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Trade unions hold rallies around world to mark May Day; clashes break out in Paris

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Participants of the social media-born movement dubbed “La Nuit Debout” during clashes with riot police in Paris.EPA

PARIS — Fearing France's worker protections are under threat, hundreds of angry youths on the sidelines of a May Day labor rally hurled stones and wood at police in Paris, receiving repeated bursts of tear gas in response.

Trade unions, teenagers, pensioners, and families held largely peaceful marches Sunday in Paris and cities around the country. The traditional rallies on International Workers Day took on greater weight this year as Parliament is debating a bill that would allow longer working hours and let companies lay workers off more easily.

The bill has prompted the most violent labor-related protests in a decade, with marches and sit-ins frequently degenerating into clashes with police.

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Police encircled a few hundred suspected troublemakers on the sidelines of the Paris march Sunday, and frustrated youths threw projectiles. In Marseille, at least five people were arrested after scuffles with riot police. Marchers held banners calling President Francois Hollande a ''traitor'' and chanted ''Everyone together!''

The Socialist government hopes the relatively modest labor reform will reduce chronically high unemployment and make France more globally competitive, by allowing companies more flexibility. Opponents say it erodes hard-fought worker protections and call it a gift to corporate interests.

In other demonstrations around the world:

 Britain: Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn joined thousands of people at a May Day rally in central London, using the occasion to condemn the progress of far-right groups throughout Europe.

Standing atop a red London bus, Corbyn said the party is united against the far-right and against racism. ‘‘We stand in solidarity now against the growth of the far right in Europe,’’ said Corbyn, whose faltering opposition party has been accused of anti-Semitism in recent days.

Corbyn, who represents Labour's left wing, was the first Labor leader to address a May Day crowd in decades.

 Egypt: Egyptian police prevented hundreds of workers from holding a meeting in Cairo, while independent trade union leaders urged the government to allow them freedom of assembly.

Kamal Abbas, of the Center for Trade Unions and Workers' Services, said some 650 workers came to the city center and initially sought an alternate location to hold a news conference after police prevented them from entering the journalists' syndicate building.

The area was under lock-down by dozens of uniformed and plainclothes security forces, some wearing face masks and carrying automatic weapons. A smaller group of workers convened at Abbas's offices and spoke out against what they described as government suppression of their constitutional rights.

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 Turkey: Thousands of Turkish demonstrators rallied for May Day in an authorized area of Istanbul while police cracked down on other protests. Police used tear gas and water cannons on demonstrators trying to reach Taksim Square. One man died after being hit by a water cannon vehicle.

Taksim has symbolic meaning as the center of protests in which 34 people were killed on May Day in 1977. The office of the governor of Istanbul said 24,500 security officers reported for duty Sunday, and that 207 people were detained.

In the capital, Ankara, police rounded up four suspected Islamic State members who were allegedly planning to attack May Day demonstrators.

 Russia: Tens of thousands of people marched across Moscow's Red Square on a sunny Sunday morning in a pro-Kremlin workers' rally. The protesters were carrying the Russian tricolor and balloons.

As is typical for rallies organized by the ruling United Russia party, the May Day rally steered clear of criticizing President Vladimir Putin or his government for falling living standards. The slogans focused on wages and jobs for young professionals. Left-wing Russian groups held their own rallies.

 Philippines: In Manila, about 2,000 left-wing protesters scuffled with riot police, who used shields and a water cannon to try to prevent the flag-waving demonstrators from getting near the US Embassy. Labor leaders said 20 protesters were injured.

Some of the protesters managed to break through the police cordon. TV video showed some of them punching a retreating police officer and using wooden poles to hit a fire truck.

Police made no arrests and the protesters dispersed after about two hours.