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Monday, January 2

"Some 650 Cars Burned Around France on New Year’s Eve"

The following is a file photo that was used by both TASS and FARS to illustrate their (virtually identical) short reports on the December 31 car burnings because no news photos of the 2016 version of the annual conflagration is available -- not that I've seen. As to why this so, let's ring up French newspaper editors and ask them.  

Or we could call France's government and ask whether Al Saud was planning to pick up the tab for the 100,000 or so French police, firemen and civilian volunteers who had to be put on the streets to keep order on New Year's Eve this year.
   

Archive AP Photo/Michel Spingler

PARIS, January 2. /TASS/. New Year celebrations in France were again marred by a series of car burnings in which over 650 vehicles were set ablaze, the country’s interior ministry said late Sunday.

"The number of burned cars shows that this phenomenon, as unacceptable as it is, continues to exist. A total of 650 cars were set ablaze while last year there were 602 such cases," the ministry said in a statement.

However, the ministry reported an overall trend of decline in the car burnings, which have effectively become an annual event in French suburbs since the 2005 riots [a.k.a. The French Intifada]. 


"In the past five years, the number of torched vehicles dropped by 20%, the ministry said.

Security has been tough on New Year’s eve around France, with more than 100,000 police officers, firemen and civilian activists on duty to prevent major disturbances. "No major incidents were reported on the Saint Sylvestre night (New Year’s eve)," the statement reads, adding that "sporadic occasions of tensions or public disorders" still took place.

"A total of 454 people were detained by police officers and gendarmes during the night, 301 of them were placed in custody," the interior ministry said.

[END REPORT]


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