France Calls Crisis Talks Over Iraq Hostages Farce
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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin met ministers for a crisis meeting on two French journalists held hostage in Iraq on Monday as efforts to secure their release threatened to turn into a fiasco.
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France said on Saturday it hoped Islamic  militants were about to free two French hostages, but urged  caution as fresh violence erupted in Iraq.
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The French government Sunday scrambled to develop a response to kidnappers who grabbed two French journalists in Iraq, demanding Paris revoke a law banning Islamic head scarves in public schools.
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France said on Saturday it hoped Islamic militants were about to free two French hostages, but urged caution as fresh violence erupted in Iraq.
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The kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq has injected new tension into France's debate over banning Islamic headscarves in schools just as Paris was hoping for a smooth start to the school year this week.
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France intensified efforts Tuesday to save two journalists held hostage in Iraq, convening crisis talks in Paris and around the Arab world as a 24-hour execution deadline set by militants neared.
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France intensified efforts Tuesday to save the lives of two journalists held hostage in Iraq, and the Arab League said the militants' deadline for France to revoke a ban on Islamic headscarves in schools had been extended.
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As hopes dimmed that two French journalists held captive in Iraq would be freed soon, French President Jacques Chirac was to discuss the crisis with his foreign minister, who returned from a mission to the Middle East with no news of their imminent release.
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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has cancelled a trip to the south of France to hold an urgent meeting with three top ministers on the fate of two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq.
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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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The French government convoked Monday an emergency meeting over the release of two French journalists still held in hostage in Iraq, after parliamentary deputy Didier Julia's failure to secure their release.
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France steps up diplomatic efforts over two journalists threatened with execution  in Iraq unless a headscarf law is repealed.
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PARIS France&#39;s effort to secure the release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq appeared to be in disarray Monday after a conservative member of Parliament and self-styled mediator revealed he had lost contact with the kidnappers over the
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Two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq have pleaded for Paris to meet their captors&#39; demands and reverse a ban on Muslim headscarves for girls in public schools.
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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin held an urgent meeting with three of his top ministers to discuss the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq by Islamic militants demanding the rescinding of a ban on the Islamic headscarf in French schools.
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France has criticized unofficial negotiators for complicating release efforts for two French hostages held in Iraq, the BBC reported Saturday.
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The French government prepared for crisis talks Tuesday to save the lives of two journalists held hostage in Iraq, while aides to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the release of the reporters as a deadline set by their kidnappers neared.