Bus driver blocks entry for woman in burqa

The driver of a public bus in Vitoria on Thursday refused to allow a woman on board because she was wearing a Muslim veil which covered her face, the latest flare up in the Basque city over tolerance of Islamic customs.

The driver for the city’s Tuvisa transport service who took decided not to allow the women in a veil that to board his bus has now organised a petition among company colleagues and passengers in a bid to gain support for his stance, according to sources cited by Spanish news agency Europa Press.

Tuvisa has opened an investigation into the incident, while the municipal company’s president has called a meeting with politicians from the city council to inform them of what the ABC newspaper says is the latest in a series of flashpoints relating to rules for the city’s Muslims.   

In the summer, Mayor Javier Maroto of the conservative Popular Party imposed rules to prevent women from bathing in public swimming pools wearing Muslim outfits or if they were dressed in ordinary clothing and not just swimming costumes. "The rules at public swimming pools are the same for everyone," the mayor said in June.

"Swimming dressed in all of your clothes and the veil is intolerable."

Maroto is the leading figure behind a PP campaign in the Basque Country to change regional rules governing which families should receive minimum income allowances. The party’s proposal lists requisites such as having been registered as a resident in the region for 10 years and having paid into the social security system, proposals seen by some as discriminatory against immigrants.

The local leader of the Spanish anti-racism organisation SOS Racismo, Fede García, has accused Maroto of "xenophobic opportunism", adding that most immigrants have worked and paid their contributions before, in some cases, finding themselves out of work like millions of Spaniards. “When their subsidies run out, what are they supposed to do? Pack their bags and leave?”

Last year the PP-run city council in Vitoria toughened up laws on commercial premises, a move which led to 45 internet cafés, Chinese-run bargain shops and kebab restaurants receiving sanctions for hygiene problems or failure to have the correct licenses.  

In September, Spain's interior minister said the country could look at a ban on burqas as part of a packet of planned new security reforms.

Pregnant woman in niqab attacked by two men in Spain

Two football hooligans have been detained for allegedly assaulting a pregnant woman wearing a niqab in Barcelona, police said on Thursday, as anti-Islam hate crimes soar in Spain

The woman, who is eight months pregnant, was walking through the centre of the seaside city last week with her husband and two children, and was rebuked by the two ultras because she was wearing the Islamic veil, police said in a statement.

Her husband reacted and was assaulted by the pair, who have not been named but are said by police to have links to the far-right Brigadas Blanquiazules group, which supports the Espanyol football team in Barcelona.   

The club banned members of this group from entering its stadium in 2010.    

The woman tried to intervene and one of the ultras kicked her in the stomach, police said, adding the two were subsequently detained and have since been accused of hate crime, discrimination and personal injury.

Hospital checks found no damage to either the woman - who has not been named - or her baby, police said.

The assault comes with anti-Islam hate crimes on the rise in Spain.    

In April, Mounir Benjelloun, head of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Entities, told AFP 534 anti-Islam incidents were reported in Spain last year, a more than tenfold jump from 2014.

He said these acts of violence increased whenever there was a high-profile extremist incident elsewhere, such as the January 2015 attack against satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, police and a kosher supermarket in Paris.  

"We're talking about this case because it has come out into the open," Benjelloun told AFP Thursday.

"But there are incidents in Spain every day."

Baby dies after midwife denies woman's request for c-section

baby died at a Swedish hospital after six failed attempts at vaginal birth before an emergency caesarean section was carried out

The woman arrived at Uppsala University hospital in March this year to give birth to her fourth child. But complications arose during the final stages of labour when the baby would not come out.

Despite the woman's repeated requests for a caesarian section, the midwife engaged in six failed attempts to deliver the baby vaginally, including using a vacuum extractor.

An emergency operation was eventually performed, but the baby had by then been without oxygen for several minutes.

It died days later, according to a report filed to the Health and Social Care Inspectorate by the hospital itself in accordance with Sweden's patient safety laws.

In its report, obtained by Upsala Nya Tidning, the hospital wrote that the midwife had failed to immediately contact a physician after it was discovered that medical equipment in the room did not function properly.

The woman's husband reported the incident to the Inspectorate earlier this year, writing: "It was chaos, the equipment did not work and there was hardly any communication between staff."

