Word: suburban
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...thousands of cars set ablaze during nearly three weeks of nationwide rioting in 2005. But as yet another orgy of automobile arson on Wednesday demonstrated, the torching of cars in France has not only become an everyday event; it's also now a regular form of expression for disenfranchised suburban youths wanting to make sure the rest of the country doesn't forget they exist. And their fiery presence is never felt so strongly as it is each New Year's Eve - the day of France's unofficial festival of car-burning. (Read a special report on the 2005 French...
...figures from the French Interior Ministry, 1,147 cars went up in smoke on New Year's Eve - a 30% rise on the 879 autos torched the same night in 2007. As often is the case, the worst-hit areas were the disadvantaged neighborhoods that sit beyond the suburban peripheries of most French cities. A total of 422 cars were burned in Paris-area housing projects, compared to 12 in the relatively well-policed Parisian intra muros. Other cities whose unemployment-racked, racially tense banlieues also lived up to their reputations for frequent car-burning included Strasbourg, Lille, Toulouse...
...came at the end of a year in which the total number of autos set alight in the first 11 months had decreased 15%, compared with the same period in 2007. But while annual figures may fluctuate, they've generally swelled since the late 1970s, when French suburban youths first started burning cars as a way to get the attention of society, the media and politicians...
...prosperous northeastern coastal city of Tianjin, Gong Haitao, 31, seems to have it all. A production supervisor at a major glass manufacturer, Gong enjoys a steady income, has a decent apartment and a car and is happily married. But during a recent drive from downtown Tianjin to his suburban home, Gong couldn't stop complaining about life, albeit in a rustic, good-humored way. "If it wasn't for the bad economy, I would have bought a second car and a nicer apartment by now," he says while driving past a grand mixture of construction sites and farms in southern...
...getting too close," Cobo said. "The drugs and the money were planted so it would seem like he was involved in narco trafficking." Following the slaying, soldiers arrested Cobo and 13 others, along with semi-automatic rifles and radio equipment. His confession led the military to the suburban house where they dug up the bodies he had mentioned. Cobo was eventually sent to a civilian prison, where he awaits his court date on organized crime charges. Federal prosecutors declined to comment on whether his cooperation will lead to a more lenient sentence...