France became the first European country this week to join a worldwide effort to destroy ivory. The goal is to send a warning to ivory traffickers and to anyone who might not consider buying it a serious crime.

French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala has been banned from entering the UK after he was reportedly planning a visit to support the footballer Nicolas Anelka over his use of the "quenelle" gesture. The UK Home Office said it had imposed an exclusion order on Dieudonne, who has a series of convictions for anti-Semitic speech in his homeland, on the grounds of public security.

In the fugue of tongues on New York’s streets, French has never been a dominant voice. And as surging numbers of Asian and Latino immigrants continue to tip the balance of foreign languages toward Chinese and Spanish, the idea of learning French, to some, may seem kind of quaint, even anachronistic.

The southern French port city of Marseille has taken a bad rap for years. It’s known for thefts, violence and organized crime. But the city had a chance in 2013 to clean up its act, by being Europe’s rotating Capital of Culture for the year. The title means money from Europe to spiff up and boost local arts. Apparently it helped bring in more tourists. But the jury is out on whether Marseille is safer now, and whether local artists benefited from all the hoopla.

Students at the Codman Academy Charter Public School in Boston were dismayed to learn that the French consulate warns tourists on its website to avoid walking at night in their Dorchester neighborhood. The consulate says it's because of crime in the area. Haley Malm, a French teacher at Codman, says the students were quite offended that Boston's Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury neighborhoods were specifically targeted as places not to visit.

Central African Republic's interim President Michel Djotodia will face pressure to step down at a summit of regional leaders on Thursday amid frustration at his failure to quell his country's religious violence. Political sources in Bangui and French diplomatic sources said Djotodia was expected to step aside at the meeting of leaders from the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC) in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.

In the elegant silence of a narrow street near the River Seine, David Moyal takes a breath of fresh winter air and enters a noisy restaurant in the French capital. Inside Miznon, he is transported to another world, filled with the cacophony of Hebrew voices and Israeli music. A bustling new bistro that Moyal runs in the 4th arrondissement, Miznon is becoming hugely popular with Israelis and French Jews thanks to its Tel Aviv feel and audacious mission to pack Paris into a pita.

Pakistanis online are outraged over reports of a French restaurant's ban on reservations by Pakistani customers. "La Maison" in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, requires customers to provide information such as an individual's nationality and passport number. The only Pakistani customers reportedly allowed are dual-citizenship holders or Pakistanis accompanied by foreigners.