Steven Erlanger Nyt News Service

An aging heiress. An angry daughter. A society photographer. A renegade butler and an embittered accountant. Secret tapes. A famous company with a nasty past and long political connections. An unpopular president and a cabinet minister with a taste for money, and tales of illegal cash donations in envelopes. This romantic stew is known as the "Bett...

A fractured panel of French legislators on Tuesday endorsed the idea of a ban on full facial veils in government offices, public hospitals and mass transit, but Parliament remains deeply divided over the effectiveness and constitutionality of such a law.

The minaret of the new Grand Mosque of Marseille, whose cornerstone will be laid here in April, will be silent - no muezzin, live or recorded, will disturb the neighborhood with the call to prayer.

An aging heiress. An angry daughter. A society photographer. A renegade butler and an embittered accountant. Secret tapes. A famous company with a nasty past and long political connections. An unpopular president and a cabinet minister with a taste for money, and tales of illegal cash donations in envelopes. This romantic stew is known as the "Bett...

A fractured panel of French legislators on Tuesday endorsed the idea of a ban on full facial veils in government offices, public hospitals and mass transit, but Parliament remains deeply divided over the effectiveness and constitutionality of such a law.

The minaret of the new Grand Mosque of Marseille, whose cornerstone will be laid here in April, will be silent - no muezzin, live or recorded, will disturb the neighborhood with the call to prayer.