By ELAINE GANLEY

Protests in Pakistan, al-Qaida warnings, skittish Muslim tourists: France’s plan to do away with burqa-style veils is already reverberating far beyond its borders.

A bill to outlaw face veils, aimed at upholding French republican values, is expected to win Senate approval this month. If it passes this key hurdle, French diplomats will face a tough task ensuring the ban doesn’t alienate governments, deter devout foreign shoppers loaded with cash, or provoke Islamist terrorists.

It’s a complex challenge for a country that works relentlessly to preserve its global diplomatic influence, its cherished secular ideals, and its status as the world’s top tourist destination.

Ensuring gender equality, woman’s dignity and security are the official reasons France wants to outlaw Islamic veils, most often worn as “niqabs” that hide all but the eyes. Authorities insist the global ban which would include visiting foreigners is not anti-Muslim.

But that message has failed to convince some governments, be they Western or France’s traditional Arab allies, or trickle down to moneyed travelers who swarm Paris’ so-called Golden Triangle, a high-priced shopping district centered around the Champs-Elysees.

That some other European countries like Belgium are considering similar legislation and Muslim countries like Syria and Egypt have instituted their own limited bans on face veils may help bolster the French argument, but not win the debate.

“When you’re a tourist, you want to go to places you feel you are welcome,” said Dalal Saif of Oman, a sultanate bordering Saudi Arabia, during a three-week summer visit to France.

Saif, whose work is tied to the oil industry, spent hours one day with his family selecting perfumes and cosmetics by the bagful at a Champs-Elysees store.

”If they feel unwelcome, France will lose this kind of revenue,” he said, adding that such a measure ”infringes on (France’s) image as custodians, protectors of liberties.”

The number of visitors to Paris from the oil-rich Middle East was up nearly 30 percent in the first half of 2010 compared to last year, according to the Paris Tourism and Congress Office.

”I can see that many families will actually change destinations because of this,” said Saif, standing by his young daughter, black-robed but bare-faced sister, and wife wearing a chartreuse head scarf.

Many Muslim tourists who wear face veils at home shed them for European vacations, instead donning stylish, often brightly colored headscarves, sometimes paired with big sunglasses.

But that choice doesn’t erase a sense that France is offending followers of Islam with its proposed veil ban.

”My family is asking me ‘why do you want to go there? They don’t like us.”’ said Maryam Saeed, a 40-year-old mother of four who works in school administration in Dubai.

”They are taking it religiously, like it shows that in France they don’t like Muslims or we’re not welcome here,” said Saeed, covered in a black abaya cloaking her head but not her face, as she emerged from a shopping spree at the Paris department store Galeries Lafayette.

So far, foreign governments are either silent over the proposed veil ban, divided or unfavorable, said Joseph Maila, who heads a year-old division at the French Foreign Ministry devoted to religious issues.

Some of France’s closest allies, Britain and the United States, both with large Muslim populations, are among those who publicly disagree with Paris.

On the veil, ”the world isn’t black and white,” said Maila, ”it’s gray.”

Moderate Muslim leaders in France and elsewhere agree that Islam does not require women to cover their faces, but many are uncomfortable with banning the veil. Scores of religious leaders have denounced the measure, and are struggling with what to advise the faithful.

Sheik Aedh al-Garni, a popular cleric in Saudi Arabia, responding to a query from a Saudi woman in France, said in a July pronouncement that facing an official ban on the veil, ”it is better for the Muslim woman to reveal her face” to avoid ”harassment or harm.”

Saudi Arabia adheres to a strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam with women required to veil themselves in public, so the advice by al-Garni, who is widely read, was notable.

But there have been dissenting voices like that of Mohammed al-Nujemi, a Saudi professor at the Institute of Judicial and Islamic Studies: He told women to stay home.

Traveling needlessly to a non-Muslim country ”is not permissible according to the Shariah,” or Islamic law, he told the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV network.

The Saudi government, which has defense and business ties with French companies, is among ‘’silent states” that prefer to say nothing about France’s veil bill for diplomatic reasons, said Maila, the Foreign Ministry official.

Opposition is strongest in Pakistan, where there have been demonstrations against the measure.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s defense minister says a slowdown in West Bank settlement construction is unlikely to continue in its current form after it expires at the end of this month.

