(11 Nov 2005)
++NIGHT SHOTS++
Le Mirail, Toulouse
1. Trees and car park, with a car burning in the distance
2. People watching flames in carpark
3. Police officer with a gun, pan from the weapon to his face
4. Various of police running towards the car
5. Policemen standing near burning car
6. Various of firemen putting out the fire
Strasbourg
7. Post office sorting building, vehicles on fire behind it
8. Various of 'La Poste' vehicles on fire
9. Various of firefighters putting out fire
Les Minguettes, Venissieux, southern suburb of Lyon
10. Firetruck and firefighter in front of burning car
11. Various of burning car
12. Various of firefighters putting out fire
13. Burning car
14. Firefighters putting out blaze
15. Children looking from apartment block window, smoke
16. Helicopter flying over tower blocks
++DAY SHOTS++
Paris
17. Political analyst Dominique Moisi
18. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dominique Moisi, French Institute of International Relations:
"I think the president (Chirac) has lost his grasp of France. It's a question partly of age, partly maybe of physical disability, partly probably because when you have been in power for so long you are surrounded, protected, isolated by a court atmosphere, you loose touch with reality."
Bobigny, Paris suburbs
19. Court exterior
20. Entrance
21. Sign reading
22. People entering the tribunal
23. French and European flags
24. Interior of the tribunal with media milling around
STORYLINE:
There were fewer outbreaks of violence and arson across France on Thursday night as state-of-emergency measures and heavy policing took effect.
As midnight approached on Thursday, isolated reports of cars being torched emerged, but there were far fewer skirmishes and fewer cars burned.
In the eastern city Strasbourg, arsonists set two vans alight at a postal sorting facility serving the north of the city.
Meanwhile in Lyon's southern suburbs, two cars were set ablaze in the deprived neighbourhood of Les Minguettes.
Firefighters were on hand to battle the blazes, while police patrols continued in the night skies.
The unrest started on October 27 among youths in the northeastern suburban Paris town of Clichy-sous-Bois who were angry over the accidental electrocution of two teenagers.
The animosity grew into a nationwide wave of arson and nightly clashes between rioters armed with firebombs and police retaliating with tear gas.
The crisis has led to collective soul-searching about France's failure to integrate its African and Muslim minorities.
Anger about high unemployment and discrimination has fanned frustration among the French-born children of immigrants from France's former colonies.
Meanwhile one of the mysteries of France's wave of unrest has been President Jacques Chirac's virtual silence.
On Thursday President Jacques Chirac finally publicly addressed the inequalities and discrimination that have fuelled the rioting and admitted that the country has undeniable problems in its poor suburbs.
Chirac's reticence has drawn fire from opposition politicians, and some have said he is out of touch after a decade in power.
"The president has lost his grasp of France," said Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations. "Partly because of age, partly because of physical disability," and partly that he has been "isolated by a court atmosphere."
Meanwhile French courts are fast-tracking trials for scores of youths arrested in the wave of rioting.
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