Kerry hugs Hollande, says shares France's pain

Secretary of State John Kerry clasped French President Francois Hollande in a warm embrace Jan. 16 and said the US shared France's pain after its deadliest attack in half a century.
      
In an unusual move, Hollande trotted down the steps of the Elysee Palace to greet Kerry, who hugged the French president in front of a phalanx of photographers.
      
"I know you know that we share the pain and the horror of everything that you went through," said Kerry.
      
"Our hearts are with you."       

Hollande said the French people "were victim of an exceptional terrorist attack," likening last week's events to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
      
"We must therefore together find the necessary response. And that is the (reason) for (our) meeting today beyond friendship," said Hollande.
      
The United States faced criticism for not sending a top-level representative to last Sunday's march in Paris in the wake of the attacks, which drew 1.5 million people onto the streets of the French capital and dozens of world leaders.
      
The White House was forced to admit it erred in sending only its ambassador when most countries were represented at head of state or ministerial level.
      
Kerry, a noted Francophile who also speaks French, told his counterpart Laurent Fabius that he was unable to come earlier because he was travelling in India and Bulgaria.
      
Fabius told reporters that he had "apologised" for his absence, which prompted controversy on both sides of the Atlantic.
      
The top US diplomat and Fabius laid a wreath of red roses and carnations as well as white lilies at the Jewish supermarket where four people died in a siege, the last in a spate of Islamist...