French vow no surrender on scarfs
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PARIS: France has pledged not to yield to Iraqi kidnappers who have taken two journalists hostage and are demanding the repeal of a law banning Islamic headscarves in state schools.
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Amid continuing turmoil in Ivory Coast, France firmly denied yesterday that its forces were seeking to depose President Laurent Gbagbo.
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A militant Iraqi Islamic group holding two French journalists has demanded that France annul a new law banning Muslim head scarves in public schools, adding an ominous new
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France will maintain its ban on Muslim scarves and other signs of religious belief in state schools, ignoring demands by the Iraqi kidnappers of two French reporters, government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said.
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PARIS - President Jacques Chirac vowed Sunday to spare no effort to free two French journalists held hostage in Iraq by militants reportedly demanding that France revoke its law banning Islamic head scarves in schools.   "The whole nation is gathered together because what's at stake is the lives of two French people, the defense of freedom of expression, and also the values of our Republic," Chirac said in a televised address...
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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. There was no sign France would capitulate.
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PARIS - French school authorities xpelled two Muslim girls and threatened to do the same to two more on Wednesday for refusing to remove their headscarves in class.
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Two French journalists being held hostage in Iraq on Monday night warned that they faced death if France refused to yield to their kidnappers' demands to repeal legislation which will ban Islamic headscarves in ...
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PARIS Sept. 2, 2004 - France&#39;s bold effort to reign 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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Some 100 to 120 girls have defied France's ban on Islamic head scarves in school, the education minister said Wednesday, and at least five boys from the country's tiny Sikh community have been barred from class for refusing to remove their turbans.
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French government refuses to yield to Iraqi kidnappers of two French reporters on law banning headscarves. By Hugh Schofield - PARIS.
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PARIS  - France has quietly begun expelling Muslim girls for wearing head scarves to public schools in defiance of a new law banning conspicuous religious symbols, treading carefully for fear of endangering two French hostages in Iraq.
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PARIS -- It was easier for 16-year-old Nadia Arabi to remove her Islamic head scarf yesterday than to defy a new law banning religious signs in the classroom, or to risk contempt for breaking a national chain of solidarity for two Frenchmen held hostage by militants in Iraq.
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The militant demand that a French ban on Islamic head scarves be overturned has raised an unprecedented backlash among religious and political leaders in the Middle East, who have often been silent about hostage slayings and other terrorism.
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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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Two French journalists held hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq have called on Frances president to obey their kidnappers demand and rescind the ban on Muslim head scarves in schools to save their lives.
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A statement purported to be from the kidnappers of two French journalists says they are to announce their fate - adding they did not hand the men to another group.