'To a global attack, a general riposte!': Saturday's demonstration in Paris was called by the militant CGT union 'To a global attack, a general riposte!': Saturday's demonstration in Paris was called by the militant CGT unionAFP
Thousands of trade unionists and activists from left-wing parties marched with "yellow vest" protesters through Paris Saturday to present a united front against French President Emmanuel Macron's latest reforms package.
The Paris march, organised by the militant CGT union, came ahead of the main yellow vest march in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where protesters clashed with police trying to enforce a ban in parts of the city centre.
ADVERTISING
Veterans of the protests, which have been running for six months now, led off the Paris march.
But in a new development, many senior figures from the radical left marched with them, including Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of France Unbowed and one of Macron's most vocal critics.
Welcoming this show of political unity, Melenchon told BFM TV: "It's the first time that there has been a call of this kind, that's to say union organisations, associations and political movements."
That in itself made it a political event, he added.
It was a government plan to increase diesel prices and raise taxes on pensions last November that sparked the protests in rural France, which quickly ballooned into a full-scale anti-government rebellion.
But in the early months of the movement, its leading figures resisted attempts by parties on the far left and the far right to hijack their cause for their own ends, as they saw it.
Macron rolled back some of his more controversial measures within weeks of the protests starting and on Thursday announced more measures to help people on low pensions.
For his critics however, this was too little too late -- and he is still under fire for refusing to go back on his controversial decision to cut a "fortune solidarity tax" on high earners.
In Paris, Green Party senator Esther Benbassa said she had attended every yellow jacket demonstration since they began in November.
"It's good that today that we are with the CGT, because the people of the left have to be united," she said.
- Clashes in Strasbourg -
In Strasbourg, police sealed off access to the major European institutions in the city in line with a ban by local officials on demonstrations in parts of the city centre.
The march started peacefully but clashes broke out after police blocked the route of the protesters to the European Parliament building, France24 journalists said. Some protesters threw stones and bottles at riot police, who fired rounds of tear gas.
Earlier, police pushed back a group of activists, some of them masked and dressed in black, who tried to force their way through to the Council of Europe building.
Local officials said around 2,000 people took part in the Strasbourg protest.
The Paris march passed off peacefully, and organisers see it as a dry run for Wednesday's May Day rally that will bring together several unions from different sectors.
A separate Paris march of a few hundred 'yellow vests' protested media coverage of the movement and smaller marches also took place in several other French cities.
The San Diego County sheriff's office said Saturday that a man has been detained in connection with a shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue outside San Diego that left multiple people injured.
ADVERTISING
Authorities say a shooting at a synagogue outside San Diego has left people injured but the extent is unclear.
San Diego County sheriff's office also said Saturday on Twitter that a man has been detained in connection with the shooting at the Chabad of Poway.
A handful of police cars were parked outside the synagogue in the city of Poway, just over 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of San Diego. Crime tape surrounded the street in front of the building.
ADVERTISING
Officials say deputies were called just before 11:30 a.m.
The shooting came on the last day of Passover and exactly six months since a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue killed 11 people.
A truck driver who authorities say expressed hatred of Jews has been charged in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. He's pleaded not guilty to the Oct. 27 rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue.
Update #1: A man has been detained for questioning in connection with a shooting incident at the Chabad of Poway synagogue. @SDSOPoway Deputies were called to Chabad Way just before 11:30 a.m. There are injuries. This is a developing situation.
Sudanese demonstrators pushing for change have camped out in front of the the army headquarters in Khartoum for weeks, turning it into the latest icon of protest around the worldAFP
Thousands of anti-government protesters have been camped outside the Sudan army headquarters in Khartoum for three weeks, staying put to demand civilian rule even after Omar al-Bashir quit power on April 11.
The sit-in started on April 6 and has grown in size as pressure mounts against the military authorities in scenes reminiscent of other iconic places of protest in cities around the world.
Here are some examples.
- Kiev: Maidan, 2014 -
Independence Square -- often known just as Maidan -- was in 2013-2014 the epicentre of three months of bloody protests in Ukraine that led to the toppling of Russia-backed president Viktor Yanukovych.
The pro-Western demonstrations began in November 2013 when Yanukovych scotched a political deal with the European Union.
Hundreds of thousands of people converged on the square, setting up tents and building barricades to keep the security forces out. There were also health centres, a library, heating facilities and free food.
The tensions came to a head in February 2014 when police opened fire, killing dozens and bringing to over 100 the number of protestors killed in the uprising. Yanukovych fled.
