In recent weeks, however, the two sides had moved further apart over prisoner releases, PA moves to join UN bodies and Israeli settlement expansion.
The Australian deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, announced the search for flight MH370 off Western Australia had moved further south and was still about 1,100 miles (1,800km) offshore.
And but one hour later, Mason and Kraut, reconnoitering the same spot, but without either devoting more than a cursory glance, since it was obvious that the prey had moved further on.
If anything, it seemed the parties had moved further apart, with the French now considering offering their own candidate, perhaps Jean-Claude Trichet or a dark-horse candidate whose name has already surfaced, Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister.
He did so, but by then, he said, the small group that had caused trouble had moved further down the street and smashed in the window of a police car.
Mr. Bréchon argued that France had moved further in the last 30 years than other European countries to recognize the rights of gay men and lesbians, and that opinion polls showed the society had moved faster than politicians or the law.
