CINA

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Yesterday in Mar del Plata, Argentina, according to the German daily Junge Welt, about 50,000 people were protesting against the plan to create the FTAA. According to independent news groups in Argentina, 87 protestors were arrested during the demo and some smaller riots (about 500 people joined the following street battle).

Read also Naomi Klein: Latin America's revolt!

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NO FUTURE!

Unrest spread across troubled suburbs around Paris in a eighth night of violence as the cops clashed with angry youths and scores of vehicles were torched in at least twenty towns, according to French officials. Police in riot gear fired rubber bullets at advancing gangs of youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois - one of the worst-hit suburbs - where 15 cars were burned alone Tuesday night, French officials said on Wednesday. Youths lobbed Molotov cocktails at an annex to the town hall and threw stones at the firehouse.

Also yesterday, in the eighth straight night, the cops were not in the position to control the riots all around Paris and now also in other parts of France. According to the German magazine Der Spiegel 420 cars and buses were torched. Police and fire stations, schools and supermarkets were attacked by "well organized" groups of immigrant youths.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy recently, short after the outbreak of the riots, called the immigrant youths "scum" and has vowed to "clean out" with "high pressure cleaners" Paris' troubled suburbs. Of course with his words he just "poured oil in the fire" and in the following nights the riots just were increasing, even the bourgeois media said. Riots erupted in an outburst of anger in Clichy-sous-Bois over the "accidental", until nobodz knows exactly, electrocution Oct. 27 of two teenagers who fled a soccer game and hid in a power substation when they saw police enter the area. Youths in the neighborhood suspect that police chased Traore Bouna, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, to their deaths. Since then riots have swelled into a broader challenge against the French state and its security forces. The violence has exposed deep discontent in neighborhoods where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, crime, poor education and housing. Immigrants, mainly from North Africa, and their French-born children often complain of cop's harassment and being refused jobs, housing and other opportunities. Eric, a 22-years-old in Clichy-sous-Bois born in France to Moroccan parents, said the cops target young people with dark skin. He said that he has been unable to find full-time work for two years and that the riots were a demonstration of suburban solidarity, so a TV report. "People are joining together to say we've enough," he said... "The French society is increasing equal, increasing segregated, and increasingly divided along ethnic lines," Manuel Boucher, a sociologist, said in the same report.

This is not Baghdad, its just in the middle of West Europe!

About the background of the riots more detailed you can read this article Emeutes de Clichy-sous-bois les jeunes accusent la police (프랑스 어, 10.30 보고). Explains to the French text: Flics...................cops CRS.....................riot cop units Capa Productions........TV broadcasting on CanalPlus EDF.....................one French electric power company (maybe someone - in fact I know only one person who might know some [???] French - can translate this text in Korean?!!!) Later, because of the difficult subject, a more detailed comment will follow... perhaps..

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About the "Summit of the Americas" in preparation of FTAA the UK daily Guardian wrote today: Latin America prepares to 'say no to Bush' · Maradona leads protests at summit in Argentina · Opponents gather in high profile alternative meeting George Bush left his problems at home yesterday only to find himself flying into a whole new world of hurt at the Summit of Americas in Argentina, where tens of thousands of protesters, led by the football star and broadcaster Diego Maradona, were due to greet the president in a "say no to Bush" march. The president can expect an equally unfriendly welcome from some of the leaders and top officials attending the summit in the seaside town of Mar del Plata. Among those he can expect to come face to face with is Hugo Chavez, the outspoken president of Venezuela who has accused the Bush administration of attempting to orchestrate a coup against him and last week said the US was planning to invade his country. Around 10,000 police and security agents have erected a ring of steel around the town, while Argentinian navy vessels have been positioned off the coast. Most commercial flights are due to be suspended once the 34-nation summit begins. But with so many protesters in the area, there are fears that trouble could break out. Last weekend small bombs were thrown at several American bank branches and chain store branches. Maradona has urged viewers of his popular television show to join him in a protest outside the meeting. Argentina's "piquetero" movement - made up of protesters known for blocking roads and confronting authorities - has promised to descend on the resort in force. Cuba, the only country in the hemisphere not invited to the summit hosted by the Organisation of American States, will be attending a People's Summit in Mar del Plata set up by leftwing groups to counter the official version. Family members of fallen US soldiers in Iraq as well as Iraqi civilians who have suffered at the hands of US troops will also be there. Mr Chavez, an important ally of Cuba's president Fidel Castro, is due to visit the People's Summit today and give a speech at a basketball stadium timed to coincide with the start of the Summit of Americas. Before flying there he said Venezuela would object to any attempt by the US to revive proposals for the creation of Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would overtake the European Union as the world's largest tariff-free zone. Mr Bush has been a forceful proponent of the idea, but talks have repeatedly stalled, with opponents fearful it would allow corporations to dominate the poor. "They aren't going to revive it, even if they produce a 10,000 page document," Mr Chavez told the Caracas-based TV channel Telesur. "Latin America remains the region of most inequalities in the world," Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque told the Associated Press. "The FTAA is just more of the same neo-liberal policies." Yesterday government officials at the summit site were still bickering over whether the event's final declaration would include crucial language on when high-level FTAA talks might resume. Victor Hugo Varsky, an Argentinian representative, said negotiators were advancing very slowly. "Some countries don't want any mention," he told AP. "Others want to progress towards a trade accord."

