This is just a wonderful reminder that states have always been under threat from 'terror attacks'. It still didn't mean they repealed Habeas Corpus after the plot. LONDON (AFP) - Bonfires were lit and colourful fireworks set off across Britain as the country marked the 400th anniversary of an audacious plot to blow up its then king and seat of government.I love the bit where the Pope of Rome was backing this little plot. I'm sure God asked him in the night to hatch that little idea.
Bonfire Night -- or Guy Fawkes Night -- is an annual event marking a failed attempt on November 5 1605 by Catholic conspirators to bring down King James I and the Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder.
This year, comparisons have inevitably been drawn with modern-day terrorism in London, particularly the July 7 attacks that killed 56 people, including four apparent suicide bombers.
Thousands of events have been organised throughout the country to mark the anniversary of the so-called "Gunpowder Plot" from small private affairs to large public displays.
One of the largest is a parade through the streets of Lewes, southeast England, where last year about 35,000 people watched the fancy-dress procession and burning of effigies of Fawkes and Paul V, who was reigning at the time of the plot.
Lewes' celebrations have come under fire in the past for perpetuating sectarian divisions: Fawkes and his co-conspirators were all members of the then-repressed Catholic minority and opposed to the dominant Anglicanism.
Fears have also been raised recently about Bonfire Night as a whole in the light of Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposed laws outlawing the incitement to religious hatred.
But organisers of the Lewes bonfires, which also commemorate the burning of 17 Protestants in the town's High Street between 1555 and 1557 during the reign of the Catholic Mary I, stressed that it was now merely a secular tradition.
Keith Austin, secretary of the Lewes Bonfire Council, said: "It is nothing really to do with religion now and we are going to continue because the Bonfire people in Lewes don't just cut and run if there's a problem."
Other events include a parade of 1,066 flaming torches through the streets of Battle, in southeast England, the site of the Battle of Hastings where William of Normandy defeated the English king Harold in 1066.
One of its organisers, Andrew Knowles-Baker, said the Gunpowder Plot was still relevant because it would have been "catastrophic" had the bombers succeeded.
"It was an ultimate act of terrorism," he told BBC News Online. "They were blowing up their own people as well as the ones they wanted to remove.
"Several hundred people would have been killed and it would have changed the whole face of the monarchy. It's a pretty momentous thing. We should mark and understand why it happened."
Is Paris Burning... Again?
The outer suburbs of Paris where the poor and disenfranchised (pardon the pun) live, have been rioting for over a week. By 1 a.m., at least 607 vehicles — including those in Paris — were burned during the 10th night of violence, said Patrick Hamon, spokesman for the national police. The overall figures were expected to climb by daybreak, he added.Well, calling people 'scum' would have the effect of inflaming most angry people even more.
The violence — originally concentrated in neighborhoods northeast of Paris with large immigrant populations — has spread across France, extending west to the rolling fields of Normandy and south to resort cities on the Mediterranean. Attacks were reported in Cannes and Nice.
In the Normandy town of Evreux, arsonists burned at least 50 vehicles, part of a shopping center, a post office and two schools, Hamon said.
Five police officers and three firefighters were injured battling the blazes, he said.
The unrest is forcing France to confront long-simmering anger in its suburbs, where many Africans and their French-born children live on society's margins, struggling with unemployment, poor housing, racial discrimination, crime and a lack of opportunity.
Police deployed a helicopter and tactical teams to chase down youths speeding from one attack to another in cars and on motorbikes. Some 2,300 police were brought into the Paris region to bolster security, France-Info said. More than 250 people were arrested.
The violence erupted Oct. 27 following the accidental electrocution of two teenagers who hid in a power substation, apparently believing police were chasing them.
The anger spread to the Internet, with blogs mourning the youths.
Along with messages of condolence and appeals for calm were insults targeting police, threats of more violence and warnings that the unrest will feed support for France's anti-immigration extreme right.
"Civil war is declared. There will no doubt be deaths. Unfortunately, we have to prepare," said a posting signed "Rania."
"We are going to destroy everything. Rest in peace, guys," wrote "Saint Denis."
The unrest reached Paris late Saturday. Hamon had no immediate information on the neighborhoods where the vehicles were torched. Paris police headquarters said three cars were damaged by fire in the Republique section, northeast of City Hall.
"It's copycat acts," Hamon said. "All these hoodlums see others setting fires and say they can do it, too."
Evreux, 60 miles to the west, appeared to suffer the worst damage Saturday. The burning of the shopping center showed that "there is a will to pillage," Hamon said. "This has been true since the start," referring to grocery stores, video stores and other businesses that have been set afire.
The unrest has taken on unprecedented scope and intensity, reaching far-flung corners of France on Saturday, from Rouen in Normandy to Bordeaux in the southwest to Strasbourg near the German border.
However, the Paris region has borne the brunt.
In quiet Acheres, on the edge of the St. Germain forest west of Paris, arsonists burned a nursery school, where part of the roof caved in, and about a dozen cars in attacks the mayor described as "perfectly organized."
Children's photos clung to the blackened walls, and melted plastic toys littered the floor. Residents gathered at the school gate, demanding that the army be deployed or suggesting that citizens band together to protect their neighborhoods.
Mayor Alain Outreman tried to cool tempers.
"We are not going to start militias," he said. "You would have to be everywhere."
Cars were torched in the cultural bastion of Avignon in the south and the resort cities of Nice and Cannes, a police officer said.
