Newspapers France

For months now, Le Monde, the most serious, thorough and, it must be said, grayest of France's daily newspapers, had been promising its readers a new look. And there it was this week, on the front page of the 15,538th edition. Color. Not colors, mind you. Just one color--red--in an otherwise black-and-white drawing of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and a bloody Chechen combatant, a splash of color small enough to hide beneath a coffee cup.

Princess Diana whipped up a political storm with criticism of the previous, Conservative government. In an interview with France's Le Monde newspaper, the princess was reported to have praised the Labor government for its stance on antipersonnel land mines and poured scorn on the previous administration. Conservative lawmakers reacted furiously to her description of John Major's government as "hopeless."

The world's last daily Yiddish newspaper, Unzer Wort, or Our Word, will fold at the end of this month, victim of the rising costs that have killed several bigger French dailies, staff members said Tuesday. Unzer Wort had dwindled to three or four issues a week in recent years. It was staffed by half a dozen full-time personnel, mostly in their late 70s, aided by volunteers who sought to preserve the former language of East European Jewry.

The world's last daily Yiddish newspaper, Unzer Wort, or Our Word, will fold at the end of this month, victim of the rising costs that have killed several bigger French dailies, staff members said Tuesday. Unzer Wort had dwindled to three or four issues a week in recent years. It was staffed by half a dozen full-time personnel, mostly in their late 70s, aided by volunteers who sought to preserve the former language of East European Jewry.

These are bittersweet days on the Rue des Italiens. The newspaper Le Monde, France's most famous journalistic institution, a landmark on this narrow, L-shaped street in the Opera district, is moving to ultramodern offices in the distant Montparnasse district. Even the two men who camp on a mattress in front of the 89-year-old building on the Rue des Italiens are upset. They say they will accompany Le Monde in its cross-town move to the Left Bank address.

It was tiny San Marino's day of glory Tuesday at the 34-nation Paris summit. The postage-stamp republic atop Mt. Titano on the Italian peninsula was represented at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) by a 37-year-old former high school teacher, Gabriele Gatti. Although San Marino has only 22,361 citizens, CSCE rules give all countries equal status.

As with so many good ideas in France, this one was born over dinner. Four friends, all collectors of first-edition newspapers, asked each other: What type of newspaper would they most like to read? Well, they concluded, it would have to be a paper with news . No commentary. No political slant. Only a little advertising. And lots of short articles and colorful graphics. In other words, a newspaper like no other in France.

The second-largest city in France is tired of being insulted, pushed around, slandered and, even worse, taken for granted by the rest of the country. Fighting back, the Marseilles Establishment has mounted an aggressive campaign to defend its honor against pompous Parisians, libelous Lyonnais, blasphemous Bordelais and anybody else who tries to mock Marseilles. If the critics persist, the Marseillais warned recently in an open letter, they will be taken into court.

Three European hostages freed this week in Beirut were captured by Col. Moammar Kadafi's government and held in Libya, not Lebanon, the Paris daily Le Figaro said. The French government said it could not confirm or deny the report.

Princess Diana whipped up a political storm with criticism of the previous, Conservative government. In an interview with France's Le Monde newspaper, the princess was reported to have praised the Labor government for its stance on antipersonnel land mines and poured scorn on the previous administration. Conservative lawmakers reacted furiously to her description of John Major's government as "hopeless."

For months now, Le Monde, the most serious, thorough and, it must be said, grayest of France's daily newspapers, had been promising its readers a new look. And there it was this week, on the front page of the 15,538th edition. Color. Not colors, mind you. Just one color--red--in an otherwise black-and-white drawing of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and a bloody Chechen combatant, a splash of color small enough to hide beneath a coffee cup.

As with so many good ideas in France, this one was born over dinner. Four friends, all collectors of first-edition newspapers, asked each other: What type of newspaper would they most like to read? Well, they concluded, it would have to be a paper with news . No commentary. No political slant. Only a little advertising. And lots of short articles and colorful graphics. In other words, a newspaper like no other in France.

It was tiny San Marino's day of glory Tuesday at the 34-nation Paris summit. The postage-stamp republic atop Mt. Titano on the Italian peninsula was represented at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) by a 37-year-old former high school teacher, Gabriele Gatti. Although San Marino has only 22,361 citizens, CSCE rules give all countries equal status.

The second-largest city in France is tired of being insulted, pushed around, slandered and, even worse, taken for granted by the rest of the country. Fighting back, the Marseilles Establishment has mounted an aggressive campaign to defend its honor against pompous Parisians, libelous Lyonnais, blasphemous Bordelais and anybody else who tries to mock Marseilles. If the critics persist, the Marseillais warned recently in an open letter, they will be taken into court.

These are bittersweet days on the Rue des Italiens. The newspaper Le Monde, France's most famous journalistic institution, a landmark on this narrow, L-shaped street in the Opera district, is moving to ultramodern offices in the distant Montparnasse district. Even the two men who camp on a mattress in front of the 89-year-old building on the Rue des Italiens are upset. They say they will accompany Le Monde in its cross-town move to the Left Bank address.

Three European hostages freed this week in Beirut were captured by Col. Moammar Kadafi's government and held in Libya, not Lebanon, the Paris daily Le Figaro said. The French government said it could not confirm or deny the report.

Newspapers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain published caricatures of the prophet Muhammad that have sparked anger among Muslims since they first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September. The Middle East Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, and publication of the drawings has divided opinion within Europe. French and German papers cited freedom of expression in publishing the cartoons.

U.S. Coach Bora Milutinovic has coached and played in at least six countries and has a network of friends he calls on a regular basis. He also reads the daily sports newspapers of France, Italy and Mexico every day. U.S. team general manager Bill Nuttall said he has been impressed with Milutinovic's information gathering during the World Cup. "Every coach has his intelligence-gathering network," Nuttall said. "Bora's . . .