Eric Westervelt is a San Francisco-based correspondent for NPR's National Desk. He has reported on major events for the network from wars and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa to historic wildfires and terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Fears that violence could mar the demonstrations against President Macron's unpopular pension reforms has led to deployment of 13,000 officers, nearly half of them concentrated in the French capital.
The landslide in Alausí, about 137 miles south of the capital, Quito, affected an estimated 500 people and 163 homes. Rescuers frantically searched for survivors.