France passes burqa ban

On Tuesday the French senate voted 246 to 1 to pass a law prohibiting the public wearing of full-face veils. The bill still needs to be reviewed by the country's Constitutional Council, which has a month to complete this process, before coming into effect. Although the bill does not specifically mention Islam, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has championed it as a means to prevent Muslim women from being forced to wear the burqa or niqab. He doesn't seem to appreciate the irony of French government now forcing them not to do so. Read more: Sapa-AFP, via Times Live