But Ehud Barak says he does not believe Israel will entirely cancel the 10-month curbs. Barak appeared to be leaving room for a compromise that might allow the Palestinians to continue the fragile direct negotiations that began in Washington last week.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he warned Netanyahu last week he will leave the talks if Israel doesn’t extend the slowdown.

Barak noted that Israel had permitted limited construction in settlements during the slowdown and he expects some construction to continue after the Sept. 26 deadline.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he has warned Israel’s prime minister that he’ll quit peace talks unless Israel extends a curb on settlement construction.

Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched negotiations at a summit in Washington last week.

A 10-month freeze on settlement housing ends Sept. 26, and Netanyahu is under pressure from hardline allies to resume construction.

Netanyahu has not said what he will do. He told his Cabinet on Sunday that creative solutions are needed to make the talks succeed.

However, Abbas told PLO activists in Libya late Saturday that “if the freeze period is not extended by the end of the month, there will be no negotiations.” Abbas says he made that clear to Netanyahu.

SEOUL: North Korea said on Saturday it was willing to return to nuclear disarmament talks and signaled satisfaction that a U.N. Security Council statement did not directly blame it for the sinking of a South Korean warship.

China, the North’s sole key ally, urged regional powers to put the navy ship sinking behind them and return to the negotiating table to end a cycle of confrontation that has raised security tensions to new heights since late March.

On Friday, the Security Council condemned the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March that killed 46 sailors but stopped short of directly blaming North Korea, an outcome hailed by Pyongyang’s U.N. ambassador as “a great diplomatic victory.”

Six-way nuclear talks involving North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China have been in limbo since 2007 and a 2005 disarmament deal appeared to lose relevance when Pyongyang tested a long-range missile and a nuclear device.

“The DPRK will make consistent efforts for the conclusion of a peace treaty and the denuclearization through the six-party talks conducted on equal footing,” the North’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said in comments carried by the KCNA news agency.

“We take note of the … statement saying that ‘the Security Council encourages the settlement of outstanding issues on the Korean Peninsula by peaceful means to resume direct dialogue and negotiation through appropriate channels’,” it added.

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into an Iraqi army check point in western Baghdad, killing six people and injuring 20 on Friday morning, officials said.

Police and hospital officials said three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians were killed in the early morning attack that occurred when the bomber detonated a car bomb in the Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliyah.

Officials said 20 people were also wounded in the blast and taken to Baghdad’s Yarmouk hospital.

Friday’s attack comes after almost 70 people were killed in suicide bombings and roadside bombs yesterday.

UNITED NATIONS: Diplomats say the UN Security Council is set to approve a statement condemning a deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors, but the declaration stops short of directly blaming North Korea.

The council scheduled a meeting Friday morning where diplomats said the statement will be read.

After more than a month of closed-door discussions, the United States announced Thursday that the five permanent council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — as well as South Korea and Japan had reached agreement on the text.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice introduced the draft statement to the 15-member council at a closed meeting late Thursday.

Presidential statements must be approved by the full council and diplomats said there was no opposition, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

While presidential statements don’t have the clout of resolutions, they do become part of the Security Council’s record.

A South Korean-led international investigation that included experts from five other nations concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank the the 1,200-ton Cheonan on March 26.

South Korea sent a letter to the council on June 4 asking the U.N.’s most powerful body to respond to the sinking “in a manner appropriate to the gravity of North Korea’s military provocation.”

South Korea had wanted the council to condemn the North. But China, the North’s closest ally and a veto-wielding council member, opposed a third round of sanctions against North Korea or direct condemnation for the sinking.

The draft statement “condemns the attack” and expresses “deep concern” over the investigation’s findings that North Korea was to blame.

It calls for “appropriate and peaceful measures to be taken against those responsible.”

NEW YORK: In the biggest spy swap since the Cold War, 10 Russian agents who infiltrated suburban America were deported in exchange for four people convicted of betraying Moscow to the West.

The spies left New York for Moscow hours after pleading guilty to conspiracy in a Manhattan courtroom and being sentenced to time served and ordered out of the country, said a law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record.

The spy swap carries significant consequences for efforts between Washington and Moscow to repair ties chilled by a deepening atmosphere of suspicion.

The U.S. defendants were captured last week in homes across the Northeast. They were accused of embedding themselves in ordinary American life while leading double lives complete with false passports, secret code words, fake names, invisible ink and encrypted radio.

