Excerpt:
France's highest administrative court will on Thursday examine a request to scrap a ban on the Islamic burkini swimsuit which has sparked a furore in the country.
The Human Rights League (LDH) is appealing a decision by a lower court in the Riviera city of Nice which upheld a ban on the outfit by the town of Villeneuve-Loubet.
Villeneuve-Loubet, just west of Nice, was among the first of some 30 French towns to ban the burkini, triggering a fierce debate in France and elsewhere about the wearing of the full-body swimsuit, women's rights and secularism.