- Istanbul: Taksim, 2013 -
On May 31, 2013 Turkey's security forces cracked down on demonstrators who staged a rally against government plans to redevelop a park near Istanbul's Taksim Square.
It sparked protests that quickly grew into the first major demonstrations against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he took power in 2002.
Protesters occupied the area and put up tents, remaining on site around the clock before being evicted on June 15.
The nearly three weeks of demonstrations left four people dead and some 8,000 injured.
- Cairo: Tahrir, 2011 -
The massive Tahrir Square near the Nile River is most famous for the two-week sit-in that pushed Hosni Mubarak to quit in 2011 after 30 years in power.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters occupied Tahrir -- which means freedom -- from January 25 to February 11, sleeping under plastic sheets or at the foot of army tanks.
The revolt was one of the first in the Arab Spring uprisings.
It led to Islamist Mohamed Morsi being elected before he too was removed in July 2013.
- Manama: Pearl Square, 2011 -
Pro-democracy demonstrations that erupted in Bahrain in February 2011 focused on Pearl Square in the capital Manama, the site of a large monument of a giant pearl on top of sweeping arches.
People began to rally there on February 14, with the Shiite majority demanding more rights from the Sunni authorities.
After three days of protests, riot police charged the square in a pre-dawn raid that left several dead.
People returned and demonstrations escalated until security forces moved in to clear the month-old protest camp.
The Pearl Square roundabout and its central monument were razed.
- Beijing: Tiananmen, 1989 -
One of the biggest public squares in the world, it is here that Mao Zedong in 1949 proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China.
But Tiananmen Square is better known for the unprecedented weeks-long 1989 uprising that ended in a bloody crackdown.
Students, intellectuals and workers began gathering on the square in April 1989 to mark the death of a pro-reform figure and demand democratic changes.
At its peak, more than a million were assembled.
On the evening of June 3, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and tens of thousands of troops converged on the square, using automatic weapons to shoot unarmed citizens.
Estimates for the number killed vary from several hundred to more than 1,000. China's government has never released a definitive death toll.
The bodies of 15 people have been found after a fierce gun battle between Sri Lankan police and suspected Islamist militants in the east of the country.
The clashes took place in Sainthamaruthu, south of the coastal town of Batticaloa.
It is not far from the home town of the suspected ringleader of last Sunday's suicide attacks.
Security forces have carried out raids across the country following the bombings.
In another development, the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has cancelled all Sunday Masses until further notice following the Easter Sunday bombings.
Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Ranjith said he had seen a leaked security document warning of further attacks.
He also said he had felt "betrayed" after it emerged that the government had failed to act on warnings of the bombings.
The subsequent co-ordinated suicide bombings on three luxury hotels and three churches last Sunday claimed at least 250 lives.
Authorities have blamed a local Islamist extremist group, National Tawheed Jamath, for the attacks, although the Islamic State group (IS) has also said it was behind them.
Security was stepped up around mosques for Friday prayers as some Muslims stayed away for fear of revenge attacks.
What's the latest?
Sri Lankan police said they had exchanged fire with an armed group in the east of the country on Friday as they searched for those linked to the bombings.
Police said officers acting on a tip-off had launched a raid in Ampara Sainthamaruthu, near Batticaloa, and an armed group set off an explosion. A gun battle then ensued.
When troops moved in after dawn on Saturday they found 15 bodies believed to be those of the suspected gunmen but also some civilians caught in the crossfire.
The area is not far from the home town of radical preacher Zahran Hashim - the suspected ringleader of the attacks.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionSt Anthony's shrine in Colombo was one of the churches targeted by bombers
In another raid in the same town police found IS flags, 150 sticks of gelignite, thousands of steel pellets and a drone camera, a military spokesman said.
Police quoted by local media said 10 arrests were made across the country on Friday bringing the number detained since last Sunday to 80.
President Maithripala Sirisena has told reporters that intelligence services believed about 130 suspects linked to IS were in the country and that police were hunting 70 who were still at large.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionA powerful bomb was detonated in the restaurant of the Cinnamon Grand hotel
Meanwhile, the manager of one of the Colombo hotels targeted by a suicide bomber has told us at the BBC of the moments leading up to the deadly attack.
Rohan Karr said the man had checked into the Cinnamon Grand hotel the evening before, was served a welcome drink and then went up to his room.
