Unrest hits Paris as riots spread afar BOBIGNY, France -- A 10-day rampage by angry Muslim immigrant youths spread last night and early today from the suburbs of Paris to the heart of the capitaland from Normandy in the west to Mediterranean cities of the south. Muslim leaders made fruitless appeals for calm and police teams began chasing rioters, mostly Arab and African youths, as they sped from one attack to another in cars and on motorbikes. New security tactics yielded hundreds of arrests by early today. In Grigny, a suburb south of Paris, residents fed up with the violence pitched in, hauling young rioters to police. For the first time, the unrest spread to central Paris, where a Molotov cocktail was hurled at cars near the busy Place de la Republique. At least a dozen cars were burned near City Hall, police said. By 1 a.m. this morning, at least 607 vehicles -- including those in central Paris -- had been set ablaze, said Patrick Hamon, spokesman for the national police. The overall figures were expected to climb by daybreak. Will the riots swell the ranks of jihadists in Europe?

 

Immigration, poverty linked The topic of poverty in the United States has become intertwined with one of the most hotly debated issues on Capitol Hill and across the nation -- immigration. "Any discussion of poverty in the United States would have to deal with immigration ... it doesn't make sense to import poverty," which is what is happening now, said Steven A. Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that advocates stricter immigration limits and enforcement. George Borjas, professor of economics and social policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, agrees that immigration and poverty are linked, and he cites the same reasons as CIS. "They are linked because an increasing number of poor in this country are foreign-born, and a disproportionately large number of immigrants are high school dropouts," Mr. Borjas said.

 

MORE BRITONS BELIEVE IN GHOSTS THAN IN GOD LONDON, ENGLAND (ANS) -- It may be Britain's inclement weather or the country's ancient Druidic and superstitious history, but more Britons believe in ghosts than in God, according to an informal survey published on Halloween. Of 2,012 people who completed a questionnaire, 68 percent said they believed in the existence of ghosts and spirits, while 55 percent said they believed in the existence of a god. According to a story circulated by The Associated Press (AP), the Halloween survey was carried out by retailer ChoicesUK. However, since it was not a random sample, its findings do not represent a statistically valid barometer of British opinion.

The AP story says that some 26 percent said they believed in the existence of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, while 19 percent believed in reincarnation. Just 4 percent admitted believing that the Loch Ness Monster was more than a myth. The survey reveals that of those who believed in ghosts, 12 percent said they had actually seen an apparition and 76 percent said that TV reality shows about the supernatural and films like the spooky "Blair Witch Project" had played a part in convincing them that ghouls exist. "We want to believe in ghosts more than ever and are far more likely to take the word of a reality documentary or convincing movie than hearsay or ancient ghost stories," ChoicesUK spokesman David Rich said. He added: "Seeing it with our own eyes helps feed our imagination and makes the unbelievable believable."

 

NEWLY LEAKED DOCUMENT SHOWS LOCAL VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST PARTY ADOPTS GOVERNMENT STRATEGY TO FIGHT RELIGION AND ERADICATE PLACES OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP  In a leaked document obtained by a Christian religious rights organization, government officials in tribal areas of Vietnam are vowing to "fight religion" and "eradicate" places of Christian worship. According to its website, the Center for Religious Freedom, based at Freedom House (www.freedomhouse.org ), a secret document issued earlier this year by a local Vietnamese communist party branch obtained by the Center, reveals an official policy of forcing Hmong Christians to give up their faith and of "eradicating" Christian meeting places.

Freedom House says the document, from the Muong Nhe District Party Office (Task force 184, No. 30-KH/184, in Dien Bien Province) dated February 25, 2005, "describes a comprehensive campaign by Party and government officials, in partnership with the police and military, that was scheduled to have been waged from March 2 through June 30, 2005." Because of the remoteness of the rural district, Freedom House says it has not yet been confirmed whether the campaign was implemented. The document calls for "mobilizing the masses to fight and resist religion and religious belief, and eradicate places complicating public security." These "places" are an obvious reference to Christian house churches. Cadres will "get the people to give up their religion and return to their traditional beliefs and customs…. and inspect the areas not yet infiltrated with the Vang Chu [the Hmong term for God] religion so it does not "infect other places."

 

Escaped Killer Captured in Louisiana HOUSTON (AP) - A death row inmate who slipped out of a Texas jail wearing street clothes was captured Sunday in Shreveport, La., the U.S. Marshals Service said. Marianne Matus, a Marshals spokeswoman in Houston, confirmed Sunday night that convicted killer Charles Victor Thompson was in custody. No details about how authorities found him were immediately released, but Matus had said earlier in the day that they had received valuable tips about his possible whereabouts. A $10,000 reward had been offered for information leading to his capture. Thompson, 35, had been convicted in 1999 for the shooting deaths a year earlier of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain. An appeals court threw out his sentence, but on Oct. 28, another jury sentenced him to death.

