Turkey

The Turkish parliament is meeting for the first round of voting on a proposal to allow girls to wear the Islamic headscarf in universities. The scarf, seen as a symbol of political Islam in Turkey, was banned from campuses almost two decades ago. The government now argues that law deprives thousands of an education, but its plan to change the law has sparked large protest rallies by secular Turks. They fear it may be a first step to eroding the secular system in Turkey. In other news, Turkey’s agriculture ministry has confirmed it was bird flu that killed chickens in northwest Turkey, where three villages have been quarantined. (BBC, Reuters)