France to impose curfews on all riot affected areas

...and the rioters respond by waving their private parts in the general direction of Chirac, the silly French kaaaaniggit. France will today broaden powers to impose local curfews across the country, one of several measures announced by Dominique de Villepin, prime minister, last night in a bid to quell widespread rioting. Mr de Villepin said Jacques Chirac, France's president, would hold a cabinet meeting this morning to take the unprecedented step of invoking a 1955 law that allows the government's regional representatives to impose curfews on areas at risk of rioting. Curfews were already imposed last night in some Paris suburbs under a legal procedure used by several towns since 2001 to tackle youth delinquency. One of the last blanket curfews in Paris was imposed on Algerians in 1961. Mr de Villepin, in a televised appearance, announced plans to call up 1,500 reserve gendarmes to take the total police deployed against the rioting to 9,500. He also proposed giving apprenticeships to failing school-children from the age of 14, instead of 16, and increasing bursaries and internships for poor children. A programme to demolish high-rise tower blocks and build more attractive housing would be accelerated, he said, while local association funding would increase. The violence has steadily intensified over the past 11 days. The rioting, mostly by children of immigrants in areas blighted by high unemployment, decrepit housing and poor schools, has spread across France and affected about 275 urban areas. More than 4,700 vehicles have been set on fire since October 27, when protests were sparked by the deaths of two black teenagers, electrocuted while believed to have been hiding from police in an electricity substation in Clichy-sous-Bois, a north-east Paris suburb. Well it looks like they are starting a more hardline approach to these riots, finally. On top of the curfews and extra military presence, they've insituted a fast-track system for trying the some 1,500 youths arrested. Are the French starting to get a back bone?