- Carpenter bomb stuns Guardians as Tigers level series
- Harris, Trump and Biden mark Oct. 7 attacks as US election looms
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- US judge orders Google to open Android to rival app stores
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights 'sacred' multi-front war
- Nobel scientist uncovered tiny genetic switches with big potential
- Grammy-winning Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney, dies at 91
- UN biodiversity summit in Colombia aims to turn words into action
- Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights multi-front war
- Mexican mayor murdered days after taking office
- Intensifying to Category 5, Hurricane Milton targets Florida
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Biden, Harris mark Oct. 7 with call for Mideast peace
- Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
- French rugby bosses tighten discipline after nightmare Argentina tour
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Visitors to get rare view of Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Man City and Premier League both claim victory in legal case
- Deschamps delight as 'light back on' for Pogba after doping ban
- Biden, Harris urge Mideast peace on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Neeskens, tough midfielder in Cruyff's Ajax and Dutch teams
- UN warns world's water cycle becoming ever more erratic
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- Ex-Dutch football star Johan Neeskens dies
- Man Utd battling to improve fortunes, says Evans
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Masood, Abdullah centuries lift Pakistan to 328-4 in first England Test
- Hurricane Milton strengthens fast, threatens Mexico, Florida
- Tunisia's President Saied set for landslide election win
- Barca hoping to return to Camp Nou 'by end of year'
- Trump to open second golf course at Scotland resort in summer 2025
- Super-sub Jhon Duran rewarded with new Aston Villa deal
- US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough
- Masood hits first ton for four years to power Pakistan to 233-1
- Fritz wins delayed match to reach Shanghai Masters third round
- Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Artist Marina Abramovic hopes first China show offers tech respite
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- Pakistan 122-1 at lunch in first England Test
- Kazakhs approve plan for first nuclear power plant
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- 'Second family': tennis stars hunt winning formula with new coaches
- Philippines, South Korea agree to deepen maritime cooperation
- Mexico mayor murdered days after taking office
- Sardinia's sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms
RBGPF | -1.97% | 58.94 | $ | |
JRI | -0.76% | 13.18 | $ | |
BCC | 1.68% | 141.27 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.45% | 6.88 | $ | |
NGG | -1.56% | 65.48 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.95 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
RELX | -0.54% | 46.04 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 69.62 | $ | |
GSK | -0.49% | 38.63 | $ | |
BCE | -0.54% | 33.53 | $ | |
BTI | -0.26% | 35.2 | $ | |
AZN | -0.78% | 76.87 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.69 | $ | |
BP | 0.78% | 33.14 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ |
French police clear water demonstrators from port blockade
French police removed demonstrators from the western port of La Rochelle with tear gas Saturday, as environmentalists and small farmers mobilised against massive irrigation reservoirs under construction.
Around 200 people had entered the La Pallice port terminal at dawn, including farmers with old tractors, setting up a street party with music and drinks outside a major grain trader's facility.
More than a dozen police vans and an armoured vehicle pushed them out during the morning in a cloud of tear gas, while other police vehicles blocked off access to the port.
The protest in the city on France's Atlantic coast was intended to show that new "reservoirs aren't being built to grow food locally, but to feed international markets," said Julien Le Guet, a spokesman for the Bassines Non Merci (Reservoirs, No Thanks) movement.
Activists charge that the reservoirs, set to be filled from aquifers in winter to provide summer irrigation, benefit only large farmers at the expense of smaller operations and the environment.
Several dozen are under construction in western France, with backers saying that without them farms risk vanishing as they suffer through repeated droughts.
Last year, mass clashes between thousands of demonstrators and police in Sainte-Soline, around 90 kilometres (56 miles) inland from La Rochelle, left two protesters in a coma and injured 30 officers.
France's top court later overturned an attempted government ban on the Soulevements de la Terre (Uprisings of the Earth, SLT) group involved in organising the protests.
Throughout this week more than 3,000 police have been deployed around a "Water Village" protest camp in Melle, a few kilometres from Sainte-Soline, with authorities warning of a risk of "great violence".
Organisers of two Saturday marches in La Rochelle itself -- banned by city authorities -- said they rallied around 6,000 people, with police numbering them at 3,500.
"Many individuals are equipped with balaclavas and protective masks," a police source told AFP, while the local prefecture warned that "several hundred radical individuals" were on the scene.
Some bus shelters, an insurance office and a supermarket were damaged and five people arrested by early afternoon.
The law enforcement response was "totally out of proportion," said Agnes Denis, who had travelled from Dijon in eastern France to join the protest with her partner.
"People's voices need to be heard, because if it's stopped every time we'll end up with a brawl, and that's not what we're here for," she added.
abo-jed-tsq-ni-tll/tgb/rlp
Ch.Havering--AMWN