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WORLD NEWS Saturday 14 april 2018

French riot police oust Sorbonne protesters; trains halt

By ANGELA CHARLTON Paris and London will run on determined to push ahead
PARIS (AP) — Paris riot po- Saturday, and the Thalys with reforms to the SNCF
lice ousted students seek- trains between France, Bel- railway, to prepare it to
ing to occupy Sorbonne gium and the Netherlands open up to competition.
university and strikes Friday are expected to run nor- Commuters squeezed into
shut down the Eiffel Tower mally. But only one-third of scarce trains Friday and
and two-thirds of French France's high speed and electronic display boards
trains — all part of a season regional trains will run. showed disrupted traffic as
of simmering national dis- The Eiffel Tower announced SNCF workers kicked off a
content. it was closed to the public new two-day strike.
Much of the anger centers Friday because of a strike "We have to leave earlier,
on President Emmanuel by security personnel. Their we arrive late at work. We
Macron, but he went on demands were not imme- have no choice. I'll have to
national TV on Thursday diately clear. leave earlier this evening to
to declare that strikes and The Sorbonne announced catch a train," said com-
protests won't prevent him that its iconic Left Bank site Commuters arrive at Gare de Lyon train station, in Paris, Friday, muter Sandra Loretti at the
from overhauling France's was closed Friday for secu- April 13, 2018. Gare Saint-Lazare station in
economy so it can better rity reasons after the Thurs- Associated Press northwest Paris. "We take
compete on the global day night police operation. the car. Extra journey, extra
stage. While about 200 students tory. mands. time, extra tiredness."
Rail workers resumed a were evacuated, a few Students at campuses While the protesters in 1968 Hospital staff, retirees, law-
strike Friday that will disrupt hundred others gathered around France are now were seeking to overturn yers and magistrates are
travel off-and-on through outside, chanting angrily at protesting admissions re- old ways, today's workers also protesting reforms by
June. But the number of police. forms that they fear threat- and students are fighting to Macron's government. To
striking workers was down The site was a nucleus of en access to public uni- maintain the status quo — explain his positions, Ma-
from previous actions, and student protests 50 years versity for all French high including worker rights that cron will go on national
international trains largely ago in May 1968, when school graduates. Macron Macron says are incom- television again Sunday to
went through. strikes and university occu- on Thursday dismissed the patible with today's global answer questions for two
National railway author- pations paralyzed France's student protesters as "pro- economy. hours from BFM television
ity SNCF said 80 percent economy in a pivotal mo- fessional agitators" and The 40-year-old French and the investigative web-
of Eurostar trains between ment in modern French his- ridiculed some of their de- leader said Thursday he's site Mediapart.q

In Greek city, Syrian refugees line up _ to get arrested

By COSTAS KANTOURIS Among them was 24-year- ing placement at refugee
Associated Press old Mohammed Basil who camps around Greece
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) fled Afrin with his wife and that were set up after a Eu-
— Several hundred refu- spent several days at a ropean crackdown on mi-
gees and migrants have state-run hostel on the gration two years ago. Ref-
gathered outside a police Greek-Turkish border be- ugees from Syria and other
station in Greece's sec- fore being allowed to leave war-torn countries are usu-
ond largest city, waiting and travel to Thessaloniki. ally granted the right to
for hours to be formally ar- "We escaped from the war, stay in Greece for at least
rested in order to gain tem- and we have identification 30 days.
porary residence in the Eu- papers. Now we are wait- Dimitris Beliakidis, a police
ropean Union country. ing to be taken somewhere spokesman, said there had
Families, including many to stay," Basil told The Asso- been a spike in arrivals in
from Syria, sat on the side- ciated Press. the city over the last few
walk outside the police The huge line formed for a days. They coincided with Migrants sleep outside the police headquarters at the northern
building for hours Friday second day as many slept renewed tension in Syria Greek city of Thessaloniki, Friday, April 13, 2018.
after crossing illegally from on the ground outside the over the possibility of West- Associated Press
Turkey. police building or looked ern military intervention.
Police in northern Greece for a nearby park to rest. New arrivals have mostly on movement have been against possible strikes in
have reported a surge in il- Although the arrest is con- crossed the Evros River, imposed and refugee Syria. Organizers said pro-
legal land crossings follow- sidered a formality for refu- which forms a natural bor- camps are overcrowded. tests are also planned on
ing Turkey's military offen- gees, many use the proce- der between Greece and Separately Friday, several the island of Crete where
sive in northern Syria and dure as the fastest method Turkey, as migrants mostly thousand protesters gath- a deep-water port at Sou-
capture of the town of Afrin to start their paperwork. try to avoid the Greek is- ered outside the U.S. Em- da Bay is used by the U.S.
from Kurdish fighters. Most families are request- lands where strict controls bassy in Athens in a rally military.q