News in Brief
PARIS (Reuters) -- Workers at France’s state-owned SNCF rail company on Wednesday resoundingly rejected President Emmanuel Macron’s planned overhaul of the railways in an internal ballot organized by labor unions.
The unions, which called the vote days after Air France employees forced the resignation of Air France-KLM’s chief executive, hope it will inject fresh energy into rolling strikes and weaken the government’s negotiating hand.
"This vote totally discredits the SNCF management,” Laurent Brun, head of the CGT’s rail division, told a news conference. "It would be a mistake to ignore this warning.”
The government has dismissed the ballot as a petition with no legal significance.
The CGT’s Brun said 95% of those who voted rejected the reform. In all, some 90,000 of 150,000 SNCF employees voted, he added.
The strikes have brought disruption but not paralyzed the transport network. So far, there has been no sign from Macron that he will back down on the biggest and most disputed reform so far in his one-year-old presidency.
Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne signaled there would be no turning back. "I don’t think it was very responsible of the unions to have people believe the reform might not happen,” she told Europe 1 radio before the result was announced.
***
TRIPOLI (MEE) – Libyan protesters shut down on Wednesday the eastern Raguba oilfield which had 5,000 barrels per day of crude production feeding Brega port, said a spokesman for the owner, state-run Sirte Oil.
The protesters had been threatening to shut down oilfields and pipelines passing through their remote home region of Marada unless authorities improve state services.
The Sirte Oil company, part of state oil firm NOC, had been producing 61,000 bpd until its closure this morning, the spokesman said.
Marada is also home to a pipeline of the Waha oil company, a NOC joint-venture with foreign firms, feeding the Es Sider port. Waha pumps around 260,000 bpd, officials have said.
In a statement, a group of youths said they will shut down oil production in their area unless authorities urgently looked into their grievances of an absent state, lack of health care and other services, and Marada town’s lack of road links to other communities.
Armed men have twice blown up the pipeline near Marada since December as security in the remote eastern area is volatile.
***
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Preparations for possible summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have not advanced since the two men spoke on the phone on March 20, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Wednesday.
Trump proposed during a telephone conversation in March that the two leaders should meet.
***
YAOUNDE (AFP) -- Cameroonian authorities summoned the U.S. ambassador in the country on Wednesday, sources said, days after he accused government forces of abuses against separatists in English-speaking regions.
Government and diplomatic sources told AFP that the foreign ministry had summoned Ambassador Peter Barlerin.
Barlerin alleged on May 18 that government forces had carried out "targeted killings" and other abuses against militants demanding independence for two English-speaking regions.
A top civil servant abducted in a southwestern English-speaking region of Cameroon over the weekend has been freed, a local official said Monday.
"On the side of the separatists," he also stressed, "there have been murders of gendarmes, kidnapping of government officials, and burning of schools".
The crisis began in 2016, when activists in the Anglophone minority stepped up a campaign for greater autonomy.
The Anglophone minority accounts for about a fifth of the country's population of 22 million.
***
PARIS (AP) -- France's interior minister has ordered the evacuation of some 2,300 migrants camped in Paris amid a standoff with City Hall over how to handle the long-running problem.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in a statement Wednesday that he ordered police to work out an evacuation operation soon that would "reconcile" the demands of a tough new immigration law and appeals by aid groups to give the migrants shelter.
Tent camps have mushroomed in recent weeks along canals in eastern and northeastern Paris, raising concerns for safety and public hygiene. Two migrants drowned this month.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo has appealed to the government for help. The city has already cleared out some 28,000 migrants from Paris camps since 2015.
Collomb criticized Paris City Hall for refusing to evacuate them and urged a long-term plan for migrants streaming regularly into the French capital.
***
BERLIN (AP) -- Berlin police say more than a dozen groups are planning weekend protests against a rally by the right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany being staged under the motto "Germany's Future."
Police said Wednesday that the party, known as the AfD, expects some 10,000 people for the Sunday afternoon rally with speeches from some of its top leaders. It is due to start at the capital's main train station and end at the landmark Brandenburg Gate.
So far, 13 counter-demonstrations are planned in nearby areas and around the city under slogans like "never again" and "stop the hate, stop the AfD."
