'Happy slapping' outlawed in France
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A new law in France makes it a crime for anyone who is not a professional journalist to film real-world violence and distribute the images on the Internet. Critics call it a clumsy effort by authorities to battle "happy slapping," the youth fad of filming violent acts &#151; which most often they have provoked &#151; and spreading the images on the Web or between mobile phones.
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A French court rules that press articles on alcohol should be subject to advertising regulations and carry health warnings.
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France's bold effort to rein in Muslim fundamentalism was put to the test Thursday, with a new law that bans students from wearing Islamic head scarves taking force with the start of the school year.
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For some French Muslims, two worlds collided as the ban on wearing Islamic head scarves in public schools took effect. Many described Thursday as crunch day, when they were forced to question the meaning of being Muslim in a Roman Catholic country where life since Sept. 11, 2001, has become more tense and divisive.
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Sale of red roses and red gifts has been banned by Saudi Arabia's religious police in the run-up to Valentine's Day, reports a local newspaper
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PARIS French Muslims are not blaming their government for the recent kidnapping of two journalists in Iraq. The Islamic militants who seized the reporters two weeks ago are demanding that France repeal its ban on headscarves in schools.
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Yahoo! has lost an appeal against a US district courtâs ruling which said that the company does not have to obey a French courtâs decision requiring it to block French citizens from accessing internet auctions of Nazi memorabilia at Yahoo!
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Ireland imposed its first ban Wednesday on a video game, citing what it called "gross, unrelenting and gratuitous violence" in the latest offering from Rockstar Games.
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PARIS - Millions of French students returned to school Thursday as a new law banning Islamic head scarves from classrooms goes into effect amid demands by Islamic radicals holding two French hostages in Iraq that the law be scrapped.    Muslim leaders in France, who had largely opposed the law, urged calm for the return to class...
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Illegal stunts in cars, joyriding,  bullying and political dissent -- video-sharing Web site  YouTube has taken off in Saudi Arabia.
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Making love in a bar lavatory does not breach public decency laws so long as the door is shut, an Italian court ruled on Tuesday. A Swiss couple were accused of committing obscene acts after the owner of a bar in the northern Italian town of Como caught them having sex in the lavatory, Ansa news agency reported.
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A teenager is forbidden to say "grass." A great-grandfather is banned from being sarcastic. And two record companies are told not to put up advertising posters.
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PARIS -- A powerful Islamic organization alleged yesterday that officials were abusing a new law banning religious symbols from schools by expelling Muslim girls who were wearing printed bandannas -- not Islamic head scarves.
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France becomes the latest European country to  introduce a ban on smoking in  workplaces.
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France's smoking ban went into effect Tuesday with the start of the new year
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Formula One star Lewis Hamilton has been banned from driving in France for speeding, a French police spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.
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A French court rejects a defamation case against Brigitte Bardot. Plus other entertainment news in brief.