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| Europe |
| Violence on fringes of Paris demo |
| 2009-01-29 |
| FRENCH police wielding batons charged dozens of youths who threw bottles, set fires and tore-up manhole covers as violence erupted on the fringes of a protest against economic hardship today. Officers in riot gear intervened in the Opera District of central Paris as pockets of trouble broke out at the edge a crowd of tens of thousands. Youths overturned bins and set bonfires in a main shopping boulevard. The violent protesters were pushed back by three or four police charges onto the Place de l'Opera where the mass of the rally was assembling, but the situation remained volatile, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Earlier, the huge and initially largely peaceful rally organised by France's main trade unions had marched through Paris to protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's response to the economic crisis. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 The French don't care if "youths" burn their slums, it seems, but the Opera District is where the elite hang out... |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-01-29 15:14 |
| #1 To our French R'burgers: Does "youth" mean what we think it means, or were some of these thugs actually named Jaque or Pierre? |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2009-01-29 15:00 |