French Senate passes ban of full Muslim veils (AP)

PARIS � The French Senate has voted overwhelmingly for a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil everywhere from post offices to streets, in a final step toward a making it law.

The Senate voted 246 to 1 Tuesday in favor of the bill, which has already passed in the lower chamber, the National Assembly.

Any dissenters have 10 days to challenge the measure in the Constitutional Council watchdog, but that is considered unlikely.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

The French Senate debates Tuesday whether to ban the burqa-style veil, a move that affects only a tiny minority of the country's Muslim women but has significant symbolic repercussions.

Muslims believe the latest legislation is one more blow to France's second religion, and risks raising the level of Islamophobia in a country where mosques, like synagogues, are sporadic targets of hate. Some women have vowed to wear a full-face veil despite the law.

The proposed law was passed overwhelmingly by the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, on July 13. The expected green light from the Senate would make it definitive once the president signs off on it - barring amendments and an eventual legal challenge.

The measure would outlaw face-covering veils in streets, including those worn by tourists from the Middle East and elsewhere. It is aimed at ensuring gender equality, women's dignity and security, as well as upholding France's secular values - and its way of life.

Kenza Drider, however, says she'll flirt with arrest to wear her veil as she pleases.

"It is a law that is unlawful," said Drider, a mother of four from Avignon, in southern France. "It is ... against individual liberty, freedom of religion, liberty of conscience, she said.

"I will continue to live my life as I always have with my full veil," she told Associated Press Television News.

Drider was the only woman who wears a full-faced veil to be interviewed by a parliamentary panel that spent six months deciding whether to move ahead with legislation.

Muslim leaders concur that Islam does not require a woman to hide her face. However, they have voiced concerns that a law forbidding them to do so would stigmatize the French Muslim population, which at an estimated 5 million is the largest in western Europe. Numerous Muslim women who wear the face-covering veil have said they are now being harassed in the streets.

Raphael Liogier, a sociology professor who heads the Observatory of the Religious in Aix-en-Provence, says that Muslims in France are already targeted by hate-mongers and the ban on face-covering veils "will officialize Islamophobia."

"With the identity crisis that France has today, the scapegoat is the Muslim," he told The Associated Press.

Ironically, instead of helping some women integrate, the measure may keep them cloistered in their homes to avoid exposing their faces in public.

"I won't go out. I'll send people to shop for me. I'll stay home, very simply," said Oum Al Khyr, who wears a "niqab" that hides all but the eyes.

"I'll spend my time praying," said the single woman "over 45" who lives in Montreuil on Paris' eastern edge. "I'll exclude myself from society when I wanted to live in it."

The law banning the veil would take effect only after a six-month period.

The Interior Ministry estimates the number of women who fully cover themselves at some 1,900, with a quarter of them converts to Islam and two-thirds with French nationality.

The French parliament wasted no time in working to get a ban in place, opening an inquiry shortly after Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy said in June 2009 that full veils that hide the face are "not welcome" in France.

The bill calls for ?150 ($185) fines or citizenship classes for any woman caught covering her face, or both. It also carries stiff penalties for anyone such as husbands or brothers convicted of forcing the veil on a woman. The ?30,000 ($38,400) fine and year in prison are doubled if the victim is a minor.

It was unclear, however, how authorities planned to enforce such a law.

"I will accept the fine with great pleasure," said Drider, vowing to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if she gets caught.

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George Michael gets 8 weeks jail for drug driving (AP)

LONDON � A British judge has sentenced George Michael to eight weeks in jail for driving while under the influence of drugs after the singer crashed his car into a London photo shop.

The singer pleaded guilty last month to driving under the influence and possession of cannabis following a July 4 collision between his Range Rover and a Snappy Snaps store.

Michael was sentenced Tuesday at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court, which also fined him 1,250 pounds ($1,930). He is likely to serve half the time before being considered for parole.

Police said Michael appeared "spaced out" when they found him sitting in the car, whose engine was still running. He acknowledged smoking marijuana and taking a prescription sedative, prosecutors said.

It was the latest in a string of automotive and drug-related mishaps for the 47-year-old star, who has often spoken of his fondness for marijuana.

In February 2006, he was found slumped at the wheel of his car at London's busy Hyde Park Corner. That April, he hit three parked cars while trying to maneuver out of a parking space, and admitted being "a terrible driver."

In October 2006, he was found slumped over the wheel of his car as it blocked an intersection. He pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drugs and was sentenced to community service.

Last year, he was involved in a late-night crash with a truck outside London. Michael released a statement stressing he was "stone cold sober" at the time.

