2 hostage standoffs unfold in France

PARIS – French police were confronting two sepa- rate – but apparently related – hostage situations yester- day, after a jihadist couple suspected of killing a cop a day earlier stormed a Paris deli, taking as many as five prisoners, authorities said.

Authorities feared the couple may know the Char- lie Hebdo massacre suspects and are bent on going out as “martyrs,” potentially killing hostages and police officers in the process.

“Even though these guys are a bunch of savages, the negotiators are going to be trying to calm things down ... the less volatile things are, the safer it is for everybody,” James Alvarez, who has worked as a consultant for Scotland Yard and the New York Police Department, told Sky News as the dueling situ- ations unfolded.

The hostage takers in the second case, at a kosher gro- cery store in eastern Paris, were identified by police as Amedy Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene, a couple sus- pected in the murder Thurs- day of Paris Police Officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe as she attended to a routine traffic accident in the city. -AP