France has declared a national state of emergency and has closed its borders after at least 40 people were killed in multiple shootings in Paris.
At least 15 people were killed near the Bataclan arts centre, where up to 60 people are being held hostage. Explosions and gunfire are reported.
Three people were killed in an attack near the Stade de France, with some reports suggesting a suicide blast.
Paris authorities have urged people to stay indoors.
Military personnel are being deployed across Paris.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/13/455943961/violence-reported-in-paris
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/13/world/paris-shooting/index.html
Update #1 [BBC updates]:
Scores of people have been killed in multiple gun and bomb attacks in Paris
At least 100 people are reported to have died inside the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris
Others died in attacks near the Stade de France, where France were playing Germany, and at restaurants
France has declared a national state of emergency and has closed its borders
Paris residents have been asked to stay indoors and military personnel are being deployed across the city
[...] Reuters. quoting an un-named official at Paris City Hall, says the current death toll in Paris is around 140.
According to the Paris prosecutor, of the four assailants who died during the sidge at the Bataclan, three committed suicide by detonating explosive vests. The prosecutor has warned that some of their accomplices may "still be on the loose".
[...] Here is what French president François Hollande told reporters outside the Bataclan concert hall just now: "To all those who have seen these awful things, I want to say we are going to lead a war which will be pitiless. Because when terrorists are capable of committing such atrocities they must be certain that they are facing a determined France, a united France, a France that is together and does not let itself be moved, even if today we express infinite sorrow."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 14 2015, @02:40AM
You've been modded "insightful" - but I would say that your insight is somewhat limited. Neither Syria nor Iraq is a monoculture. Both countries have been subject to outside influences for millenia. Both countries are home to multiple cultures, including Yazidi, Kurd, Orthodox Christian, Shia, Baathists, Bedouin, and more. Things have been complicated in recent centuries by the invasion of European powers, and the discovery of oil.
It would be more accurate to say that Syria and Iraq are the natural results of multiculturalism.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday November 14 2015, @03:10AM
Shh, Runaway, all Ay-rabs look the same and are the same, dontcha know
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @04:21AM
> Neither Syria nor Iraq is a monoculture.
Thanks for taking my bait. You are of course correct. Similarly no country on the earth is a monoculture. Not even the cited case of the Japan is such with the native Ainu and the Zainichi for example.
Therefore drawing the conclusions about the benefits of monoculture is typical racist thinking - conclusions based on a superficial reductivist understanding and barely a passing familiarity with the complex details of the situation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @04:33AM
Its kinda funny you consider baathists [wikipedia.org] to be a cultural group. I guess to a wing-nut conservative like you democrats are a cultural group too.
Just goes to prove my point about you only having a superficial knowledge of what the fuck you are talking about. As is always the case with racists.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 14 2015, @04:48AM
Dopeheads are a subculture - socialists are a subculture - neonazis are a subculture - even feminism has become a subculture here in the US. And, yes, Baathists are every bit as much a subculture in the mideast as the Yazidi are. Iraq was ruled by a Baathist for several decades, after all.
Or, did you think that only a religion can define a culture or subculture? The diet? A style of clothing? By what standards do you define culture? Are guns and other weapons required to defing a culture?
I suppose that you would claim that the USSR had no culture.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:17AM
It's revealing how you've turned the word "culture" into something so all encompassing that it has no meaning at all. You've completely contradicted your position about monocultures by making up a definition for the word "culture" that is so generic that it is impossible to have a monoculture because any group of people can be divided up by your arbitrary lines.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 14 2015, @09:57AM
That's life, Sweety Pie. New York city culture is distinct from Los Angeles culture, which is quite distinct from the culture of Chicago. And, the country side of the United States hosts a thousand little pockets of other distinctive cultures. Ever been to south Texas? Would you confuse the poeple there with New Yorkers, or even Houstonians?
People don't all fit into your concept of what life is like. In fact, I suspect that no people fit into your world view.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @03:26PM
> That's life, Sweety Pie.
Lol. You think you are such a wise scholar of the human condition but you can't recognize your own "culture" - old ignorant white bigot.
For you "multiculturalism" is just another thing for you to rant about - feminists, socialists, dopeheads - those are cultures to you. What a fucking joke you are. That is indeed life -- bigots gonna bigot.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 14 2015, @03:46PM
You do realize that some of the other contributing members of this board are envious of my fan club. Please, spread the love a little. Others deserve the recognition. I do love having my own fan club, but there are others just as deserving.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @03:55PM
Oh, poor little runaway is feeling persecuted. How terrible for you. Like all bigots, at heart you are just a whiner who thinks he's been singled out.