THE TELEGRAPH: Protesters are due to hit the streets in France en masse in the sixth such demonstration in two months against Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopular pension reforms.
Airport staff, bus and train drivers, teachers, postal workers and armoured truck drivers who stock cash machines will join refinery workers and others in a day of nationwide strikes against Mr Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age.
Fuel shortages will worsen as refinery strikes go into an eighth day, and the authorities will be alert for any escalation of sporadic violence on Monday in some cities, with small groups of troublemakers torching vehicles and scuffling with police.
A school in Le Mans, northwest France, burned down in the early hours of Tuesday after an apparent arson attack but it was unclear if the apparent arson attack was linked to the protests.
Michele Alliot-Marie, the justice minister, told Europe 1 radio the situation was not a crisis, but warned protesters that "the right to demonstrate does not mean the right to smash things up."
Tuesday's protests are a last-ditch challenge to the centre-right government before a final Senate vote this week on the pension bill, which the government says is vital to rein in a ballooning pension shortfall as the population ages. >>> | Tuesday, October 19, 2010
