Excerpt:
President Nicolas Sarkozy's administration today took another shot at the burqa, scoring populist points ahead of France's March elections, say analysts.
France's immigration minister said he is refusing citizenship to a Muslim man who called his wife "an inferior being," and forced her to wear a full veil in public, an announcement that plays well with French public support for a burqa ban.
"He has no place in our country," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told Europe 1 radio, in a decision that comes a week after a French parliamentary commission recommended a partial ban on any veils that cover the face. The ban still needs to be voted on, but it would apply in hospitals and on public transport. France already has bans for wearing headscarves in state schools.