Michael gained mega-stardom in his early 20s as half of Wham! and went on to have a successful solo career. His first solo album, 1987's "Faith," sold 20 million copies.

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Nigeria: 2 senior security officials killed (AP)

KANO, Nigeria � Two high-ranking officials with Nigeria's secret police and its anti-graft agency have been killed by unknown attackers.

Officials in the northern city of Kano say a senior officer with Nigeria's State Security Service was killed along with three members of his family early Monday. Two others escaped.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the nation's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said Tuesday that one of its senior officers was killed in nearby Kaduna, but offered no other details.

The violence comes as the West African nation's election draws near. Nigeria will elect a new president in January, and elections often bring violence in Africa's most populous nation.

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August retail sales up 0.4 pct., best in 5 months (AP)

WASHINGTON � Retail sales rose in August by the largest amount in five months, adding to evidence that a late spring economic swoon was temporary and not the start of another recession.

Retail sales increased 0.4 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. It was the second straight monthly increase and the biggest gain since March.

Excluding a decline in autos, retail sales increased 0.6 percent. That followed two relatively flat months and a sharp drop in May.

A separate Commerce report said inventories held by businesses jumped in July by the largest amount in two years while sales rebounded after two months of declines. The rebound in sales was an encouraging sign that consumer demand is rising after two weak months. Businesses build up their stocks when they anticipate stronger retail demand in the months ahead.

The strength in August retail sales came in a number of areas from department stores to clothing stores and sporting goods outlets. However, bigger-ticket items such as furniture and electronics fell last month.

Best Buy said Tuesday that its fiscal second-quarter net income rose 60 percent. The retailer's standalone mobile stores helped to boost profits. Shoppers bought cell phones, appliances and tablet computers. Still, sales of televisions, video game consoles, video games, music and movies all fell.

Retail sales rose a revised 0.3 percent in July after posting back-to-back declines in May and June. Those decreases had raised concerns that the economic recovery was losing strength and that a second recession was possible. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity.

Even with the sales rebound in July and August, economists expect 2 percent growth in the second half of this year. That would be better than the 1.6 percent growth rate in the April-to-June quarter. But it would be well below the January-to-March quarter's 3.7 percent growth rate and not enough to lower the 9.6 percent unemployment rate.

Analysts cautioned that the August retail sales figures may not indicate a trend. Discounts on back-to-school merchandise helped drive gains of lower-priced items, such as clothing, they note. At the same time, the weak housing market has dampened demand for more expensive items. Furniture sales were down 0.5 percent, the fourth decline in the past five months.

Part of the boost in August reflected tax-free shopping days offered as an incentive by several states to spur sales.

"The incentive-driven gain in retail sales in August is unlikely to be repeated in September," said Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Capital Markets. "Real consumer spending will likely continue to grow at a subdued rate ... until job growth improves."

Economists said it was not surprising that consumer spending is not growing at a faster pace given all the problems facing households.

"Jobs are not readily available, wages are stagnant and income growth is mediocre," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors.

One area of weakness last month was auto sales, which fell 0.7 percent. That confirms earlier reports that August was the auto industry's worst month for sales since 1983. General Motors, Toyota, Honda and Ford all reported declines last month compared to July and also compared to August 2009.

But other areas were strong. Department stores and general merchandise stores both posted 0.4 percent gains. The latter category includes big chains such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

Last week, major chain stores reported that this year's back-to-school season was better than first anticipated. Still, retailers reported that shoppers were spending mainly when they found discounts and sales were by no means sizzling.

Analysts said they expect stores will need to keep discounting to get shoppers to spend this fall and for the holiday.

Sales were up 1.9 percent at gasoline stations, an increase that in part reflected higher pump prices. Excluding gasoline stations, retail sales would have risen 0.3 percent in August after a 0.1 percent July increase.

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Iran frees detained US woman on $500,000 bail (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran � Iran released an American woman on a bail of $500,000 Tuesday more than a year after she was detained, but authorities said they were not considering the immediate release of two companions arrested with her.

The announcement came days after conflicting statements by Iranian authorities on whether Sarah Shourd would be freed as the process was complicated by political feuds among the leadership and questions over how a payment could be made for her freedom without violating international sanctions.

The English-language Press TV reported that Shourd, 32, had been released "on a bail of $500,000" but did not give more details. Iran's judiciary, meanwhile, issued a statement saying the "pretrial detention" of the two American men � Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal � has been extended for two more months.

Her family had said it was having difficulty raising the money. However, Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said later that the bail had been paid to an Iranian bank in Muscat, Oman.

"The judge issued the release order and Ms. Shourd was simply set free and she can leave Iran if she wants to," he told Press TV. He said the cases of the two American men, both 28, will be sent to the revolutionary court and "there is no talk of releasing those two right now."