One spy worked for an accounting firm, another was a real-estate agent, another a columnist for a Spanish-language newspaper.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the “extraordinary” case took years of work, “and the agreement we reached today provides a successful resolution for the United States and its interests.” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said on PBS’ “NewsHour” that President Barack Obama was aware of the investigation, the decision to go forward with the arrests and the spy swap with Russia.

Whether the agents provided Russia with valuable secret information is questionable.

“None of the people involved from my understanding provided any information that couldn’t be obtained on the Internet,” defendant Anna Chapman’s attorney, Robert Baum, told The Associated Press.

In Russia, the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree pardoning four convicted foreign spies so that they can be exchanged for the 10 U.S. defendants.

The Kremlin statement carried by the Russian news agencies says that Medvedev has pardoned Russian citizens Alexander Zaporozhsky, Gennady Vasilenko, Sergei Skripal and Igor Sutyagin.

Sutyagin, an arms analyst, was reportedly plucked from a Moscow prison and put on a plane to Vienna. Skripal is a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence, and Zaporozhsky is a former colonel in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement saying that the exchange being conducted by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service and the CIA was conducted in the context of “overall improvement of the U.S.-Russian ties and giving them new dynamics.”

An Obama administration official said the quick and pragmatic arrangement of the spy swap with Russia speaks to the progress that has been made in U.S.-Russian relations.

The senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the deal, said that by shutting down the spy operation, the U.S. sent a warning to other governments that might be interested in undertaking similar spy operations.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a letter Thursday that some of the four prisoners are in poor health and had served lengthy prison terms. Three of the four were accused by Russia of contacting Western intelligence agencies while they were working for the Russian or Soviet government, the letter stated.

The 10 suburban spies pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country and were ordered deported. An 11th defendant has been a fugitive since fleeing authorities in Cyprus following his release on bail.

One defendant’s attorney said a private plane had been expected to take the 10 to Russia. The attorney, John Rodriguez, said his client, Vicky Pelaez, had been given only 24 hours to say yes or no to the “all or nothing” deal for deportation.

The defendants — led into court in handcuffs, some in prison smocks and some wearing T-shirts and jeans, provided almost no information about what kind of spying they actually did for Russia. Asked to describe their crimes, each acknowledged having worked for Russia secretly, sometimes under an assumed identity, without registering as a foreign agent.

One, Andrey Bezrukov, smiled and waved to a supporter in the audience and had an animated conversation with another, Elena Vavilova. Vladimir and Lydia Guryev, who lived in the United States as a couple under the aliases Richard and Cynthia Murphy, sat side-by-side but didn’t speak.

Pelaez’s two sons were among the children of the accused spies in court. A lawyer for her husband said the children would have the option of going to Russia with their parents or staying in the U.S.

BAGHDAD: At least 12 people were killed Thursday by bombs targeting pilgrims taking part in the final day of a Shiite religious holiday that draws hundreds of thousands of people to Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

The deaths came one day after nearly 60 people were killed in violence in and around the Iraqi capital, most of them by a suicide bomber who targeted pilgrims heading to a mosque in northern Baghdad to mark the anniversary of the death of a revered Shiite figure.

While violence in Iraq has

NEZUK, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Over 5,000 people are starting a 68 mile (110 kilometer) march along mountain paths in Bosnia to commemorate the Srebrenica massacre.

The marchers started from the northeast Bosnian village of Nezuk on Thursday and will walk into Srebrenica Sunday morning for the ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the slaughter. A mass funeral will be held for almost 800 victims that were excavated from mass graves.

Srebrenica was a U.N. protected area besieged by Serb forces throughout the 1992-95 war. But U.N. troops there offered no resistance when the Serbs overran the town, rounded its Muslim Bosnian population and killed over 8,000 men and boys.

Over 15,000 people escaped by walking through the woods to government territory.

SIRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, the authorities continue with an indefinite curfew in Srinagar and other major cities and towns Thursday to prevent people from holding protest demonstrations against the recent killing of protesters by Indian troops.

A senior police officer told media men in Srinagar that there would be no relaxation in the indefinite curfew that was imposed on Wednesday.

“People are advised to remain indoors and come out only in case of an emergency after contacting the police in their areas,” he said.

Reports from Sopore, Baramulla, Kupwara, Handwara, Islamabad, Koimoh, Pulwama and Kakpora towns said that curfew was being strictly enforced.

All scheduled examinations to be held by the Kashmir University as well as various professional exams by the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission have been postponed.

Indian army, in a show of power, had conducted flag in Srinagar Sopore and Baramulla on Wednesday.