"He came down in the morning with the rucksack on his back and he went into the restaurant. He made sure he got a table right in the middle of the restaurant and he was walking around with the rucksack on his back but we never thought 'this was the man who going to kill us'.
"He sat, he ate, he waited for people to gather towards the buffet. When he saw a bigger crowd that was the time he decided, this is the time for me to create maximum damage."
What did the archbishop say?
Cardinal Ranjith said that the Church had not been told about intelligence warnings of possible attacks.
"We didn't know anything. It came as a thunderbolt for us," he told reporters.
Asked about the warnings he said: "I felt betrayed a little bit. I felt sad. It's a very serious lapse on the part of the security agencies that they didn't tell us about it."
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionCardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, fears further attacks are possible
Cardinal Ranjith added: "Due to the ongoing security situation and continuing threats... we have stopped all Sunday Masses until further notice."
He said parishioners should instead "stay indoors and do their prayers" and that only when the security situation had improved would small services resume.
What is the political fallout?
Sri Lanka's police chief and top defence ministry official have both resigned over the bombings.
But Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that crucial intelligence warnings had not been passed on to him. He argued that as he had not been aware of the warnings, he did not need to step down from his position.
Media captionRanil Wickremesinghe spoke to the BBC
"If we had any inkling, and we had not taken action, I would have handed in my resignation immediately," he said, adding: "But what do you do when you are out of the loop?"
The breakdown in communication has refocused attention on the infighting between the country's two most powerful men - Mr Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena.
Relations between the two deteriorated to such an extent that last October, Mr Sirisena sacked Mr Wickremesinghe. He was reinstated in December following rulings by Sri Lanka's highest courts.
Who were the attackers?
Nine people are suspected of carrying out the attacks. President Sirisena confirmed that the alleged ringleader, Zahran Hashim, died in the attack at the Shangri-La hotel in the capital, Colombo.
Media captionZahran Hashim's sister condemns his actions
Two of the bombers are said to have been the sons of spice trader Mohammad Yusuf Ibrahim, one of Sri Lanka's richest men. Mr Ibrahim was detained and questioned after the attacks.
One of his sons was reportedly the second bomber at the Shangri-La hotel alongside Zahran Hashim. The other son reportedly targeted the restaurant at the high-end Cinnamon Grand hotel, a short distance away.
A woman said to be a wife of one of Mr Ibrahim's sons detonated explosives during a police raid at the family's villa on Sunday. Several people, including children and three police officers, were reportedly killed in that blast.
According to the Sri Lankan government, most of the attackers were "well educated" and had come from "middle- or upper middle-class" families.
Another of the alleged bombers studied in the UK, a senior Whitehall official told the BBC. Abdul Latif Jamil Mohammed studied aerospace engineering at Kingston University in 2006-7 but did not complete a full degree.
![[Gallery] 30 Photos of Young Donald Trump You've Never Seen Before](https://images.outbrainimg.com/transform/v3/eyJpdSI6ImQ4YmQ5MDBiOTc2YmRmMDZhYTdlN2YxNWRhODI1MmQ0YjlhZDVlZTUyMzE3ZWI2ZmQ1Yzc3ZGIxYTJkMmQ1ZGIiLCJ3IjoyMzAsImgiOjE1MCwiZCI6MS41LCJjcyI6MCwiZiI6NH0.webp "[Gallery] 30 Photos of Young Donald Trump You've Never Seen Before")
![[Gallery] Ranked: World's Most Ferocious Special Forces Units](https://images.outbrainimg.com/transform/v3/eyJpdSI6IjA4ZDcyNTQ5NTM0ZDEwNDE1M2IwNWM5ODI1MTI0MGU3MjY3MDUyZDczZGMwOTY0YzhiOTBmNDFhYjU1N2QzY2YiLCJ3IjoxNjAsImgiOjkwLCJkIjoxLjUsImNzIjowLCJmIjo0fQ.webp "[Gallery] Ranked: World's Most Ferocious Special Forces Units")
![[Gallery] Photographs From the Battlefields of World War 2](https://images.outbrainimg.com/transform/v3/eyJpdSI6ImExNDczYzYxMmI4NTA1Zjg4ZmUyNjgxZGJhNGU1ZmNjYzIyMjRlNjk4NzliNDI4NTFkNzFkMDk3NDRhMTZlMzMiLCJ3IjoxNjAsImgiOjkwLCJkIjoxLjUsImNzIjowLCJmIjo0fQ.webp "[Gallery] Photographs From the Battlefields of World War 2")
