The European Medicines Agency is investigating whether there is a link between narcolepsy and a swine flu vaccine.

It allows you to experience the terror of the real thing.

It is a long-held dream: an artificial heart to replace one that is damaged or diseased. Now, a French company says that it has the technology to make the implantation of it a standard surgical procedure.

VIENNA – Muslims who attended a conference in Austria’s capital criticized European countries Sunday for considering the possibility of banning face-covering veils, saying it is counterproductive and regressive.

Veil bans are being considered in Belgium and France, and lawmakers in other European countries have also raised the issue.

The roughly 100 imams and Muslim religious advisers from 40 countries participating in the meeting in Vienna agreed that Islam doesn’t make it a requirement for women to wear face veils and saw little need to discuss it because of consensus on the matter, said Carla Amina Baghajati, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Religious Authority in Austria, which hosted the meeting.

“Nevertheless, we are critical that it comes to a ban,” Baghajati said. “Why? Because it’s counterproductive.” She was among about 30 women taking part in the meeting.

An extensive draft resolution presented at the end of the two-day conference called for programs to promote the education of Muslim girls and women and said every mosque should have a female contact person for women’s issues.

A 21-year-old man died Thursday after an accident at a huge alcohol-drenched party organized on Facebook – one of two such events held simultaneously in two French cities that drew nearly 20,000 people and, police say, are a dangerous trend.

Ash spewing from an Icelandic volcano prompted flight cancellations in parts of Europe again on Sunday.
Eurocontrol, the agency that manages European air travel, expects 24,500 flights on Sunday — about 500 below average for a Sunday at this time of year.

Apple Inc said on Friday it will launch the iPad tablet computer in nine international markets on May 28, following a strong debut in the United States last month.

The iPad will go on sale in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and Britain. Pre-ordering for those markets will start on May 10.

The international launch was originally schedule for late April, but Apple delayed it by a month due to what it called higher-than-expected demand.

Apple also said the iPad will expand to Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July.

The iPad, a 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet intended primarily for games, Web browsing, and digital media of all sorts, went on sale in the U.S. on April 3.

The company has already sold more than 1 million iPads. Analysts expect the company to sell roughly 5 million of the devices this year.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple fell 3.3 percent to $238 in midday trading on the Nasdaq. The broader Nasdaq market was down 1.6 percent.

Swiss prosecutors said Thursday they have indicted a Zurich banker suspected of helping French engineering company Alstom SA make payments to win international contracts.

Le gouvernement peut compter sur un certain consensus au sein de la population pour son projet de loi d’interdiction du voile sur tout l’espace public.

En pleine polémique autour du voile intégral et la polygamie, 70% des Français se déclarent favorables à l’interdiction du voile intégral sur l’ensemble de l’espace public, selon l’observatoire de l’opinion LH2 – Nouvelobs.com du lundi 26 avril. Parmi eux, 49% se disent “tout à fait” favorables au projet de loi annoncé par le gouvernement la semaine dernière. Si les 18-24 ans (43%) sont les plus réticents à l’interdiction, les 65 ans et plus (82%), 50-64 ans (73%), 35-49 ans (76%) et les 25-34 ans (57%) se déclarent majoritairement favorables au projet de loi.

C’est ainsi que s’est défendu le conjoint de la Nantaise verbalisée pour conduite en niqab face au gouvernement qui l’accuse de polygamie.