French PM calls crisis meeting over hostages
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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin today called a crisis meeting to discuss the fate of the two French journalists still held hostage in Iraq, as efforts to secure their release threatened to descend into farce.
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The French government, in crisis mode, on Sunday called for the release of two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq by Islamic militants demanding that Paris rescind a ban on headscarves in state schools.
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French President Jacques Chirac said that he would immediately dispatch his foreign minister to the Middle East to help negotiate the release of two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq.
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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has held an emergency meeting with senior cabinet ministers to discuss how to respond to the apparent kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq.
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France's government and leaders of its  Muslim minority urged Iraqi militants Sunday to free two French  journalists they were holding hostage in a bid to force Paris  to revoke its ban on Muslim headscarves in schools.
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France pressed on with efforts to save two French journalists held hostage in Iraq on Thursday after a deadline to rescind a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools passed without word from the kidnappers.
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French leaders began high-level meetings on Sunday on the fate of two French hostages in Iraq after Foreign Minister Michel Barnier returned to Paris empty-handed from a Middle East rescue mission.
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The &quot;chaotic&quot; offensive in Fallujah may endanger the release of the two French journalists being held hostage in Iraq, French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin claimed today.
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THE French Prime Minister today expressed scepticism over the alleged new demands of militants holding two French journalists hostage in Iraq.
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Ukraine's president and PM are to meet again to try to end a crisis over a bid to seize control of 40,000 troops.
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PARIS  -- As hopes dimmed that two French journalists held captive in Iraq would be freed soon, French President Jacques Chirac was to discuss the crisis Sunday with his foreign minister, who returned from a mission to the Middle East with no news of
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The French foreign minister is to begin negotiations for the release of two journalists taken hostage in Iraq. In a televised address after a day of government crisis talks, President Jacques Chirac on Sunday
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France's President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Colombia's Alvaro Uribe on Monday to press for action to free hostages held by leftist rebels, including French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt who has become a cause celebre in France.
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France redoubled its diplomatic efforts on Tuesday to save two French reporters held hostage in Iraq ahead of a new deadline to scrap a school headscarf ban, as the Islamic militant group Hamas called for the men&#39;s release.
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The French prime minister urges caution over reports that two French journalists held in Iraq may be freed.
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The foreign ministers of France, Italy and Spain meet Lebanese leaders on Saturday to discuss the long-running political crisis that threatens to scuttle the country's presidential election.
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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin declared Friday the news France had about the two French hostages in Iraq was &quot;not complete&quot;.