Protests Escalate In France

(CBS/AP)  Demonstrators opposed to a new jobs law swarmed parts of downtown Paris on Tuesday, throwing stones, tearing down street signs and ripping up park benches. Riot police, firing tear gas canisters and making several charges, carried away protesters in handcuffs.

Police said at least 1 million people poured into the streets around the country in the latest protests against the law, which makes it easier to fire young workers. Organizers said 3 million people marched.

A nationwide strike shut down the Eiffel Tower and snarled air and rail travel for the second time in a week while students barricaded themselves in schools.

It was the second time in a week that unions and student groups had succeeded in mobilizing such numbers. The largest march, in Paris, drew at least 80,000 people, while 935,000 marched in other parts of the country, police said.

Organizers put the figure in the capital at 700,000.

Violence erupted at the end of the largest protest on the fringes of working-class neighborhoods, with youths in Place d'Italie pelting police with stones, fighting and using metal bars to break up chunks of pavement that they hurled at helmeted riot officers.

At first, it was "very much an atmosphere of happiness. It's almost like a big family outing. There are people of all ages here, and they are all determined that the government must withdraw the controversial job contract," reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Cobbe (audio). "It's a sunny day, and the atmosphere here is so different last week, when this area was the scene of violent clashes between gangs of youth who came here deliberately to provoke the police."

But toward evening, the violence returned.

One young woman twirled flaming batons. The sounds of blowing whistles were heard throughout the plaza.

Officers carrying batons and shields charged several times, making arrests.

Protesters have mounted ever-larger demonstrations for two months against the law. But President Jacques Chirac signed it anyway Sunday, saying it will help France keep pace with the global economy.

He offered modifications, but students and unions rejected them, saying they want the law withdrawn, not softened.

"What Chirac has done is not enough," said Rebecca Konforti, 18, who was among a group of students who jammed tables against the door of their high school in southern Paris to block entry. "They're not really concessions. He just did it to calm the students."

By midday, police said at least 100,000 people had hit French streets, including buoyant students parading through Marseille under a sunny southern sky and major marches from Nantes in the west to Saint-Etienne in the southeast. Protests even reached the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where 2,000 people marched.

Some 60 students lobbed eggs and other objects at police in the northern city of Lille, and at least one person was detained.

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