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Even though the French government put large numbers of police on the streets in Paris and surrounding towns, the new year has begun with riots. 340 cars have been set alight, and the police have arrested more than 260 rioters....

PARIS -- Thousands of Parisian police guarded the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysees and train stations on Saturday as part of emergency measures enacted in response to text messages and Internet postings that called for "violent actions" in the capital. In Lyon, France's third largest city, police fired tear gas to disperse stone-hurling youths at the historic Place Bellecour. It was the first time in 17 days of unrest that youths clashed with police in a major city. Hours earlier, authorities had announced a weekend curfew in Lyon, barring youths under 18 from being outside without adult supervision between 10...

FRANCE yesterday ordered a ban on public meetings likely to provoke disturbances as thousands of police were deployed on the streets of Paris to stop youths turning the tourist centre into a battlefield. The initiative came as speculation mounted over a severely discredited Jacques Chirac’s ability to endure the last 17 months of his presidential term. Ringleaders of the riots that have shaken France for the past two weeks were suspected of planning to set ablaze the affluent Champs Elysées. Through text and internet messages they were encouraging followers armed with Molotov cocktails to converge on the tree-lined tourist haunt...

The worldwide Islamic jihad has begun. The riots in France are not isolated incidents of “disenfranchised Muslim youths”. They are being organized and coordinated by adults. Shortly after the rioting began, French police discovered at least one warehouse facility that contained bomb making ingredients, Molotov cocktails, black masks to hide behind, motorcycles and cell phones. This “insurgency”, or more appropriately—terrorism—was planned. The Islamic mayhem in France and Denmark, and now the beginnings of the same chaos in Germany and Belgium, are neither unexpected nor are they coincidences. On 31 October, in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten, it was reported that riots in Denmark...

We really need a T-shirt concept for France. Here's a start: France trying its hardest to surrender to a bunch of kids Boycott France It’s all burned anyway Vive Le France, (the cars are a different matter) Visit France But bring your own transportation

Imagine for a moment that the City of New York is engulfed in smoke from thousands of burning cars. Young men are shooting at cops and beating anyone with whom they come into contact. Imagine that for 11 days young immigrants from Arab and North African countries roamed the streets of New York carrying weapons, gasoline bombs and Molotov cocktails defying government officials and police officers who are prevented by a politically-correct orthodoxy from taking any offensive action. Then imagine that while all of this chaos is going on, night after night after night after night, the President of the...

President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency Tuesday, paving the way for curfews to be imposed on riot-hit cities and towns in an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in decades after 12 nights of violence. Police, meanwhile, said overnight unrest Monday-Tuesday, while still widespread and destructive, was not as violent as previous nights. "The intensity of this violence is on the way down," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, citing fewer attacks on public buildings and fewer direct clashes between youths and police. He said rioting was reported in 226 towns across France, compared to nearly...

Rioting by French youths spread to 300 towns overnight and a man hurt in the violence died of his wounds, the first fatality in 11 days of unrest that has shocked the country, police said Monday. As urban unrest spread to neighboring Belgium and possibly Germany, the French government faced growing criticism for its inability to stop the violence, despite massive police deployment and continued calls for calm. On Sunday night, vandals burned more than 1,400 vehicles, and clashes around the country left 36 police injured, setting a new high for overnight arson and violence since rioting started Oct. 27,...

French police made 395 arrests last night as riots intensified for the 11th consecutive night, with violence and fire engulfing towns from the North to the Mediterranean. In the impoverished suburbs and satellite towns around Paris, where the unrest began on October 27, churches, schools and warehouses were set alight. At least 1,408 vehicles were destroyed, many more than on previous nights, and the random attacks have spread into the heart of the city. In Grigny, south of the capital, a gang of around 200 youths are reported to have lured police into a housing estate before opening fire with...

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Schools and churches were burned in several French towns in an 11th straight night of unrest and arson, despite words from the president that restoring order was a top priority. Police arrested nearly 150 people overnight and into Monday morning even as French President Jacques Chirac vowed to crack down on the perpetrators, who have wreaked havoc in towns in southern and eastern parts of France and in the capital Paris. Overnight Sunday rioting spread across the nation, and into Paris proper, with a half dozen cars set on fire for the first time in the...

Thirty French police injured as rioters switched for the first time from arson to gunfire on 11th night of disorders sweeping France.

ARIS, France (CNN) -- Protesters in France expanded their arson rampage into the capital city of Paris and along Mediterranean resort communities as the nation's Interior Ministry predicted the violence would grow by daybreak Sunday. Police helicopters flew over Paris and other locations in an effort to identify and stop the vandals, French radio said. The latest violence, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers in suburban Paris, spread west to the Normandy region and south to the Mediterranean. In the resort cities of Cannes and Nice, where arson was reported. By early Sunday, more than 800 cars had been...

ACHERES, France — Riots that started in Paris' lower-class suburbs and resulted in 250 arrests of predominantly Muslim youths Saturday moved into the capital of France early Sunday morning. By 1 a.m., a spokesman for the national police reported 13 vehicles torched in the capital, and 607 vehicles burnt overall during the 10th straight night of rioting. Totals are expected to rise by morning. *snip* The violence — originally concentrated in neighborhoods northeast of Paris with large immigrant populations — is forcing France (search) to confront anger long-simmering in its suburbs, where many Africans and their French-born children live on...

It is now getting dark in Paris and in all of France(appx. 6:40 PM Paris Time), and if there are any French FR lurkers(lurquers), this may be the thread to post your reports about any further violence. It seems the French govt. is impotent in it's response to what seems are jihadist thugs and it seems the American media has put a news blackout filter to what is really happening, so as not to embarass their heroes, Chirac et al. So any news reports or personal reports from what happens tonight are welcome, and don't worry about broken English, reports...

AUBERVILLIERS, France - Marauding youths torched nearly 900 vehicles, stoned paramedics and burned a nursery school in a ninth night of violence that spread from Paris suburbs to towns around France, police said Saturday. Authorities arrested more than 250 people overnight — a sweep unprecedented since the unrest began. ADVERTISEMENT For the first time, authorities used a helicopter to chase down youths armed with gasoline bombs who raced from arson attack to arson attack, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said. The violence, which was concentrated in neighborhoods with large African and Muslim populations but has since spread, has forced France...

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France - Rampaging youths shot at police and firefighters Thursday after burning car dealerships and public buses and hurling rocks at commuter trains, as eight days of riots over poor conditions in Paris-area housing projects spread to 20 towns. Youths ignored an appeal for calm from President Jacques Chirac, whose government worked feverishly to fend off a political crisis amid criticism that it has ignored problems in neighborhoods heavily populated by first- and second-generation North African and Muslim immigrants. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called a string of emergency meetings with Cabinet ministers throughout the day. He told the...