85 arrested before protest march in Paris

PARIS • Police arrested 85 people ahead of a protest march in Paris yesterday against France's labour reforms, mainly for carrying objects that could be used as projectiles, the authorities said.

At least one was on a list of around 100 people who had been barred from the march, which set off from the historic Place de la Bastille in the early afternoon under tight security after a march last week saw bloody clashes.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Macedonia opposition to boycott Parliament

SKOPJE • Macedonia's main opposition party said yesterday it was boycotting Parliament until the constitutional court rules on the status of a special prosecutor appointed to investigate a wiretapping scandal that has plunged the country into turmoil.

Macedonia has been in crisis since February least year, when opposition parties accused former prime minister Nikola Gruevski and his counter-intelligence chief of orchestrating the wiretapping of more than 20,000 people.

REUTERS

5 Shi'ite clerics called up by Bahrain police

DUBAI • The Bahraini authorities yesterday summoned five Shi'ite Muslim scholars for questioning, activists said, in what appeared to be another step in a crackdown on dissent by the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

The clerics were called to a police station west of the capital Manama.

This happened as an administrative court began hearing a justice ministry petition to dissolve the main opposition Shi'ite Muslim group al-Wefaq following a court order last week.

REUTERS