Out of control

Very telling quote in this story about how parents of the French rioters were planning a silent march today to call for an end to the mayhem.

Like many residents of La Cité des 3,000 - a sprawling project of battered apartment blocks in Aulnay - Madjid Zidane, 47, is exasperated by the nightly battles.

"The troublemakers are not men," he said. "Real men wouldn't behave in this way. No, these are kids under 25 - including my own."

The Algerian father-of-six surveyed a burnt-out police station at the estate entrance.

"The station was only cosmetic anyway," he said. "The police have no power against the kids around here. My 14-year-old pulled a knife on me the other day. Do you think he's afraid of them?"

Somehow I don't think Dominique de Villepin's promise to come up with a plan "to improve conditions in the country's poor neighborhoods" is the way to go.