This is our new Friday Digest! Each Friday, this weekly news round-up gives us the occasion to share with you news from various topics: politics to arts, entertainment, media, science, sports, fun and less fun news… This digest is a list of news published this week on the Internet (Friday to Friday), selected by the Sama Team, and it is by no means exhaustive.

If you want to suggest a news to be added in the next Friday Digest, contact us.

The list goes from oldest to newest news.  See you on Sunday, for our weekly Twitter Sunday!

Banning the veil: How not to liberate women
Muslim veiling is once again at the top of the news in Europe. Bans on full-face veils being considered or already in place, whether nationwide, at the municipal level, or applied in public buildings and transportation, undermine Muslim women’s autonomy and religious freedom. Arguments put forward to support these bans fall into four categories, none of which stand up to serious scrutiny…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/apr/24/belgium-niqab
-islam-women

Shanghai World Expo 2010 Pavilion PHOTOS: See The 25 Best
All eyes will be on Shanghai on May 1 as the glistening Chinese metropolis plays host to the 2010 World Expo. Organizers expect more than 70 million visitors to visit the Expo over the course of six months, whose theme is “Better City, Better Life.” The grand plan for the Expo is impressive. More than 190 countries and more than 50 international organizations are currently registered to take part, with 100 world leaders expected…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/24/shanghai-world-expo-2010_n_
550107.html

India has more mobile telephones than toilets: UN report
More people in India, the world’s second most crowded country, have access to a mobile telephone than to a toilet, according to a new UN study on how to cut the number of people with inadequate sanitation. “It is a tragic irony to think that in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones, about half cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet,” said Zafar Adeel, Director of United Nations…
http://blog.taragana.com/health/2010/04/14/india-has-more-mobile-
telephones-than-toilets-un-report-21726/

The Slaves Behind Eritrea’s Gold Rush
Eritrea, a country on Africa’s horn which borders both the Red Sea and Ethiopia, is experiencing a modern-day gold rush. But the incredible influx of people looking to mine the small nation’s rich gold reserves is far from a blessing to many of the people there. Eritrea’s gold reserves have sparked conflicts with neighboring countries and thrown the government into turmoil. Moreover, all this confusion has meant that Western mining…
http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/the_slaves_behind_eritreas
_gold_rush

Afghan Schoolgirls Fall Ill, Poison Feared
Dozens of Afghan schoolgirls have fallen ill in recent days after reporting a strange odor in their classrooms in northern Afghanistan, prompting an investigation into whether they were targeted by militants who oppose education for girls or victims of mass hysteria. Either way, the reports from three schools within 2 miles (3 kilometers) of one another in Kunduz province have raised alarm in a city threatened by the Taliban…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/25/afghan-schoolgirls-fall-i_n
_551325.html

Sudan President Declared Poll Winner
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has won Sudan’s first open elections in 24 years in a result that confirms in office the only sitting head of state wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Bashir won 68 percent of the presidential vote, while Salva Kiir retained his job as the president of Sudan’s semi- autonomous south, with 92.99 percent of the vote in that race, Sudan’s National Elections Commission announced…
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/26/world/international-uk-sudan
-election.html

Wal-Mart to face massive class action suit
A sharply divided federal appeals court on Monday exposed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to billions of dollars in legal damages when it ruled a massive class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination over pay for female workers can go to trial. In its 6-5 ruling, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the world’s largest private employer will have to face charges that it pays women less than men for the same jobs and…
http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/d0732c86f9b44a428fc30e935ef90fcf/
Article_2010-04-26-US-Wal-Mart-Discrimination/id-306a2eb1ef174474af0e5f004945ea20

The iPhone Leak Gets Ugly: Police Raid Gizmodo Editor’s House, Confiscate Computers
Last week, Gizmodo published a massive scoop when they got their hands on what is mostly likely the next iPhone. At the time there was plenty of talk about the legality of Gizmodo’s actions (as they admitted to paying $5000 for the device). Now Gizmodo has just published a post saying that editor Jason Chen had four of his computers and two servers confiscated last night by California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team…
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/26/the-iphone-leak-gets-ugly-police-raid
-gizmodo-editors-house-confiscate-computers/

SOMALIA: Where fun is forbidden
Living in a war-torn city is hard enough for Mogadishu’s youngsters, but even those few opportunities for entertainment they used to enjoy have now been banned. Listening to music, watching football or films can earn one up to 30 lashes from the enforcers who patrol neighbourhoods checking for “un-Islamic” behaviour. “We cannot watch our favourite teams, go to a movie or do anything that young people our age do,”…
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88943

Europeans Fear Greek Debt Crisis Will Spread
As Greece inches closer to the brink of financial collapse, fear that the debt crisis will spread is engulfing Europe. Increasingly, investors wonder if Portugal, Spain and even Ireland may not be able to borrow the billions of dollars they need to finance their government spending. “It’s like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns,” said Philip Lane, a professor of international economics at Trinity College in Ireland, referring to the Wall Street failures…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/business/global/29euro.html

Melbourne’s Keith Haring mural in urgent need of restoration
In 1984 Keith Haring was invited to Melbourne by John Buckley from the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts. He created the mural in a less than a day with the help of students from Collingwood Technical College. Haring died six years later, aged 31, of an AIDS related illness. The mural is one of the few still-existing Haring murals worldwide that has not been restored…
http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2010/04/28/2884980.htm

Navy To Allow Women To Serve On Submarines
The U.S. military’s ban on women serving on submarines passed quietly into history Thursday morning. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates notified lawmakers in mid-February that the Navy would be lifting the ban, unless Congress took some action against it. And Navy spokesman Lt. Justin Cole said Thursday morning that the deadline for Congress to act passed at midnight. The Navy plans a press conference later Thursday…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/29/navy-to-allow-women-
to-se_n_556547.html

Oil slick expected to reach Louisiana ports Friday
Officials anticipate Venice and Port Fourchon, Louisiana, will be the first places affected Friday when the massive oil spill caused by a rig explosion reaches shore, said a spokesman for the oil company BP. Officials monitoring the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have not yet confirmed reports that oil reached land early Friday. The Coast Guard was conducting a flyover Friday morning to see if oil had reached Louisiana’s coastline as federal…
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/04/30/louisiana.oil.spill/