Mom gives birth on toilet after being told to take paracetamol

A woman has described how she was told to take paracetamol when she phoned a hospital in Ystad, southern Sweden, in pain. Just moments later she gave birth to a baby in the toilet.

The Expressen tabloid reports that the woman, from western Sweden, was 31 weeks' pregnant when she started getting pains in the lower part of her stomach on a visit to southern Sweden to celebrate Easter.

She called a health advice hotline which advised her to go to hospital to rule out urinary infection. The general surgery in Ystad then referred her to the obstetrics and gynecology department which found traces of blood in her urine.

She was given medication for urinary infection and told to make an appointment with her midwife after the weekend, according to a report filed to Sweden's Health and Social Care Inspectorate seen by Expressen.

Later the same evening the woman contacted the hospital again, but a CTG and vaginal ultrasound did not show anything out of the ordinary, so she was sent home once again.

"We get home at 1.30am and I'm in so much pain now that my legs hurt," the woman writes in her report.

Her husband called the hospital again, explaining that his wife was in so much pain that she was unable to speak, but was told that she should take an Alvedon – a Swedish brand of paracetamol-based painkillers.

The woman explains in the report filed to the Health and Social Care Inspectorate that she then threw up and ran to the toilet where she had three contractions, pushed and gave birth to a son in the toilet chair.

"After 28 minutes the ambulances come and we go back to Ystad," she writes.

Netanyahu Thanks Trump for His Support of Israel

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a meeting on Sunday with Donald Trump in New York, during which he thanked the U.S. Republican presidential candidate for his friendship and support of Israel.

Netanyahu’s office said that the meeting, which was held at Trump’s residence in New York, lasted for more than two hours. The Israeli ambassador in the United States Ron Dermer, as well as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, took part in the meeting.

According to a statement released by the prime minister’s office “Netanyahu presented Israel’s positions on regional issues related to Israel’s security and efforts to achieve peace and stability.”

“Prime Minister thanked Mr. Trump for his friendship and support of Israel,” the statement added.

Netanyahu is also scheduled to meet Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton later Sunday

Trump Threatens to Invite Gennifer Flowers to Monday Debate

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he might invite Gennifer Flowers to the nationally televised debate he will have with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton early this coming week.

Flowers claimed in 1992 that she and Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, who at the time was running for president, had had a romantic relationship in the 1970s.

The mogul’s campaign director, Kellyanne Conway, said Sunday on CNN that the possibility that Flowers might be in the debate audience was suggested so that Hillary Clinton knows that the two candidates may invite people whose presence might adversely affect their opponent to the Monday contest at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

However, she told CNN, “We have not invited (Flowers) formally, and we do not expect her to be there as a guest of the Trump campaign.”

Trump had tweeted on Saturday that he might invite Flowers after billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner, harsh Trump critic and strong Clinton supporter, Mark Cuban, said on his Twitter account that Clinton’s campaign had invited him to attend the debate and sit in the front row, ostensibly to rattle the mogul.

“If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!” Trump had tweeted, referring to Cuban’s now-cancelled television reality show “The Benefactor.”

The alleged former lover of President Clinton had quickly responded: “Hi Donald. You know I’m in your corner and will definitely be at the debate.”

Hillary Clinton’s campaign later issued a statement saying that the candidate “plans on using the debate to discuss the issues that make a difference in people’s lives.”

“It’s not surprising that Donald Trump has chosen a different path,” added the campaign spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri.

Clinton and Trump are virtually tied just prior to Monday’s debate, according to a new national voter survey published Sunday by The Washington Post and ABC News.

It is expected that the Monday night debate will be one of the most heavily watched television events in history with eight out of 10 voters saying they plan to tune in, according to the Washington Post poll.

Of those polled, 44 percent say they expect Clinton to “win” the debate and 34 percent think that Trump will be victorious.

Rare and horny ox spotted looking for ladies in Sweden

The muskox gets its name from the strong smell the male members of the species omit during the summer mating season in an effort to attract females.

But it seems one Swedish bull’s aroma as well as his radar aren't quite up to scratch. The animal, which has been sighted in recent days in the vicinity of Lillhärdal, Jämtland in western Sweden, has apparently wandered down the wrong road in his attempts to find a mate.

“He is looking for ladies and there are none of those in Lillhärdal, so he’s expected to move on,” Claes Ahlström, a communications officer at Jämtland County, told radio station P4.