May Day violence flares in France

Clashes took place on the sidelines of a march in France's capital on Sunday, with demonstrators protesting the policies of recently reelected French President Emmanuel Macron.

Most of the protesters were peaceful, but violence broke out at two points along the route.

Police intervened when a group reported to be "Black Bloc" anarchists tried to erect a barricade near Paris's La Republique Square. Windows of local business were also reported to have been smashed.

There were some 250 large rallies in cities across the country, including Lille, Nantes, Toulouse and Marseille.

Macron faces strong resistance to his plans, seen by some opponents on the left as pro-business. Among his policies is an increase of the retirement age to 65.

The cost-of-living crisis was also a major theme of the protests — as it was in last month's election campaign.

The French president won a new five-year term after fending off a challenge from far-right populist rival Marine Le Pen in last Sunday's runoff vote.

Police arrest scores in Istanbul

There were also clashes — and some 160 arrests — in Turkey where images showed protesters being pinned to the ground and dragged away from the rally.

The protest took place despite a ban on the event by the Istanbul governor's office.

Among the refrains chanted by the crowd were "Long live May Day," and "Labor and freedom!"

Clashes took place as protesters tried to reach the central Taksim Square.

The square is particularly significant in Turkish May Day rallies, being the site at which snipers opened fire on a march of some 500,000 people in 1977. It still remains unclear who was behind the attack, in which 34 people died.

Cost of living protests from Greece to Sri Lanka

In neighboring Greece, metro trains came to a halt and ships stayed docked in ports as workers rallied against soaring food and energy prices.

Police said some 10,000 people marched in the center of Athens to protest over the cost of living.

Greece began to emerge from a decade of financial crisis in 2018, only to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic two years later. Travel and opening restrictions badly hit the tourism industry, a significant part of the Greek economy.

Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, May Day saw the opposition unite to urge President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign over the country's worst-ever economic crisis.

Tens of thousands of people marched in the capital, Colombo, where Rajapaksa has been forced to remain indoors for the past three weeks due to protesters camped outside his residence.

The island nation's economy has also taken a hit because of the pandemic, plus tax cuts by Rajapaksa's government.

The country of 22 million people has dwindling cash reserves and is struggling to pay for fuel, food and medicine imports.

rc/nm (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)