MASKED youths clashed with police and set fires in cities across France yesterday as protests against a proposed hike in the retirement age took an increasingly radical turn. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, long lines formed at petrol stations and train service in many regions was cut in half.

French students marched, chanted and whistled in renewed nationwide protests today against a new labour law, as the government tried to maintain a united front for this pivotal test of the country’s direction.

A FIRE at a crowded Paris apartment building housing African immigrants early yesterday killed 17 people - 14 of them children.