Burqa banned in Belgium
Belgium’s lower house of parliament has voted for a law banning the burqa in public yesterday. However, Christian Liberals and Democrats in the Senate could still challenge it, delaying its enforcement.
Leaders' debate libel controversy
Former diplomat Craig Murray has revealed that polling company YouGov has accused him of libel.
Murray posted an article last week suggesting that YouGov had “rigged” a poll after last week’s UK election leaders’ debate in favour of Conservative leader David Cameron. The YouGov poll gave Cameron a clear lead over Labour’s Gordon Brown and the Liberal Democrats’ Nick Clegg. Other polls suggested a much tighter result.
Read Murray’s account here
Russia: Editor brutally attacked at home
Arkadi Lander, editor-in-chief of the Sochi-based newspaper ‘Mesnaya’, was brutally attacked at his apartment on 26 April by two unidentified men. “No doubt, the order has to do with my editorial and journalistic activities in the ‘Mestnaya’ newspaper, where we objectively covered the elections to the Sochi City Assembly,” Lander stated soon after the attack. He was hospitalised with a fractured skull and concussion.
Turkish mayor sentenced to one year detention for ‘Kurdistan’ reference
Selim Sadak, mayor of the city of Siirt in south-eastern Turkey, was sentenced to 1 year’s imprisonment on 26 April after being found guilty of “spreading PKK propaganda”. Sadak’s conviction is came after he used the term “Kurdiastan” in a statement given to a journalist.