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Las Vegas SUN

December 24, 2005

# Some French Regions Ban Gasoline Sales

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PARIS (AP) - Some French regions have banned retail sales of gasoline during the holidays to prevent a flare-up of violence like the recent riots when youths used homemade gasoline bombs to set fire to cars and buildings in nightly rampages.

The distribution, sale and purchase of small quantities of petrol in carrying cans are banned in the Yvelines department, west of Paris, from Saturday until Jan. 2, the local government office said in a decree. Several other regions have taken similar measures.

"The period of year-end celebrations is liable to lead once more to such excesses," the decree issued by the Yvelines local government said.

Gas stations with automated pumps will have to take adequate measures to ensure the rules are applied, and motorists stranded without fuel must provide police confirmation to obtain emergency supplies, it stated.

Long before youths rioted across France in late October and November, teenagers in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of large cities such as Strasbourg, in the east of France, began the custom of celebrating New Year's Eve by torching hundreds of cars.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said this week the government would maintain the state of emergency declared during the riots and remained "very vigilant" with the approach of year-end celebrations.

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