Shourd's lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, said she had been released but was still undergoing formalities inside the Evin Prison, where she has been held in solitary confinement. He said he had no information about her departure route or any details about bail.

He later was quoted by the state news agency IRNA as saying Shourd planned to travel to Oman where her mother already was waiting for her, but that could not be confirmed and there were conflicting reports that she would go to the Qatari capital of Doha.

A spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry, Lars Knuchel said the release had not been formally confirmed but "we are very confident that things are moving into the right direction."

The U.S. broke off ties with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Switzerland handles U.S. interests in Iran.

Shourd and her two friends were detained along the Iran-Iraq border on July 31, 2009 and accused of illegally crossing the border and spying in a case that has deepened tensions with Washington. Their families say they were hiking in Iraq's scenic north, and that if they crossed the border, they did so unwittingly.

The stage was set for Shourd's release last week when Ahmadinejad said he intervened as a gesture of Islamic compassion at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. However, the judiciary quickly humbled the president by saying it was in charge of the case and would set the rules � in the form of the largest known bail for any high-profile Westerner jailed in the past year.

Shortly after judicial officials announced the bail on Sunday, Shourd's lawyer predicted she could walk free in "two or three days."

Shourd's mother says she has serious medical problems, including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells.

Moves to release Shourd have been accompanied by political jockeying in Iran between Ahmadinejad and his more conservative rivals.

Nora Shourd's phone message box was full when the AP tried reaching her for comment. A New York publicist working with the families, Samantha Topping, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. A message on the cell phone of Cindy Hickey, mother of Shane Bauer, referred calls to Topping.

___

Associated Press Writer Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee contributed to this report

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Jump in retail sales sends stock futures off lows (AP)

NEW YORK � Stock futures moved off their morning lows, but remain mixed Tuesday, after another report signaled modest economic growth.

The dollar hit a new 15-year low against Japan's yen and Treasury prices rose, which kept potential gains in check.

The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.4 percent, slightly better than the 0.3 percent growth forecast by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. The sales report Tuesday falls in line with data over the past two weeks that has indicated the economy is growing slightly faster than economists expected, but still remains sluggish.

Modest growth rates have been enough to reduce fears of the country falling back into recession. That has provided sufficient encouragement for traders to jump back into stocks this month. The Dow Jones industrial average has climbed eight of the past nine days and is off to its best September start since 1939.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 12, or 0.1 percent, to 10,460. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 1.90, or 0.2 percent, to 1,114.30, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 0.50, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,917.25.

Bond prices rose, driving down interest rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.71 percent from 2.75 percent late Monday. Its yield is used as a gauge to set interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans.

The market rally has come on light volume, which can exaggerate moves and means many traders aren't confident enough yet to participate in the recent surge. September has been a historically bad month for stocks, but coming off a weak August this year traders remaining in the market have bid up stocks aggressively. The Dow has gained 5.3 percent so far in September.

Global markets also paused Tuesday as the dollar weakened against the yen. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.2 percent as its strengthening currency hurts major manufactures that rely on exporting goods, like Sony and Toyota.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX index dipped less than 0.1 percent, and France's CAC-40 also fell less than 0.1 percent.

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Nokia starts smartphone fightback

14 September 2010 Last updated at 07:21 ET By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, Nokia World 2010, London

Finnish phone giant Nokia has vowed to fight back as it battles for customers in the increasingly competitive smartphone market.

The company unveiled three new smartphones - E7, C7 and an updated C6 - at London's Nokia World conference.

Nokia is still the largest maker of smartphones but is facing stiff competition from the likes of Apple, Google and Blackberry maker RIM.

Nokia's Niklas Savander told delegates the firm had been losing out to rivals.

"That is about to change. Today we shift into high gear in Nokia's fightback to smartphone leadership," he said.

According to research firm Comscore, Nokia's market share has fallen more than 14% since July 2009, although it still commands more than half the market in many western European countries.

"In the last quarter people bought more Nokia smartphones than Apple and Android combined," Mr Savander told the annual Nokia World event in London.

Market share

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Nobody doubts Nokia's credentials. It has the market share but has lost the mindshare"

End Quote Ben Wood, Analyst, CCS Insight

Apple and Android devices have both grown by more than 5% in the last 12 months Comscore says, but both still command less than half of Nokia's market share.

Nokia said it currently sells around 260,000 smartphones every day.

"That's more smartphone sales than any other company by far. Period," said Mr Savander.

However, he admitted that the firm was going through a "tough, challenging transition" and still had a lot of work to do.

