Netanyahu’s fiery rhetoric — and his decision to open the high-profile speech with remarks on the report — reflected the deep distress felt among Israeli leaders after a U.N. commission accused Israel of intentionally harming civilians when it launched a massive attack in Gaza to stop years of rocket fire.

“This distorted report, written by this distorted committee, undermines Israel’s right to defend itself. This report encourages terrorism and threatens peace,” Netanyahu said in his address at the opening of parliament’s winter session. “Israel will not take risks for peace if it can’t defend itself.”

The anti-immigration mayor barred the burqini and said women wearing them to pools or the beach would be subjected to $700 (Eur500) fines.

Gianluca Buonanno, mayor of Varallo Sesia said, “The sight of a ‘masked woman’ could disturb small children, not to mention problems of hygiene.”

AKI reports that a young Muslim girl stopped going to a public pool in Verona after she was asked to provide details on the material of her burqini by the pool’s director, Christian Panzarini.

Panzarini told AKI that some of their swimming instructors wear full body suits, but he was concerned about the hygiene of a burqini.

The occasion is the passing of 40 days — the official end of the mourning period for Shia Muslims — since Iranian security forces killed Neda Soltan and protesters during a demonstration on June 20.

A mourning ceremony in the Grand Mosala prayer hall, which can hold 100,000 people, has been banned so the opposition is planning demonstrations in at least nine locations around the capital.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, the defeated presidential candidates, will visit the grave of Ms Soltan whose death, which was caught on video, made her a global symbol of the regime’s brutality.

Many pro-reform politicians, the staunchest critics of thehardline president, were disqualified from the race in apre-vote screening process that has narrowed the field.

But Ahmadinejad is not guaranteed an easy ride even with awin by conservatives because the camp includes allies of thepresident, critics of his economic policies, and those lookingbeyond this election to the presidential race next year.

Parliament does not decide on major policy issues such ashow to handle Iran’s nuclear row with the West. But foodprices, not foreign policy, are what most ordinary Iraniansworry about.