France's first big strike of 2016 cripples road traffic, air travel

Paris

TAXIS snarled traffic across France on Tuesday and airlines cancelled flights on the first big strike day of 2016. Taxi drivers, air traffic controllers and civil servants were all on strike, each with different demands.

Taxi drivers set fire to tires on the highway ring road around Paris, blocked the A7 highway near Marseille, and slowed access roads to Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports near Paris.

Police arrested 20 taxi drivers in Paris, mostly near Porte Maillot on the western edge of the capital where riot police led a charge to displace a crowd of taxi drivers and extinguish burning tires, i-Tele tel…