Paris puts the brakes on driving old cars

PARIS • The French capital cracked down yesterday on polluting old cars, with vehicles registered before 1997 no longer allowed to roam the streets of Paris from 8am to 8pm during weekdays.

Police were out yesterday on the streets to provide warnings to motorists that driving their old bangers would soon land them a fine of 35 euros (S$52).

The move is a key part of efforts by Paris City Hall to clean up the city's air, which regularly violates EU norms and is estimated to cut six to eight months off the life expectancy of residents.

Cars older than 10 years are estimated to cause half of the city's air pollution.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Police raid premises in Italy's Chinatown

ROME • Italian police said yesterday they had raided nine premises in the country's biggest Chinatown as part of an investigation into a gang suspected of organising vigilante-style attacks on North Africans.

The raids were carried out in the Tuscan town of Prato, home to one of the biggest Chinese communities in Europe and a booming textile industry notorious for sweatshop exploitation.

The raids followed clashes between police and some 300 Chinese on Wednesday evening after a health and safety inspection of a Chinese-owned textile factory in Sesto Fiorentino, a suburb of Florence close to Prato.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

6 killed in Kenya after gunmen fire at buses

NAIROBI • At least six people were killed when gunmen sprayed two buses with bullets yesterday in Kenya's Mandera county on the border with Somalia.

Mandera County Commissioner Fredrick Shisia said the attack happened as the buses were travelling to Mandera town from the capital Nairobi.

The United States on Thursday warned its citizens against travelling to areas near the border with Somalia because of threats from Somali militant group Al- Shabaab.

REUTERS