Marine Le Pen’s public relations efforts to soften the image of the far-right Front National were dented this week after she caused outrage by questioning the beards and scarves worn by returning French hostages .
Le Pen, whose party’s trademark is speaking out against immigration and public displays of Islam, said the appearance of the four men who had been held captive by for three years by Islamist militants in the Sahel desert was “troubling”.
She told Europe 1 radio: “Two of them had beards cut in a rather strange way. Their clothing was strange. One hostage had a scarf on his face. That all calls for some explanation on their part.”
A man who carried out a mock hanging of a man-sized golliwog doll while wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume has pleaded guilty to a charge of stirring up racial hatred. Christopher Philips, formerly known as Darren Clifft, 23, from Willenhall, will be sentenced on 19 December.
Four people arrested in connection with an 
POINCIANA, Fla. — Florida deputies are working to track down a driver who tried to run a woman and her two young children off the road in broad daylight.
