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ATD Quart Monde denounces "violence against the poor"

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, celebrated on Wednesday 17 October, aims this year to "recognize violence against the poor" according to the organizer ATD Quart Monde. The French national institute for statistics, INSEE, reported that the poverty rate in France reached 14.1% in 2010, its highest level since 1997. In 2010, 8.6 million people were living beneath the poverty threshold (964 euros per month), and half of them had to make do with less than 781 euros per month. "The poorest
 people are suffering discrimination because of their social background", argues ATD, which campaigns for, amongst other measures, "a social minimum income indexed to rises in the cost of living."

Anti-airport protesters evicted

Yesterday morning at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, site of an airport project, more than 500 policemen, riot police and two helicopters were mobilized to dislodge 150 "squatters" opposed to the project. The Prefect of Loire-Atlantique said, mid-morning, that the eleven targeted locations were under control. "We had some resistance, some people climbed on the rooves, but there was no litigation, no arrests," he said.