That argument may no longer hold.

Today, Turkey is a fast-rising economic power, with a core of internationally competitive companies turning the youthful nation into an entrepreneurial hub, tapping cash-rich export markets in Russia and the Middle East while attracting billions of investment dollars in return.

For many in aging and debt-weary Europe, which will be lucky to eke out a little more than 1 percent growth this year, Turkey’s economic renaissance — last week it reported a stunning 11.4 percent expansion for the first quarter, second only to China — poses a completely new question: who needs the other one more — Europe or Turkey?

It is an astonishing transformation for an economy that just 10 years ago had a budget deficit of 16 percent of gross domestic product and inflation of 72 percent. It is one that lies at the root of the rise to power of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has combined social conservatism with fiscally cautious economic policies to make his Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., the most dominant political movement in Turkey since the early days of the republic.

So complete has this evolution been that Turkey is now closer to fulfilling the criteria for adopting the euro — if it ever does get into the European Union — than most of the troubled economies already in the euro zone. It is well under the 60 percent ceiling on government debt (49 percent of G.D.P.) and could well get its annual budget deficit below the 3 percent benchmark next year. That leaves the reduction of inflation, now running at 8 percent, as the only remaining major policy goal.

“This is a dream world,” said Husnu M. Ozyegin, who became the richest man in Turkey when he sold his bank, Finansbank, to the National Bank of Greece in 2006. Sitting on the rooftop of his five-star Swiss Hotel, he was looking at his BlackBerry, scrolling down the most recent credit-default spreads for euro zone countries. He still could not quite believe what he was seeing.

Having sold at the top to Greece, Mr. Ozyegin is now putting his money to work in the east. His new bank, Eurocredit, gets 35 percent of its profit from its Russian operations.

Mr. Ozyegin represents the old guard of Turkey’s business elite that has embraced the Erdogan government for its economic successes. Less well known but just as important to Turkey’s future development has been the rapid rise of socially conservative business leaders who, under the A.K.P., have seen their businesses thrive by tapping Turkey’s flourishing consumer and export markets.

Whether he is embracing Islam as a set of principles to govern his life or Israeli irrigation technology for his sideline almond and walnut growing business, Mr. Ak represents the flexible dynamism — both social and economic — that has allowed Turkey to expand the commercial ties with Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria that now underpin its ambition to become the dominant political actor in the region.

Other prominent members of this newer group of business executives are Mustafa Latif Topbas, the chairman and a founder of the discount-shopping chain BIM, the country’s fastest-growing retail chain, and Murat Ulker, who runs the chocolate and cookie manufacturer Yildiz Holding.

In June, Turkish exports grew by 13 percent compared with the previous year, with much of the demand coming from countries on Turkey’s border or close to it, like Iraq, Iran and Russia. With their immature manufacturing bases, they are eager buyers of Turkish cookies, automobiles and flat-screen televisions.

This year, for example, the country’s flagship carrier, Turkish Airlines, will fly to as many cities in Iraq (three) as it does to France. Some of its fastest growing routes are to Libya, Syria and Russia, Turkey’s largest trading partner, where it flies to seven cities. That is second only to Germany, which has a large population of immigrant Turks.

In Iran, Turkish companies are building fertilizer plants, making diapers and female sanitary products. In Iraq, the Acarsan Group, based in the southeastern town of Gaziantep, just won a bid to build five hospitals. And Turkish construction companies have a collective order book of over $30 billion, second only to China.

On the flip side, the Azerbaijani government owns Turkey’s major petrochemicals company and Saudi Arabia has been a big investor in the country’s growing Islamic finance sector.

No one here disputes that these trends give Mr. Erdogan the legitimacy — both at home and abroad — to lash out at Israel and to cut deals with Iran over its nuclear energy, moves that have strained ties with its chief ally and longtime supporter, the United States. (Turkey has exported $1.6 billion worth of goods to Iran and Syria this year, $200 million more than to the United States.)

“The foreign policy of Turkey is good if it brings self-pride,” said Ferda Yildiz, the chairman of Basari Holding, a conglomerate that itself is in negotiations with the Syrian government to set up a factory in Syria that would make electricity meters.

Even so, he warns that it would be a mistake to become too caught up in an eastward expansion if it comes at the expense of the country’s longstanding inclination to look to the West for innovation and inspiration.

“It takes centuries to make relations and minutes to destroy them,” he said.