Using DataSphere, we can plot location on the globe for which current and recent news articles (published with RSS) contain words relating to riots (riot, riots, rioters, rioting). France, it seems, is not alone:
Note that the pin size indicates the number of news articles about a location whereas the colour indicates the discovery of one of the specified keywords at that location. Some headlines
- Social unrest spreads to Belguim [CNN/Belgium]
- French cultural building attacked in Athens in support of rioters [bignewsnetwork/Athens]
- Police arrest 11 Kenema rioters [allafrica/SierraLeone]
- Turkish Kurds riot after bombing [BBC/Turkey]
- Sudan's fledgling Peace now in Peril [washingtonpost/Sudan]
- Police crush Baganda, Makerere Varsity Riots [allafrica/Kampala]
- Bush goes to Beijing, China goes to Latin America [caribbeanherald/China] (story on 125 riot police being sent to help the UN mission in Haiti)
Although some of the geocoding in the screen capture indicates a topic of discussion sourced in a location rather than a report of a riot in a location, as the accuracy is reasonably good, it does show that there are a number of riot stories developing on the global stage. (The large pin over Washington, D.C., USA is a mis-coding of a news source, not the recognition of a location name in a story.)
Some of these stories show very clearly the challanges of geocoding, for example, consider this article from the Beeb:
European press review
Today's papers have bad news for the leaders of France and Britain over their handling of the issues of rioting and terrorism. A Moscow paper tries to apply lessons from France to Russia, and Germany's leaders are urged to highlight democracy in their talks with the visiting Chinese president.
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