 

Vikings: Here kitty, kitty  Yes, Vikings fans, you've got a friend. The Detroit Lions answered your team's call Sunday, providing their annually underwhelming performance to inject a bit of optimism into a dark period for the Vikings. Swaggering from the start, the Vikings capitalized on a pair of turnovers to score three touchdowns in the second quarter and held on for a 27-14 victory.

 

North of border, gay marriage spurs social revolution (The Star Tribune's take on it ... not mine!) A proposal to preserve marriage as the union of one man and one woman in Minnesota's Constitution is one of the biggest issues our state will face in the next legislative session.

Some people argue that same-sex marriage wouldn't change anybody else's marriage but merely expand the institution to provide equal rights for all. Canada made same-sex marriage the law of the land in June. What's happened there in recent months suggests a different story.

Bishop Frederick Henry of the Catholic Diocese of Calgary, Alberta, has been at the forefront of Canada's battle over marriage. On Thursday, he will address the Minnesota Pastors Summit -- a ground-breaking interdenominational conference of Catholic and Protestant pastors -- at Grace Church in Eden Prairie. When I spoke to Henry last week, he said that Canadians, too, were originally told that same-sex marriage was just a small step to promote "inclusiveness." "But today in Canada a social revolution is underway," he said.

 

HOLLYWOOD ROCKED: 'GAY COWBOY' MOVIE BECOMES AN OSCAR FRONTRUNNER Arriving with nudity and explicit gay sex scenes between two cowboys, UNIVERSAL/FOCUS FILMS's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN has quietly become an award season frontrunner, interviews with Academy members reveal. "It could very well be the last film standing at this year's Oscars," a top Hollywood producer not associated with the film explained from Hollywood. "There was not a dry eye in the house at the screening at Telluride [Film Festival in Colorado]," says the producer, who asked not to be named out of respect for the cast and crew of the producer's own Oscar contender. "Watch it come out of the gate at the Golden Globes with super controversy." NEW YORK DAILY NEWS critic Jack Mathews predicts the gay cowboy movie, which takes place in Wyoming, may be "too much for red-state audiences, but it gives the liberal-leaning Academy a great chance to stick its thumb in conservatives' eyes."

But will a movie even Madonna calls "shocking" sit with the heartland? Playwright and lifelong Wyomingite tells the STAR-TRIBUNE of Casper this week that she has never encountered a gay cowboy, and doesn't think it's right for Hollywood to portray Wyoming as a state with gay cowboys. Her message to the writers of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: “Don't try and take what we had, which was wonderful -- the cowboys that settled the state and made it what it was -- don't ruin that image... There's nothing better than plain old cowboys and the plain old history without embellishing it to suit everyone."

 

Iraq plans hotel and theme parks for a tourism boom Wherever America leaves it's palm-print ... there is prosperity! A $80 million, five-star, 23-storey hotel rising in the city centre; an opulent palace complex being turned into a theme park; cheap flights to the picturesque "Venice of the east" - all the trappings of a country gearing up for a tourist boom. Except the country in question is Iraq. With a new constitution and elections in the offing, officials insist there is a new beginning. The tourist board has 2,400 staff and 14 offices. There has been a rise in the volume of travelers, with Iraqis either leaving or expatriates returning for visits. And there is also the continuous and steady number of foreigners, mainly contractors, coming in for the huge wages they can now command for working in such a risky environment. The planned hotel is very much at an embryonic stage. The land - in the heavily guarded Green Zone - has been donated by the Iraqi government, and the finance is being provided by an Iraqi businessman.

 

Gas Prices Drop an Average of 23 Cents Retail gas prices plunged an average of 23 cents nationwide in the past two weeks, marking a return to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, according to a survey. The weighted average price for all three grades declined to $2.45 a gallon on Friday, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country. Self-serve regular averaged $2.43 a gallon nationwide. The price for midgrade was $2.53, while premium-grade hit $2.63. The average pump price for all three grades on Aug. 29, the day Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast, was $2.65, according to the survey. The lowest average price in the nation for regular unleaded among the stations surveyed was $2.06 a gallon in Tulsa, Okla. The highest was $2.74 in Miami.

I just paid $2.12 a gallon today ... maybe it will be under $2 soon?

Humor ... well, sort of anyway...