World IN BRIEF : FRANCE : Praise for Kadafi Called ‘Nauseating’

France rejected mounting criticism that it went too far in praising Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi for helping free three hostages held by terrorists allied with Libya. French officials thanked Kadafi for his “noble and humanitarian gesture” in helping free Jacqueline Valente, 32, and her Belgian boyfriend Fernand Houtekins, 42, kidnaped in 1987 by Abu Nidal’s Revolutionary Council of Fatah, and their daughter. “Such rhetoric is nauseating,” the British newspaper The Independent wrote. Foreign Minister Roland Dumas said critics are “being picky.”