"We are not going to apologise for not being Apple, Google or Samsung. We are Nokia,"

The talk followed a period of turmoil for the firm.

On 10 September, it announced that it would replace it's chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with Microsoft's Stephen Elop.

And on Monday, Anssi Vanjoki, the head of Nokia's mobile business, resigned after just two months in the job.

On stage, Mr Vanjoki said little about his decision, merely acknowledging that his talk was his last Nokia event and thanking the company and its customers for the last twenty years.

He also took time to reflect on Nokia's current position.

"We have taken some knocks over the last few years but we have positioned Nokia for the future," he said.

He used his time to introduce Nokia's new line up of smart phones.

The C6, C7 and E7 devices all run on Symbian, the most widely used mobile operating system in the world.

The C6 and C7 are both consumer devices with touch screens, high quality cameras and access to Nokia's Ovi app store and Ovi maps navigation service. The E7 is the firm's flagship business phone with a full qwerty keyboard and tilt screen.

Analysts at CCS Insight said the devices were "critical to Nokia" but the symbian software, despite refinements aimed at making it easier for developers to write apps for the phones was "not positioned to challenge the iPhone".

"Nobody doubts Nokia's credentials. It has the market share but has lost the mindshare, said CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood.

"Nokia, along with all the other mobile manufacturers, has been wrongfooted by Apple and Google and it will be a tough road to recovery," he added.

The phones will join the firm's recently announced N8 device as part of Nokia's fightback.

"Offering people just one model will inevitably lead to compromises," said Mr Savander in an apparent dig at Apple, which focuses on one device.

"We will continue to offer a range of devices to meet different needs, tastes and budgets.

"We will continue to expand the availability of smartphone features because everyone - not just the well off - deserve access to the Internet."

Nokia's executives also took swipes at Google, claiming that it's mapping platform was superior to that offered by the search giant.

"We are not going to apologise for not being Apple, Google or Samsung. We are Nokia," said Mr Savander.

And he ended his talk in defiant tone.

"It is about three words: Nokia is back."

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Intel bets future on new chipset

13 September 2010 Last updated at 17:03 ET By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

The world's biggest chip maker, Intel, has unveiled the chipset it is banking its immediate future on and one it hopes will shake up the market.

The product, code-named Sandy Bridge, is Intel's first architecture to merge a microprocessor and graphics processor onto a single silicon chip.

It is designed to cut the time it takes to produce images.

The company is betting the new technology will win over both PC vendors and consumers.

It recently cut sales forecasts because of weaker than expected PC demand.

"Sandy Bridge will revolutionise PCs again," Paul Otellini, Intel's chief executive told its annual developer forum being held in San Francisco.

"On one single chip, we've put in place all the critical capabilities for computing. This is a very important chip for Intel," he added.

The chip will target low-end desktop computers and laptops and is expected to be ready to go to customers early next year.

Putting the two processors together will cut the time it takes to produce images as it removes bottlenecks between the graphics processor and memory.

It will also improve battery life and power consumption.

"This is a big deal and we are all interested to see how the chip performs when it gets out into the real world next year," Martin Reynolds, managing vice president of research firm Gartner told BBC News.

"I don't however think it will revolutionise the industry but it does force that continued change that is part of the history of the PC industry. Intel has to keep new technologies coming to the market that keeps its growing so it is a big bet for the next couple of years."

'Killer'

Sandy Bridge is expected to cause headaches for Intel rival Nvidia, the maker of stand-alone graphics chips.

Technology blog VentureBeat has called Sandy Bridge an "Nvidia killer".

Nvidia said it is not worried about Intel's move and in a statement underlined that sentiment.

"Intel's been proclaiming the death of discrete graphics for years, but real GPUs (graphics processing units) just keep getting more important."

Advanced Micro Devices is also expected to feel the heat from Sandy Bridge. It has been working on its own hybrid chip for a while, but many analysts feel it has lost ground by not staying ahead of Intel

Notebooks and desktops with AMD's accelerated processing unit are expected in early 2011.

"It's hard to tell what will shake down because we haven't seen the performance benchmarks or specs from Sandy Bridge or from AMD's Fusion," said Jim McGregor of research firm In-Stat.

"If that migrates all the way up to mainstream computing, it just leaves that high end which is a very small percentage of the market, then you have to say this is a huge concern for Nvidia."

Security

The company failed to provide substantial details on the technical thinking behind its $7.68bn acquisition of McAfee as it awaits approval.

The deal, the biggest in the company's 42-year history, surprised many in the industry when it was announced.

At the time the company said that the acquisition reflected that security was now a fundamental component of online computing.

