Paris Rallies Against Terror

1/12/15
 
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from The Wall Street Journal,
1/11/15:

World leaders marched arm-in-arm with a massive crowd in defiance of terrorist attacks that ripped through the French capital in the past week.

France, joined by world leaders locked arm-in-arm, mounted its largest-ever demonstration Sunday in a defiant, if fragile, display of unity against the terror attacks that tore through its capital last week.

More than three million people, many of different political and religious stripes, marched in rallies across the country. Nearly half of them flooded the streets of Paris, transforming its manicured avenues into rivers of humanity, a stunning turnaround for a city that only days ago was savaged by gunfire and bloodshed.

Families and friends of the 17 people killed in the spree of violence moved solemnly at the head of the march. French President François Hollande and a row of leaders, who at times made for strange bedfellows, followed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel walked arm-in-arm with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shook hands with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, which doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Israel.

“Today, Paris is the capital of the world,” Mr. Hollande said.

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