or Tuesday’s march through
ist-heavy Montparnasse ceded to street protests. the capital, prompting
neighborhood was inter- A crowd of protesters fol- some to file an emergency
rupted when masked pro- lowed Hollande to a phar- complaint for the alleged
testers threw projectiles, in- maceutical laboratory he violation of their fundamen-
cluding broken cafe chairs. was visiting Tuesday, de- tal right to demonstrate.
Riot police responded with manding the law be aban- Nine bans were lifted.
Russian opposition leader,
5 others hurt in Cossack attackÂ
MOSCOW (AP) — A group Anapa airport Tuesday because he lacked detail In this frame from video provided by Anapa Today, opposi-
of Cossacks attacked Rus- morning when a group of what happened there. tion leader Alexei Navally, center, tries to get up after being
sian opposition leader of Cossacks surrounded Cossacks, a paramilitary attacked at the Anapa airport, southern Russia, Tuesday, May
Alexei Navalny and his as- them, yelling “Get off our group dating back to 17, 2016.
sociates and beat some of land!†before charging at czarist times, have gone
them outside an airport in the group, beating up men through a revival in recent Associated Press
southern Russia on Tuesday, and women. She says one years, and in southern Rus-
an assault highlighting an person in the group was sia the Cossacks had been attack was coordinated hours for what police later
increasingly harsh environ- hospitalized. granted the right to patrol and pre-planned, adding said was a routine check.
ment for Kremlin critics. Videos of the attack post- the streets. In arguably the that the group has been Navalny and other oppo-
Navalny and five others ed on social media showed most-publicized incident of under surveillance since it sition activists have faced
were injured in the attack, more than a dozen men in Cossack violence, several arrived in southern Russia threats and repeated ha-
which came when about Cossack hats and coats at- men attacked members of last week. On Friday, Naval- rassment by right-wing ac-
30 employees of Navalny’s tacking the group, which the Pussy Riot punk collec- ny and his associates were tivists, who have thrown
anti-corruption foundation included women and Na- tive with whips during an stopped by traffic police eggs, green antiseptic and
were holding a team-build- valny’s small son. impromptu performance in and detained for several cakes at them.
ing weekend in the coun- Dmitry Peskov, spokesman the Black Sea resort of So-
tryside, Navalny spokes- for Russian President Vladi- chi during the 2014 Winter
woman Kira Yarmysh said. mir Putin, said he couldn’t Games.
They had arrived at the comment on the incident Navalny tweeted that the
