In Paris, France late Thursday and early Friday, riot police evicted students who were staging sit-ins at university campuses in the capital and in the cities of Strasbourg, Lyon and Nantes to protest a reform that allows for private, charitable contributions to schools, in addition to public funding and tuition charges. Students fear the reform that is designed to make France;s schools more competitive. Five people were detained by police in a scuffle early Friday at a university in southern Montpellier, National Police spokesman Laurent Ricard said. Next week, many student unions plan to line up with hospital workers and school administrators in strikes over Sarkozy's plan to thin the public sector. All of this happened after transport voters to keep a national strike going through the weekend over President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to strip away generous pension benefits. But the impact of the strike diminished as nearly 68 percent of drivers for the national rail network ignored it and went to work, up from 40 percent on Wednesday, the first full day of the strike. Only two subway lines in Paris were closed completely, and about one in three buses were running on average. Some trains were running on four of the five RER commuter rail lines. Several unions for both SNCF and the Paris transit authority RATP — which includes subways, buses and the suburban RER trains — agreed to press on with the strike through Monday, labor officials told The Associated Press.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21837513/
No comments:
Post a Comment