(France 24: 1000 PST, February 14, 2011) Minor clashes erupted in two villages in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain Monday after security forces clamped down on Shi'ite-led anti-government protests inspired by recent popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

(France 24: 1000 PST, February 14, 2011) In Algeria, there have been calls for new protests after weekend unrest. In the capital Algiers, riot police scuffled with anti-government protesters who were defying a ban on demonstrations, inspired by recent historic events in Tunisia and Egypt.

(France 24: 0700 PST, February 4, 2011) Reports indicate U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has been in talks with his recently appointed Egyptian counterpart Omar Suleiman about the possibility of Suleiman leading a transition government.

Read the full New York Times report.

Click here for important background information on the unrest in Egypt.

(France 24, 0800 PST, February 2, 2011) Eyewitness reports from France 24 correspondents in Cairo: "It is the complete opposite of what we saw just 24 hours ago."

Click here for important background information on the unrest in Egypt.

Link's Mosaic and the Mosaic Intelligence Report are on vacation this week, but intrepid Mosaic Producer Jamal Dajani has not been slacking. Dajani has been reporting from Paris on the burqa controversy, where French president Nicolas Sarkozy inflamed his country's Muslim population with recent comments stating that the burqa would "not be welcome" in France.

It wasn't easy, but Dajani was able to interview a French woman dressed in burqa for his latest article in the Huffington Post, and it sounds like Sarkozy isn't winning any friends in France's Muslim communities. You can follow Dajani's interesting updates on this story on Twitter.

For more background, this Al Jazeera English piece gives the "inside story" on the call for a burqa ban in France:

Is this anti-burqa campaign really a question of women's rights? (This, of course, coming from the same man caught opening oogling the female form in these photos. Don't you worry -- Obama's wandering eye has apparently been exonerated, according to this ABC News video analysis.) Can France reconcile its values as a secular nation with its growing Muslim immigrant population? We know what Dajani and Sarkozy think -- what about you?