<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060319/ap_on_re_eu/france_job_protests" target="_self" title="Story ">Story </a></p><p><img width="179" height="132" border="0" src="http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060318/capt.zfm10303182220.france_job_protests_zfm103.jpg ?x=180&y=132&sig=xJ_hHQkvNz9GTMaImg7eXw--" /></p><p>Four cars were set afire, police said, and a McDonald's restaurant was
attacked along with store fronts at the close of the march. </p><p>You know, I wasn't very suportive of the protestors at first. But now that they're torching the city and behaving like animals, they obviously must have an opinion worth listening to. </p><p> </p><p></p><p>The law would allow businesses to fire young workers in the first
two years on a job without giving a reason, removing them from
protections that restrict layoffs of regular employees.</p>
<p>Companies are often reluctant to add employees because it is hard to
let them go if business conditions worsen. Students see a subtext in
the new law: make it easier to hire and fire to help France compete in
a globalizing world economy.</p>
<p>Youth joblessness stands at 23 percent nationwide, and 50 percent
among impoverished young people. The lack of work was blamed in part
for the riots that shook France's depressed suburbs during the fall.</p>
<p>In Marseille, extreme leftist youths climbed the facade of City
Hall, replacing a French flag with a banner reading "Anticapitalism."
Police used tear gas to disperse them and made several arrests.</p>
<p>Police also fired tear gas at a protest in Clermont-Ferrand, a
central city where 10,000 people marched and about 100 youths threw
beer cans and other projectiles at a building.<br /><br />Widespread discontent with the government has crystalized
around a new type of job contract that Villepin says will alleviate
France's sky-high youth unemployment by getting companies to risk
hiring young workers.</p><p>Some demonstrators became violent as the march ended. Youths
set a car on fire, smashed a shop window, trashed a bus stop and threw
stones, golf balls and other objects at police. Police responded with
tear gas during skirmishes that lasted several hours.
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