France

PARIS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Some 740,000 people took to the streets in France on Tuesday in renewed protests against the government's pension reform bill, the French interior ministry said.

However, France's largest union, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), estimates the number of protesters was much higher than the official figure. According to the CGT, more than 2 million people nationwide took part in Tuesday's demonstrations.

Most of the protests were peaceful, although participants wearing black balaclavas looted a supermarket in Paris.

PARIS (AP) — Sanitation workers in Paris are set to return to work Wednesday amid heaps of trash that piled up over their weekslong strike as protests against French President Emmanuel Marcon’s controversial pension bill appeared to be winding down.

Trash mounds of up to 10,000 tons along the French capital’s streets — reportedly equal to the weight of the Eiffel Tower — have become a striking visual symbol of opposition to Marcon’s bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.

PARIS (AP) — Protests and strikes against unpopular pension reforms gripped France again Tuesday, with many thousands marching and the Eiffel Tower closed and police ramping up security amid government warnings that radical demonstrators intended “to destroy, to injure and to kill.”

Concerns that violence could mar the large demonstrations prompted what Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described as an unprecedented deployment of 13,000 officers, nearly half of them concentrated in the French capital.

PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - Trade union protesters angered by President Emmanuel Macron's move to raise the French retirement age without a final vote in parliament blocked the Louvre museum in Paris on Monday, frustrating crowds of visitors.

Demonstrating peacefully against plans to make most French work an extra two years to 64 to balance the pension budget, a small number of protesters gathered at the foot of the Louvre's glass pyramid. One banner read "Retire at 60 - work less to live longer."

A queue of disappointed tourists snaked through the courtyard.

PARIS (AP) — A big day has come for French high school student Elisa Fares. At age 17, she is taking part in her first protest.

In a country that taught the world about people power with its revolution of 1789 — and a country again seething with anger against its leaders — graduating from bystander to demonstrator is a generations-old rite of passage. Fares looks both excited and nervous as she prepares to march down Paris streets where people for centuries have similarly defied authority and declared: “Non!”

25 Mar 2023; MEMO: Algeria and France have ended their diplomatic crisis and agreed to "reinforce mutual cooperation," news agencies reported on Friday. This came following a phone call between the presidents of both countries.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to reinforce contact between the two countries: "In order to avoid facing misunderstandings," the French presidency announced.

SAINTE-SOLINE, France, March 25 (Reuters) - Police in western France clashed with protesters on Saturday opposed to the creation of a large water reservoir for farm irrigation.

Thousands of protesters converged on the site of the planned reservoir in the rural district of Sainte-Soline, where a similar protest last October resulted in injuries.

Opponents marched on Saturday in defiance of a ban on gatherings in the Sainte-Soline district.

PARIS, March 24. /TASS/: Russia’s permanent envoy to UNESCO, Rinat Alyautdinov, highly assessed the prospects for cooperation with the Chinese delegation within the framework of the organization, noting that the two countries’ priorities are similar.

"Since my arrival, I have already had several meetings with China’s permanent envoy to UNESCO," he said in an interview with TASS, adding that his Chinese colleague has extensive experience in the field of education and is highly knowledgeable about the work of the organization itself.

PARIS (AP) — French citizens angry at President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms engaged in scattered protest actions Friday, as the ongoing unrest across the country persuaded officials to postpone a planned state visit by Britain’s King Charles III.

Demonstrators had demanded that Charles cancel his trip, which was scheduled to start Sunday. The protests and labor strikes against Macron’s decision to raise France’s retirement age from 62 to 64 already had promised to impact his visit, with workers refusing to roll out the red carpet for the king’s arrival.

PARIS (AP) — French unions on Thursday are holding their first mass demonstrations since President Emmanuel Macron inflamed public anger by forcing a higher retirement age through parliament without a vote. Strikes are upending travel, and blockades are expected at ports, refineries and garbage dumps.

Violence has intensified in recent days at scattered protests against the pension reform and Macron’s leadership.