Free Republic

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France, Nov 15 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin made a surprise visit on Tuesday to a Paris suburb hit by an unprecedented wave of rioting and presented parliament his plan to extend emergency powers. Villepin travelled to Aulnay-sous-Bois northeast of Paris a day after President Jacques Chirac said in a national address that the worst civil unrest in almost 40 years pointed to a deep national malaise and identity crisis. The prime minister met local residents, teachers and business leaders during the previously unannounced visit, his first to an area hit by rioting by youths who...

Paris — Authorities imposed curfews in the French Riviera cities of Nice and Cannes on Wednesday to prevent rioting, while the interior minister called for the deportation of foreigners convicted in the wave of unrest that has spread throughout France. Looters and vandals defied a state of emergency with attacks on superstores, a newspaper warehouse and a subway station. Arson attacks continued after sundown, with a nursery school going up in flames in the southern city of Toulouse, RTL radio reported. The unrest began Oct. 27 and has grown into a nationwide insurrection by disillusioned suburban youths who complain of...

PARIS, Nov 10 (Reuters) - French police said they arrested 90 people during rioting late on Wednesday and 227 cars were burned, figures broadly similar to the previous night. It was the 14th night of violence by youths mainly angry at discrimination and high unemployment. An official at the national police headquarters said: "Even if the figure is a little higher than the night before, there is less violence. No injuries, no particular incidents that stand out. It's positive overall

PARIS - The French Riviera cities of Nice and Cannes, best known for glitz and film festivals that attract Hollywood stars, were among areas that imposed curfews for minors Wednesday even as rioting abated. The government toughened its stance against those involved in France's worst civil unrest since its 1968 student riots. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said local officials have been told to deport the 120 foreigners convicted so far for their roles in the violence. Although rioting persisted in some places for a 13th night, car burnings fell by nearly half and reports of violence dropped. Nonetheless, looters and...

PARIS - President Jacques Chirac declared a 12-day 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 nearly four decades. Meanwhile, police said the nightly rioting that began Oct. 27 ago was showing signs of abating. "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 with nearly 300 the...

The Foreign Ministry has criticised some foreign reports as excessive and at least one cabinet member, Labour Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, has hinted the critical reporting was meant to hit back at France for opposing the U.S.-led Iraq war. French media have run hard-hitting reports on the riots, just as they have been very critical of social or racial problems abroad. But seeing equally tough reporting about their own country seems to have caught the French off guard. Eric Raoult, mayor of the eastern Paris suburb of Raincy, did not like being at the receiving end of outside attention. "Last night,...

PARIS (Reuters) - France is wounded and faces a moment of truth, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Tuesday, after his government approved the use of curfews to quell 12 nights of rioting. The protests, blamed on racism and unemployment in rundown suburbs, receded in the Paris region after shots were fired at police the previous night but continued unabated in other parts of France in the early hours of Tuesday, with youths torching more than 1,000 vehicles overnight. "The Republic faces a moment of truth ... France is wounded. It cannot recognise itself in its streets and devastated...

Paris - The mayor of a tough Paris suburb near the epicentre of the urban violence raging across France declared an "exceptional curfew" on his municipality starting on Monday night. The curfew, decided by conservative mayor Eric Raoult of the northeast suburb of Raincy, was the first to be imposed in France since rioting broke out in the neighbouring suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois on October 27.

<p>Hurricane Katrina. 9/11. National shocks come in different forms. In France, the tremor is in the form of rioting and arson that, since Oct. 27, have spread from largely Muslim housing projects outside Paris across the country. Rampaging youths have torched schools, businesses and symbols of authority from the Mediterranean to the German border. On Saturday alone, they burned almost 1,300 cars.</p>

LONDON/PARIS: In the first disturbing assertion that a European country and its capital can be brought to a halt by the massed forces of Islamist militants both within and outside its borders, French police warned there was evidence they had played a role in inciting vandals, albeit "not on the front lines." With the tough-talking interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy warning of stiff jail sentences for the rioters, there were signs the French capital was a city under siege. With night buses in and to some of the more remote suburbs cancelled to prevent rioters using them as soft targets, police...