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Iran has captured two U.S. Navy vessels and at least 10 Navy personnel, according to multiple news reports. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is tweeting about cheese. The Pentagon and the White House are apparently working to “resolve” the Iranian hostage situation, but have not released any details about what the resolution might look like.

PARIS (Reuters) - French Muslim leaders denounced on Thursday efforts to blame Muslims and Islam for recent riots in the country's rundown suburbs and said they saw worrying signs of growing prejudice against their faith here. ADVERTISEMENT Many young rioters may have been from Muslim backgrounds, but their violent outburst was a protest against unemployment, poor housing and other bias they faced because of their foreign origins, they told journalists. Urban violence, which some politicians in France and some media abroad portrayed as a kind of Muslim uprising, fell back to normal levels on Thursday after three weeks in which...

AFTER 18 nights of mob rioting, French President Jacques Chirac delivered his first formal televised address to the nation, admitting that the republic is in the grip of a "serious malaise" and a "crisis of identity". Flanked by the French and EU flags, Mr Chirac gave a US-style presidential speech amid widespread consternation at his relative silence during the worst case of civil unrest in a generation. Calling on "sons and daughters of the republic" to remain true to their national values, he lamented the "poison" of racial discrimination and admonished irresponsible parents for failing to keep their children in...

FRANCE yesterday ordered a ban on public meetings likely to provoke disturbances as thousands of police were deployed on the streets of Paris to stop youths turning the tourist centre into a battlefield. The initiative came as speculation mounted over a severely discredited Jacques Chirac’s ability to endure the last 17 months of his presidential term. Ringleaders of the riots that have shaken France for the past two weeks were suspected of planning to set ablaze the affluent Champs Elysées. Through text and internet messages they were encouraging followers armed with Molotov cocktails to converge on the tree-lined tourist haunt...

PARIS Nov 11, 2005 — Police tightened security in central Paris on Friday with riot forces and bomb squads along the Champs-Elysees, and angry residents of riot-torn suburbs staged a sit-in Friday near the Eiffel Tower, calling for an end to more than two weeks of arson and vandalism across France. The moves came as the wave of violence that spread outward from Paris's impoverished outlying neighborhoods appeared to be calming in other French cities but remained persistent in the capital. "Stop the Violence," read one banner draped on the Wall of Peace near the Eiffel Tower. Some of the 200 demonstrators...

From Charles Bremner in Paris MORE than 2,000 police are deployed in Paris today to guard Armistice Day ceremonies led by President Chirac after reports that youths from the riot-torn suburban housing estates were aiming to attack in the heart of the capital. Pierre Mutz, the city police chief, ordered the deployment and banned the filling of canisters at petrol stations despite a sharp drop in unrest after two weeks of fire raising by youths from immigrant-dominated districts around the country. The Interior Ministry said that eight police officers had been suspended from duty pending an investigation into the alleged...

VIENNA, Austria - The United States and Europe have agreed on a compromise plan to accept expanded nuclear activities by Iran, but only if the enrichment process — a possible pathway to nuclear arms — is moved to Russia, senior officials and diplomats said Thursday. If accepted by Iran, the proposal could end a tug-of-war over whether to refer the Islamic republic to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. The officials and diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing the strategy, said the plan would allow Iran to continue converting raw uranium into the gas that is spun...

Brussels - After two weeks of violent urban unrest in France, Muslim communities in the country will face long-term retaliation, a Euro MP said Thursday, urging the French government to take action and condemn revenge attacks against Moslems. French politicians had failed to give immediate assurance that they would support the country's unity, leaving citizens in a state of disarray and shock, British socialist MEP Claude Moraes said. With no ethnic monitoring, France could not know the level of discrimination in the country, Moraes said, comparing the situation in France with Britain. French police also had no guidelines for dealing...

Voici principal measurements, in particular employment education, announced or confirmed by the Prime Minister, Domenica de Villepin, at the time of its intervention at the French National Assembly, Tuesday November 8: EMPLOYMENT - All the young people of less than 25 years, applicants for work or not, living one of the 750 significant zones, will be received in the three next months for a "maintenance deepened" by the ANPE, in the local missions or the Houses of employment. A "specific solution" will be proposed to them in the three months (formation, training course or contract). - the social recipients...

<p>French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte was just getting over the "diplomatic hurricane" caused by France's opposition to the war in Iraq when another scandal erupted.</p> <p>He now has to defend his country against accusations of corruption in the United Nations' oil-for-food program, and he is blaming the right-wing news media.</p>

<p>Oo-la-la. The french-fries war must be over. And woe to those who utter the phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys."</p> <p>The Congressional French Caucus has come to town, the brainchild of Rep. Amo Houghton, who announced its existence Wednesday during a luncheon with French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte and former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.</p>

Is it gauche to despise French over politics? "We have a massive love-hate relationship ... " 02/21/2003 By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News Angered beyond the breaking point by a swaggering leader who refuses to listen to reason, furious at a nation that dares disdain the culture and values of the United States, many in America have decided to declare war - against France. Yep, with battle imminent against Iraq, home of Saddam Hussein, it turns out that in many minds the real enemy is our oldest ally, the French. From barbs in talk show monologues...

<p>Many Americans have mischaracterized the French recently. We have accused them of being overly sophisticated, of using subtle, clever and high sounding language to undercut us in the United Nations. We have accused them of being weak, and appeasers by instinct. But this Monday in the European Union meeting M. Jacques Chirac, the well-tailored-70-year old French president, proved us all wrong. He revealed himself to be a vulgar, unsubtle, bullying thug. According to the Associated Press, M. Chirac "launched a withering attack...on eastern European nations who signed letters backing the U.S. position on Iraq . . ." He accused them of acting irresponsibly by expressing their opinions. France, which can't stop talking herself, would silence others who speak but rarely.</p>