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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: 2, Disagree) by pe1rxq on Saturday November 14 2015, @12:17AM
Nothing bad ever happens in monocultures..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway_sarin_attack [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @12:25AM
Nothing bad ever happens in monocultures
"Things I never claimed for $100, Alex."
Also,
>1995
This was TWENTY YEARS AGO and nothing of note has happened since.
Whoops! [wikipedia.org]
Whoops! [wikipedia.org]
Whoops! [wikipedia.org]
That's just a few of the attacks this year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @11:54PM
OK, so are you saying that having pluralistic society foments violence? Your examples are from France and the United States. What ought those countries to do to make themselves more like Japan or China? If there's to be a single culture, whose culture shall that be which prevails? What shall be done about those people who weren't raised in the dominant culture? Shall laws be enacted to encourage them to at least appear to subscribe to the winning culture? Shall they be segregated from the rest of society, whether in specially reserved lands or in prisons? Perhaps they could be sent back to Africa (assuming the African culture isn't the one chosen for the USA or France). Obviously the surest solution is to kill them, but that is somewhat at odds with the goal of diminishing violence. Even the non-lethal measures might be resisted—violently, even—by some as too harsh. I have the impression that conformity is highly valued in Japan and China, but less valued in France and the United States. The homogenization effort might be opposed even by those who won't themselves need re-education or expulsion.
When I think of efforts to establish a homogeneous culture or populace, the USSR, South Africa during apartheid [wikipedia.org], Germany under the Nazis, and present-day Israel come to mind.
In the USSR, members of the most popular religion, the Russian Orthodox church, were killed or imprisoned for their beliefs, and many Orthodox churches were closed and looted.[1]
In South Africa, a minority of the population took away the citizenship and voting rights of the majority, and were banished to designated territories, the bantustans (one thing the bantustans had going for them was that they could have casinos—this reminds me of America).
In Israel a similar thing has been done: the majority of the people have been stripped of their political rights and forced off their lands into designated territories, so as to create a state where a religious minority is in control.
In all of those societies, there was tremendous violence as part of the homogenization efforts, and in the latter two, violence in opposition to homogenization.
[1] http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/anti.html [loc.gov]