Arson was reported in Nantes in the southwest, the Lille region in the north and Saint-Dizier in the Ardennes region east of Paris. In the eastern city of Strasbourg, 18 cars were set alight in full daylight, police said.
In one attack, youths in the eastern Paris suburb of Meaux prevented paramedics from evacuating a sick person from a housing project. They pelted rescuers with rocks and then torched the waiting ambulance, an Interior Ministry official said.
Most of the overnight arrests occurred near Paris. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy warned that those convicted could face severe sentences for burning cars.
"Violence penalizes those who live in the toughest conditions," he said after a government crisis meeting.
Most rioting has been in towns with low-income housing projects where unemployment and distrust of police run high. But in a new development, arsonists were moving beyond their heavily policed neighborhoods to attack others with less security, Hamon said.
"They are very mobile, in cars or scooters. ... It is quite hard to combat" he said. "Most are young, very young, we have even seen young minors."
There appeared to be no coordination between separate groups in different areas, Hamon said. But within gangs, he added, youths are communicating by cell phones or e-mails.
"They organize themselves, arrange meetings, some prepare the Molotov cocktails," he said.
In Torcy, close to Disneyland Paris, a youth center and a police station were set ablaze. In Suresnes, on the Seine River west of the capital, 44 cars were burned in a parking lot.
"We thought Suresnes was calm," said Naima Mouis, a hospital employee whose car was torched.
On Saturday morning, more than 1,000 people marched through one of the worst-hit suburbs, Aulnay-sous-Bois. Local officials wore sashes in the red, white and blue of the French flag as they filed past housing projects and the wrecks of burned cars. One white banner read, "No to violence."
Anger was fanned days ago when a tear gas bomb exploded in a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois — the northern suburb where the youths were electrocuted.
Sarkozy also has inflamed passions by referring to troublemakers as "scum."
At least somebody is fighting in the streets somewhere...
Let them eat cake?
The Stuff Of Movies
Some Pirates have attacked a luxury cruise ship.
Armed men on board two 25ft inflatable boats fired live bullets and rocket-propelled grenades as they tried to climb aboard the liner. Terrified passengers reported a series of explosions as the pirates fired on the luxurious 10,000-tonne cruise liner.Now that's interesting. We have these modern navies around the world and yet this kind of piracy is viable? Who'd a thunk it?
But despite the onslaught by the heavily armed bandits, the 200-man crew managed to scare them off using a loud acoustic boom to imitate the sound of an explosion.
None of the 302 passengers, 20 of whom were British, were injured, although one crew member was slightly hurt by flying debris from a ricocheted bullet.
The ship was rated as the most luxurious in the world earlier this year by Condé Nast Traveller and has previously boasted passenger lists including Bill Gates and Donald Trump.
Solicitor Norman Fisher, 55, from Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London, was on board working when captain Sven Erik Pedersen announced over the ship's PA system: "Stay inside, we're under attack."
The passengers were told to go to the restaurant as the sound of the grenade and gunfire filled the air.
"I heard what sounded like a crack from outside at 5.50am," said Fisher.
"I looked out of the window and saw a small boat with about five people in it about 20 yards away.
"One of them clearly had a rifle. Later I realised that two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher.
"They were firing the rifle and then fired the rocket launcher twice. One of the rockets certainly hit the ship - it went through the side of the liner into a passenger's suite. The couple were in there at the time so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience.
"At first I didn't know what was going on, but when I saw the rocket launcher I started getting a bit scared."
Fisher said the captain tried to ram one of the boats in an attempt to capsize it and stop them getting on board.
"The atmosphere in the restaurant was a little tense. People were pretty good and they weren't panicking, but one or two were certainly looking nervous," he added.
"The captain came in at about 6.30am and explained what was going on and said he was reasonably confident we had lost them. Of course, he got a massive round of applause.
"It was all a very surreal experience - not the kind of thing you expect on a cruise."
The guests, mainly wealthy Americans, were 13 days into a 16-day voyage which had taken them via Jordan, Egypt and the Red Sea. They were due to visit Mombasa in Kenya, where an exclusive safari awaited them.
Barman Richard Fuller, who worked on board, said the passengers were kept inside while the crew attempted to repel the bandits. He said the atmosphere on the ship was still tense.
He said: "A lot of the guest are still nervous. One of the crew suffered minor injuries while he was on deck watch duties. He was hit by a bit of debris but he is all right."
Another passenger, Edith Laird from Seattle, said one of the grenades launched at the ship hit a cabin just a few doors away from where she and her daughter had been sleeping.
In an e-mail sent from the ship, she said: "My daughter saw the pirates out our window.
"There were at least three RPGs that hit the ship, one in a stateroom four doors down from our cabin."
Passenger Mike Rogers of Vancouver said: "The captain tried to run one of the boats over, but they were small boats, about 25ft long.
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"There's some minor damage done to the ship. I believe one of the grenades actually went off in one of the cabins, but everyone on board is fine."
Carol Marlow, a spokeswoman for the Miami-based company Seabourn Cruises owned by US cruise giant Carnival, said the ship was sailing in an area it had sailed many times before and was adhering to international maritime safety regulations.
She said: "All the passengers and crew are safe. The ship's crew immediately initiated a trained response and, as a result of protective and evasive measures taken, the occupants of the small craft were unable to gain access to the ship.
"The ship has diverted so we are now heading to the Republic of the Seychelles rather than Mombasa. We felt that was a more appropriate measure in the light of what has happened.
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