French Police Arrest 250 As Arson Grows
By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press Writer
ACHERES, France

Youths armed with gasoline bombs fanned out from Paris' poor, troubled suburbs to shatter the tranquility of leafier towns, torching 900 vehicles, a nursery school and other targets Saturday in the worst wave of arson since the urban violence began more than a week ago.

Police deployed a helicopter and small teams of officers to chase down youths who sped from one attack to another in cars and on motorbikes. The new security tactics yielded more than 250 arrests during the ninth straight night of unrest.

The violence _ originally concentrated in neighborhoods northeast of Paris with large immigrant populations _ is forcing France to confront anger long-simmering in its suburbs, where many Africans and their French-born children live on society's margins, struggling with unemployment, poor housing, racial discrimination, crime and a lack of opportunity.
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Paris seeks "hidden hands" in riots Staff and agencies05 November, 2005
By Tom Heneghan

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France - With every night that France‘s rundown suburbs burn, officials grow increasingly convinced that drug traffickers and Islamist militants are using frustrated youths to challenge law and order here.
Many people who watch their cars, shops and schools go up in flames, however, are not buying it. They blame unemployment, racial prejudice and widespread youth boredom for the outbursts.
Finding "hidden hands" behind the unrest seems like trying to catch the rioters as they rampage through the night. Some may get caught, but far more slip away in the darkness.
"Everybody is fed up seeing our town and our district trampled over daily by these organized gangs," declared Gerard Gaudron, conservative mayor of the northeastern Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois after an hour-long march against violence.
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