"No Real Answer to Riots in Political Wrangling"

From the NYTimes

"A few hours before dark on Christmas Eve, the prefecture of the Yvelines district in the vast urban sprawl surrounding the capital put out a notice forbidding gas stations from selling fuel to anyone not actually pumping it into the tank of his car. Basically, that meant young men carting it off in jerrycans.

The ban holds till noon on Jan. 2, and according to the French-language service of The Associated Press, the prefecture explained its decision, similar to restrictions in other regions, by noting that "the year-end holiday period raises the possibility of new excesses." Those would-be car and building-burning rampages looking a whole lot like the three weeks of rioting by children of France's downtrodden Arab and African immigrants that shook the country in October and November. (more)