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11/28/2007: "Minorities riot and burn Paris"

The unrest showed anger still smolders in France's poor neighborhoods, where many Arabs, blacks and other minorities live largely isolated from the rest of society.

The trigger was the deaths Sunday of two minority teens when their motorscooter collided with a police car in Villiers-le-Bel, a blue-collar town on Paris' northern edge.

Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergie police union said rioters this time included "genuine urban guerrillas," saying the use of firearms . hunting shotguns so far . had added a dangerous dimension.

Youths, many of them Arab and black children of immigrants, again appeared to be lashing out at police and other targets seen to represent a French establishment they feel has left them behind.

Despite decades of problems and heavy state investments to improve housing and create jobs, the depressed projects that ring Paris are a world apart from the tourist attractions of the capital.

[ Why is it that multiculturalism doesn't work anywhere it is tried, and that history shows us no successful examples of multiculturalism? Maybe it's just a bad idea. After all, there are no redneck sheriffs in France. ]

A recent study by the state auditor's office indicated that money poured into poor French suburbs in recent decades had done little to solve problems vividly exposed by the 2005 riots, including discrimination, unemployment and alienation from mainstream society.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071127/ap_on_re_eu/france_violence

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071128/ap_on_re_eu/france_violence