Great moments in European civilization ( current - France from Scotland.. tee-hee )

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/interna...cfm?id=2322004

More than 300 cars set ablaze as violence mars French celebrations

SUSAN BELL AND CRAIG BROWN


FRANCE witnessed an orgy of vandalism as rioters set more than 300 cars ablaze, in what has become something of a New Year tradition.

Thirty-two of the 324 vehicles which ended as burned-out shells were found in and around the eastern city of Strasbourg, where the practice began in the 1990s.

By 3am on New Year?s Day, 192 people had been arrested, including several dozen in Paris, where youths clashed with police on the Champs ?lys?es, smashing shop windows and injuring several officers.

"Several particularly determined and violent elements attacked the police, who were forced to use teargas in order to disperse them," a spokesman for the Parisian police confirmed.

Celebrations in New York passed off without incident despite numerous terror scares.

Nearly one million revellers crammed into Times Square to bring in the new year with the dropping of the traditional New Year?s Eve ball.

The confetti-strewn party took place under some of the tightest security ever seen. Snipers were posted on rooftops and helicopters patrolled overhead.

The US government had raised its national terrorism alert on 21 December to its second-highest level, prompting cities across the country to step up police patrols, plan aerial surveillance and install equipment to detect chemical, biological or radiological contamination.

"You can?t let them spoil the party," said Mike Riley, of Huntsville, Alabama, who had travelled to Times Square. "Everybody in the world watches it on television, and since I was little, I wanted to be in Times Square on New Year?s Eve."

But while London and New York escaped terrorist attacks, ten people were killed in Indonesia when a bomb exploded in a crowded town square.

A New Year party had been taking place at the square in the town of Pereulak in the remote eastern Aceh province when the terrorists struck three hours before midnight.

Many of the victims were teenagers and children, including two girls aged one and four and a seven-year-old boy, hospital workers said.

A military spokesman, Lt-Col Ahmad Yani Basuki, blamed guerrillas who have been fighting a 27-year war against government forces for Aceh?s independence.

Festivities also took a deadly toll in the Philippines? city of Lucena, when fireworks sparked a fire in an old public market, which killed 18 people.

[Keith_Hixson]

Americans are more civilized than the French!

Just maybe their wine is lousy but they have had good P.R. all these years.

Viva La America!


Keith