Free Republic

SNIPPET: "The new head of the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), an agency that gets 22 percent of its regular $600 million-plus annual budget from U.S. taxpayers, will be selected in a process that involves behind-closed-doors interviewing and a secret ballot vote." SNIPPET: "Farouk Hosni, who has been Egypt’s culture minister for more than two decades, leads a nine-strong field of hopefuls. He leads largely because he has the backing of the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the African Union, and because Arab governments say it is the Arab world’s turn." SNIPPET:...

CAIRO -- A political and religious storm sparked by Egypt's culture minister criticizing the ever-growing popularity of the Islamic veil snowballed Sunday into a fully fledged national affair. Three days after Farouk Hosni described as "regressive" the increasing practice of wearing the veil, calls for his ouster mounted and debates on Muslim conservatism in the Arab world's most populous country intensified. Sources in parliament said that 80 lawmakers - both from Hosni's ruling National Democratic Party and opposition movements - demanded an urgent debate over the minister's comments. "There was an age when our mothers went to university and worked...