ISTANBUL (AP) — Workers and activists marked May Day around the world Monday with defiant rallies and marches for better pay and working conditions.
Police detained 70 people in Istanbul as they tried to march. Garment workers in Cambodia defied a government ban to demand higher wages, and businesses in Puerto Rico were boarded up as the U.S. territory braced for a huge strike over austerity measures. In Paris, police fired tear gas and used clubs on rowdy protesters at a march that included calls to defeat far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
Some May Day events around the world:
FRANCE
Police are firing tear gas at rowdy protesters on the sidelines of a May Day workers' march in Paris.
Scores of hooded youth threw Molotov cocktails at security forces who fired back with tear gas during the march on Monday.
The annual march to celebrate workers' rights this year included calls to block far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen from winning the presidency during a runoff election on Sunday.
Video showed riot police surrounding the protesters disrupting the march after isolating most of them from the rest of the crowd near the Place de la Bastille. However, some continued to lob firebombs that exploded into flames in the street.
It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured in the incidents.
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PUERTO RICO
Businesses in Puerto Rico have been boarded up as the U.S. territory braces for a May Day strike organized by opponents of austerity measures amid a deep economic crisis.
Dozens of people wearing black T-shirts blocked a main road in the capital of San Juan and marched toward the financial center. They banged large wooden placards painted with a black Puerto Rican flag against the ground.
Thousands of protesters are expected Monday as Puerto Rico teeters on the edge of a possible bankruptcy-like procedure.
A measure that has protected the territory from creditor lawsuits expires at midnight, and the government has struggled to reach a deal with bondholders to restructure part of its $70 billion debt.
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TURKEY
Police in Istanbul detained more than 70 people who tried to march to iconic Taksim Square in defiance of a ban on holding May Day events there. The square was declared off limits to demonstrations for a third year running and police blocked points of entry, allowing only small groups of labor union representatives to lay wreaths at a monument there.
Taksim holds a symbolic value for Turkey's labor movement. In 1977, shots were fired into a May Day crowd from a nearby building, killing 34 people.
Main trade unions groups have agreed to hold large rallies at government-designated spots in Istanbul and Ankara but small groups were expected to try to reach Taksim.
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CUBA
A protester has briefly disrupted the start of Cuba's largest annual political event, sprinting in front of May Day marchers with a U.S. flag before being tackled and dragged away.
President Raul Castro watched along with other military and civilian leaders and foreign dignitaries as the man broke through security and ran ahead of the tens of thousands in the pro-government march.
Plainclothes officers struggled to control the man but eventually lifted him off the ground and hauled him away in front of foreign and Cuban journalists covering the parade.