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The Guardian, UK, reported yesterday, 11.2 Palestinians hit by sonic boom air raids · UN condemns night noise attacks as indiscriminate · Agencies say they cause trauma and miscarriages Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip by letting loose deafening "sound bombs" that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatise children. The removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves across the territory, often at night. Palestinians liken the sound to an earthquake or huge bomb. They describe the effect as being hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears, sometimes causing nosebleeds and "leaving you shaking inside". The Palestinian health ministry says the sonic booms have led to miscarriages and heart problems. The United Nations has demanded an end to the tactic, saying it causes panic attacks in children. The shockwaves have also damaged buildings by cracking walls and smashing thousands of windows. "I have never heard such a loud explosion. I thought it was right over the top of my building," said the owner, Tareq Dayyeh. "Sometimes you hear the rockets the Israelis fire but this was different. I felt like I was in the middle of a bomb. When I ran out the door I thought I might find the rest of the street was gone." Over the past week, Israeli jets created 28 sonic booms by flying at high speed and low altitude over the Gaza Strip, sometimes as little as an hour apart through the night. During five days in late September, the air force caused 29 sonic booms. A senior Israeli army intelligence source, who the military would not permit to be named, said the tactic is intended to break civilian support for armed Palestinian groups. "We are trying to send a message in a way that doesn't harm people. We want to encourage the Palestinian public to do something about the terror situation," he said. "What are the alternatives? We are not like the terrorists who shoot civilians. We are cautious. We make sure nobody is really hurt." Yesterday, two medical human rights groups asked the Tel Aviv high court to outlaw the use of sound bombs on the grounds it amounts to illegal collective punishment and is detrimental to health. "The stress is phenomenal," said Eyad El Sarraj, a psychologist and director of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, one of the groups filing the petition. "The Israelis do it after midnight and then every one or two hours. You try to go to sleep and then there's another one. When it happens night after night you become exhausted. You get a heightened sense of alert, waiting continuously for it to happen. People suffer hypertension, fatigue, sleeplessness. "For children, the loud noise means danger. Adults may know it's only a sound but small children feel threatened. They are crying and clinging to their parents. Afterwards they are dazed and fearful, waiting for something to happen." The UN Palestinian refugee agency said a majority of the patients seen at its clinics as a result of the sonic booms were under 16 and suffering from symptoms such as anxiety attacks, bedwetting, muscle spasms, temporary loss of hearing and breathing difficulties. Although the Israelis say the shockwaves do not cause casualties, doctors at Gaza's Shifa hospital said the overflights had forced women to miscarry. The number of miscarriages had increased by 40%, according to Jumaa Saqqa, a surgeon and hospital spokesman. "There were no other symptoms and the rise happened after the sonic booms. We can see no other explanation. The number of patients admitted to the cardiac care unit doubled. Some of them proved to have suffered serious harm." Dr Saqqa said one overflight occurred while he was operating. The Palestinian health ministry estimates the sonic booms have caused at least 20 miscarriages. The UN's Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto, wrote to the Israeli high command this week saying he was "deeply concerned at the impact on children, particularly infants, of the use of sonic booms". ...