For security reasons police are not announcing in advance how many officers they will have on hand to keep the two sides separate, but say there will be a significant presence.
The unions, which called the vote days after Air France employees forced the resignation of Air France-KLM’s chief executive, hope it will inject fresh energy into rolling strikes and weaken the government’s negotiating hand.
"This vote totally discredits the SNCF management,” Laurent Brun, head of the CGT’s rail division, told a news conference. "It would be a mistake to ignore this warning.”
The government has dismissed the ballot as a petition with no legal significance.
The CGT’s Brun said 95% of those who voted rejected the reform. In all, some 90,000 of 150,000 SNCF employees voted, he added.
The strikes have brought disruption but not paralyzed the transport network. So far, there has been no sign from Macron that he will back down on the biggest and most disputed reform so far in his one-year-old presidency.
Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne signaled there would be no turning back. "I don’t think it was very responsible of the unions to have people believe the reform might not happen,” she told Europe 1 radio before the result was announced.
***
TRIPOLI (MEE) – Libyan protesters shut down on Wednesday the eastern Raguba oilfield which had 5,000 barrels per day of crude production feeding Brega port, said a spokesman for the owner, state-run Sirte Oil.
The protesters had been threatening to shut down oilfields and pipelines passing through their remote home region of Marada unless authorities improve state services.
The Sirte Oil company, part of state oil firm NOC, had been producing 61,000 bpd until its closure this morning, the spokesman said.
Marada is also home to a pipeline of the Waha oil company, a NOC joint-venture with foreign firms, feeding the Es Sider port. Waha pumps around 260,000 bpd, officials have said.
In a statement, a group of youths said they will shut down oil production in their area unless authorities urgently looked into their grievances of an absent state, lack of health care and other services, and Marada town’s lack of road links to other communities.
Armed men have twice blown up the pipeline near Marada since December as security in the remote eastern area is volatile.
***
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Preparations for possible summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have not advanced since the two men spoke on the phone on March 20, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Wednesday.
Trump proposed during a telephone conversation in March that the two leaders should meet.
***
YAOUNDE (AFP) -- Cameroonian authorities summoned the U.S. ambassador in the country on Wednesday, sources said, days after he accused government forces of abuses against separatists in English-speaking regions.
Government and diplomatic sources told AFP that the foreign ministry had summoned Ambassador Peter Barlerin.
Barlerin alleged on May 18 that government forces had carried out "targeted killings" and other abuses against militants demanding independence for two English-speaking regions.
A top civil servant abducted in a southwestern English-speaking region of Cameroon over the weekend has been freed, a local official said Monday.
"On the side of the separatists," he also stressed, "there have been murders of gendarmes, kidnapping of government officials, and burning of schools".
The crisis began in 2016, when activists in the Anglophone minority stepped up a campaign for greater autonomy.
The Anglophone minority accounts for about a fifth of the country's population of 22 million.
***
PARIS (AP) -- France's interior minister has ordered the evacuation of some 2,300 migrants camped in Paris amid a standoff with City Hall over how to handle the long-running problem.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in a statement Wednesday that he ordered police to work out an evacuation operation soon that would "reconcile" the demands of a tough new immigration law and appeals by aid groups to give the migrants shelter.
Tent camps have mushroomed in recent weeks along canals in eastern and northeastern Paris, raising concerns for safety and public hygiene. Two migrants drowned this month.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo has appealed to the government for help. The city has already cleared out some 28,000 migrants from Paris camps since 2015.
Collomb criticized Paris City Hall for refusing to evacuate them and urged a long-term plan for migrants streaming regularly into the French capital.
***
BERLIN (AP) -- Berlin police say more than a dozen groups are planning weekend protests against a rally by the right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany being staged under the motto "Germany's Future."
Police said Wednesday that the party, known as the AfD, expects some 10,000 people for the Sunday afternoon rally with speeches from some of its top leaders. It is due to start at the capital's main train station and end at the landmark Brandenburg Gate.
So far, 13 counter-demonstrations are planned in nearby areas and around the city under slogans like "never again" and "stop the hate, stop the AfD."
For security reasons police are not announcing in advance how many officers they will have on hand to keep the two sides separate, but say there will be a significant presence.