I am from over there and I keep myself up-to-date with French news of course as well as still have most of my family there. First let me tell you that, although these are serious matters, the American medias have made a bid deal out of this, much more than it diserves. They make everybody believes that all Paris, possibly all France, is under riot, burning. You need to understand that this is localised in few northern suburds of Paris. It is like if there were riots in Harlem, New-York. Having said that the situation is serious and it is a slap in the face of Jacques Chirac's government. Chirac's popularity, which has never been very high, is at its rock bottom right now. From some French newspapers articles I have read some believes that these riots are organized by Muslim extremist organizations. That is quite plausible. They use different methods to destabilize western countries, bombs in England and Madrid and possibly organized riots in France. In my opinion the French government and particulrly the French Police needs to show less laxisme. French police has always been good at infiltrating extremism organizations whatever side they are from (Corsican, Basque, Muslim, etc...) but on this particular one they did a very poor job. I would relate that to the poor leadership shown by Chirac in recent years. This guy needs to leave but unfortunatly the French will have to wait for another 18months or so.l