French minister is dispatched to seek release of reporters
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PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac dispatched his foreign minister to the Middle East yesterday to work for the release of two French reporters abducted in Iraq, vowing to spare no effort to free them from kidnappers demanding that France scrap its ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools.
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France was doing everything possible to  secure the release of a woman journalist taken hostage in Iraq  last month, Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said on Tuesday.
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France&#39;s government and leaders of its Muslim minority are urging Iraqi militants to free two French journalists they are holding hostage to try to force Paris to revoke its ban on Muslim headscarves in schools.
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France is engaged in 11th hour diplomacy as it dispatches two envoys to the Middle East to try and secure the release of two journalists kidnapped in Iraq.
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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 last night dispatched its foreign minister, Michel Barnier, to the Middle East in an attempt to save the lives of two journalists kidnapped by Iraqi militants who have demanded that Paris revokes its ban on Islamic headscarves in schools.
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France's foreign minister appealed Monday for the release of two French journalists abducted in Baghdad, saying he was in the Middle East to explain that his nation respects all religions and that he was not ...
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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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The French prime minister urges caution over reports that two French journalists held in Iraq may be freed.
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AMMAN, Jordan -- France is pressing on with efforts to secure the release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq, after a deadline to revoke a law banning Muslim headscarves in schools passed without word from the kidnappers.
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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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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called an emergency ministerial meeting Sunday to discuss the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq, local media reported.
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A Paris-based rights group Monday called on visiting French President Jacques Chirac to help seek the release of a jailed Chinese journalist and cyber dissident during his visit to the city of Shanghai.
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BAGHDAD, 30 August 2004 - Muslim leaders in Iraq and France yesterday appealed for the release of two kidnapped French journalists facing death.
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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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MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan  - Dozens of Afghan journalists and activists on Saturday sought the release of a journalist detained by security officials for allegedly making blasphemous comments.
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PARIS, Sept 6  - The captors of two French journalists allegedly put forward Monday new demands for their release, but French officials cast doubt on the authenticity of the demands and remained cautiously optimistic about securing their release.