On air at 1700GMT: Is France setting an example for the world?
| 14:22 UK time, Monday, 11 April 2011
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: The former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo - who had been refusing to hand over power to his rival Alassane Ouattara - has been arrested. A French defence ministry official said he had been detained by Mr Ouattara's troops backed by those of the United Nations and France. Earlier those forces advanced on Mr Gbagbo's residence where he was holding out in a bunker. Mr Gbagbo has been taken to the UN-secured Golf Hotel with his wife and son. Ivory Coast's ambassador to the UN said he was alive and would be brought to justice.
Please get in touch with your reaction to the latest development.
ORIGINAL POST:
France is at the centre of three top stories today - and its role in all three areas is controversial.
Facebook and twitter (hastags #voile and #niqab) are humming with debate about the French ban, imposed today, on women covering their face in public with the niqab or burqa.
The first arrests have already taken place after a small group of women - who were wearing veils - staged a protest in Paris.
Some of those who support the ban argue that France's secular identity must be preserved. Others, who see the niqab and burqa as symbols of female oppression, say the law is a way of supporting women's freedom.
But writes in The Daily Telegraph today and describes the law as "a mix of Islamophobia, busy-bodying feminism and resurgent nationalist sentiment".
Who's right? Is France setting an example? Would you like your own country to follow suit? Or is it getting it wrong?
In Libya, the African Union is struggling to get the rebels to sign up to a peace deal. Colonel Gaddafi has already accepted it. It's less clear that the rebels will agree. Should the West - and France in particular - be pressing the rebels to accept a settlement?
And in Ivory Coast, the French authorities say their special forces in Ivory Coast have arrested Laurent Gbagbo after a military operation. They say they're enforcing the UN mandate. Are they right to be increasing the pressure on Mr Gbagbo in his bunker?
You don't have to be French to comment. Wherever you are in the world, do get in touch.
