Vienna
Costumes verboten: A man wearing a shark costume to help promote a new computer repair shop was fined this week under Austria’s new “burqa ban.” The unnamed worker was standing outside the McShark store in Vienna when police asked him to remove his shark mask. When he refused, explaining, “I’m just doing my job,” police slapped him with a fine—which can go up to $175. The anti-mask law, which bans any face covering in public and is aimed at the tiny minority of Austrian Muslim women who wear full-face veils, went into effect at the start of October. Police said a citizen—presumably one who hoped to expose the law’s flaws—alerted them to the violation at the shop.