That view was echoed in Mr Otellini's keynote speech as he told thousands of developers it marked an opportunity to "offer secure capabilities across all Intel connected products".

Intel added that its security approach did not fully address the billions of new internet-ready devices, including mobile and wireless devices, TVs, cars, medical devices and cash machines.

"The amount we trust our devices to protect us is going up all the time and the bad guy threats are going up at the same time. Security is becoming a more complex topic with the proliferation of devices. We are trying to change how platforms are secured," said Mr Otellini.

Both companies have been collaborating for the last 18-24 months on products and the first chips incorporating new security software are expected to appear next year.

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Iran state TV says US woman freed from prison (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran � Iran's English language state television reported Tuesday that American Sarah Shourd has been released after more than a year in prison.

"Iran has released US national Sarah Shourd," flashed the red colored urgent banner on Press TV Tuesday.

Iran's judiciary granted $500,000 bail for Shourd on Sunday for health reasons, though family had said they could not afford it and U.S. said it would not pay it.

Shourd's mother said her daughter has been denied treatment for serious health problems, including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells.

Shourd was detained along the Iraqi border on July 31, 2009 along with two American friends, both men. Iran indicted all three on spy-related charges on Sunday which could mean trials for the two men and proceedings in absentia for Shourd if she is freed.

The detainees' families say they were hiking in Iraq's scenic north when they were detained, and that if they crossed the border into Iran, they did so unwittingly.

Moves to release Shourd have been accompanied by political jockeying in Iran as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conservative rivals criticized his attempts to release Shourd on humanitarian grounds after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Ahmadinejad, who first tried to shepherd the release of Shourd last week, was rebuked by the courts, which insisted that any release had to be on their terms, including a sizeable bail.

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Rights-holders pay in pirate hunt

14 September 2010 Last updated at 07:04 ET

Rights-holders will bear the brunt of the costs for tackling copyright infringers, the government has said.

The music and film industry will pay three-quarters of the costs of pursuing net pirates, with internet service providers paying the remaining quarter.

ISPA, which represents UK ISPs, said it was "disappointed" that it had to share the costs of implementing the controversial legislation.

The crackdown will see letters sent to those suspected of being net pirates.

The government also revealed that there will be no fee charged to consumers who want to appeal against the notifications.

It added a caveat though - if it receives large numbers of "unecessary appeals" it reserves the right to introduce a "small fee" down the line.

Judicial review

The plans, laid out in the Digital Economy Act, have proved highly controversial.

It will see those identified as illegally downloading content sent a series of letters with the threat of further measures, such as slowing down offenders' internet connection or possibly removing them temporarily from the internet, if they continue.

The policy, which was rushed through at the end of the last parliament, drew criticism from MPs who said the legislation was too complex to be made into law so quickly.

Campaigners have said that legislating against file-sharing is doomed to failure, especially as many methods of sharing files now happen "off network".

There are also concerns that innocent people could be caught out if their connection is hijacked by pirates.

Internet service providers have questioned the legality of the Digital Economy Act and BT and TalkTalk are seeking a judicial review of the legislation.

Announcing how the costs will be shared, communications minister Ed Vaizey reiterated the need for such a tough policy.

"We expect the measures will benefit our creative economy by some �200m per year," he said.

"Protecting our valuable creative industries, which have already suffered significant losses as a result of people sharing digital content without paying for it, is at the heart of these measures," he added.

The music and film industries estimate that six million people in the UK regularly file-share copyrighted content without permission.

Technical understanding

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

I think it is outrageous that we have to pay to costs to enforce rights- holders' copyright policies,"

End Quote Mark Schmid, communications director, TalkTalk

An industry study, by economics firm TERA Consultants, estimated that the UK's creative industries experienced losses of �1.2bn in 2008 due to piracy.

ISPA (Internet Service Providers' Association) said it was "disappointed" that ISPs had to pay any of the costs.

Nicholas Lansman, ISPA Secretary General, said rights-holders should pay all the costs.

"ISPA strongly believes that the internet offers excellent opportunities for rights holders to access their target market with relevant lawful content without the significant costs associated with a non-digital environment and views today's announcement as contrary to the promotion of the digital economy," he added.

Mark Schmid, communication director for ISP TalkTalk, went further.

"I think it is outrageous that we have to pay to costs to enforce rights-holders' copyright policies," he said.

While Sebastien Lahtinen, co-founder of broadband news site ThinkBroadband welcomed the government's decision to keep the appeal mechanism free for consumers, he wasn't convinced the system would favour users.

"We do still have some concerns about the level of technical understanding a consumer may require, to effectively challenge an allegation of copyright infringement, but we hope that the system will be designed to be as accessible as possible," he said.

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