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FRANCE FEARS UPSWING OF VIOLENCE*

PARIS October 23, 2006 (Scotsman/Reuters) - A French police intelligence agency has warned that rioting could break out again in poor, multi-ethnic neighbourhoods around Paris one year after unrest swept the nation's suburbs, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Le Figaro daily published the secret document the day after a mob of youths set a bus ablaze in broad daylight on the outskirts of Paris, and then stoned police and firemen who were trying to put the flames out.

"The attacks of the last few weeks show (the gangs) are very well prepared and using military-like organisation," said Gaelle James with the Synergie-Officiers police union. She said the gang members were getting "younger and younger, and more and more violent".

Le Figaro quoted the police General Intelligence (RG) agency as saying the conditions which led to the 2005 riots were still in place.

"Today, a certain feverishness is very noticeable amongst some of the young ... who are critical of the work of local organisations," said the report.

"(The violence) is no longer spontaneous but structured, aimed at ... striking out at one of the last institutional representatives still present in certain places, the police."

VIOLENCE ERUPTS AGAIN IN FRENCH SUBURBS*

October 23, 2006 (Euronews) - Bus drivers in a southern Paris suburb have gone on strike after one of their vehicles was set on fire by a gang of youths on Sunday.

... "I want to get out of here if I can afford it," said one mother. "I'm sick of living here."

"It was quiet for a while. Why does it have to start again today?," asked another resident.

The renewed violence comes nearly a year after riots broke out nationwide, highlighting the problems of racism and discrimination faced by France's poor, unemployed youths.

FRENCH RIOTS: IS HISTORY REPEATING?

LA COURNEUVE, France October 24, 2006 (CNN/Reuters) - "For several weeks, we have seen escalating violence," said Frederic Lagache from the Alliance police union.

"We have the impression that some people in difficult neighborhoods want to mark the anniversary of the November 2005 violence ... by attacking police."

Weekend pictures of youths setting cars ablaze in the Grigny suburb south of Paris brought back memories of last year's riots, which kicked off in a Parisian suburb before spreading across the country in the worst civil unrest in some 40 years.

Police have warned the new violence risked spiraling out of control as politicians geared up for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

... "Nothing's been done to integrate us. Crime won't go away if there are no jobs," said Cameroonian Alain Roger, 30, repairing a friend's car on a parking lot surrounded by bleak estates.

"In Paris the nobility rules. Here, it's the ghetto," Roger said of his La Courneuve suburb, which is just a 30-minute drive from the Eiffel Tower and French parliament.

"As soon as they see '9-3' on your address, you're out," said Cyril Nzok from Cameroon, referring to the postcode of the crime-ridden suburbs north of Paris.

Unemployment in the poor high-rise estates often hits 40 percent -- more than four times the national average.

... The [Socialist mayor Claude Dilain] of Clichy-Sous-Bois, where the riots began after two French teenagers of African descent were electrocuted while escaping the police, said the suburbs needed concrete projects, not just good intentions.

"All conditions are there for it to blow up (again) if people feel nothing has changed," he told Reuters.

... "Our main problem is this," [Kader Latreche, a 36-year old of Algerian origin,] said, pointing at a 15-storey housing estate. "We live like ants on top of each other."

* Absolutely no Muslims or maghrébins sighted during the writing of this report.

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