Free Republic

Police in the French city of Lyon have used teargas to disperse youths throwing stones and attacking cars, the first rioting in a major city centre. The unrest, which followed more than two weeks of violence in France's poor suburbs, occurred hours before a curfew for minors came into force in Lyon. In Paris, a ban on public meetings has ended, with no reports of unrest. Police overnight said the situation across France was "much calmer" than on previous nights. More than 370 cars were burned overnight, down from 502 the previous night. A further 212 people were arrested.

Some 3,000 police fanned out around Paris on Saturday to counter feared weekend attacks on high-profile targets in the capital as the number of vehicles torched overnight rose slightly elsewhere in France, officials said. Two Molotov cocktails were tossed into a mosque in the southern city of Carpentras, slightly damaging the porch, local officials said. It was not immediately clear whether the attack was linked to the unrest that has racked the poor suburbs and towns of France since Oct. 27. Some two weeks ago, tear gas fumes that invaded a mosque in northeast Paris suburb, Clichy-sous-Bois, where violence started,...

BRUSSELS, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Five cars were set on fire in Brussels overnight, raising the number of vehicles burned in the Belgian capital to 10 since Sunday in what officials say appeared to be an imitation of violence in France. There were also minor incidents of arson in the northern town of Sint Niklaas -- where a car was also set ablaze -- and the eastern city of Liege, authorities reported. Belgian officials played down the extent of the incidents. "There were no riots. These were all very isolated incidents. Whoever set fire to the cars must have been...