World news in brief

POLAND: MPs voted to permanently enshrine austerity in their national law today.

President Bronislaw Komorowski will now be allowed to ratify the EU's fiscal compact, which places harsh spending limits on public spending and borrowing.

Parliament is currently debating when to adopt the euro. Officials say they should meet all the conditions by 2015 but will wait until it best suits the county's interests, so it's unlikely to happen any time soon.

Leaders scramble to find new PM

TUNISIA: Political leaders were desperately scrambling to find a new prime minister today following Hamadi Jebali's resignation.

Ruling Ennahda Party head Rached Ghannouchi said he expected a new government to emerge in the coming week.

Mr Jebali stepped down on Tuesday after failing to win support for his plan to appoint a technocratic government to oversee elections.

Sex harassment law

EGYPT: The Justice Ministry is drafting a new law to combat sexual harassment in workplaces and homes, an official said today.

State-run Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Omar al-Sherif as saying the law would clearly define harassment and spell out the sentences for the crime.

Sexual harassment has been thrown into the spotlight in Egypt thanks to high-profile public attacks.

Nato chief retires

US: General John Allen passed up promotion as Nato's Europe commander and retired from the military on Tuesday.

The outgoing Nato Afghanistan commander was recently cleared of misconduct in an illicit email scandal.

Drivers back to work

US: New York City school bus drivers returned to work today after a month-long strike affecting 152,000 children.

The drivers and assistants called off their January 16-launched stoppage after leading mayoral candidates promised to address their concerns if elected.

Ex-president to be tried over murder

UKRAINE: First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin said today that his office had collected enough evidence to try former president Leonid Kuchma for involvement in the murder of an investigative journalist.

Heorhiy Gongadze was kidnapped in September 2000 and his decapitated body was found in a forest several months later.

Vigilantes free last captives

MEXICO: Armed vigilantes released the last of the 42 captives they had been holding for crimes ranging from theft to murder, officials said today.

Officials said 20 were handed over to police on Tuesday while the others were released as the vigilantes thought they'd been punished enough.

Masked locals fed up with rampant crime arrested around 53 people in January.

Maoist guerillas storm plantation

PHILIPPINES: More than 100 Maoist guerillas stormed one of the world's largest pineapple plantations today, killing a guard and burning farm equipment in their biggest attack of the year.

Shortly before the attack the rebels held up a police patrol stealing weapons.

The rebels said the attack on the Del Monte site was retaliation against the company's refusal to stop expanding the plantation.

3 arrested over girls' murders

INDIA: Police arrested three men in the western state of Maharashtra today in connection with the rape and murder of three schoolgirls.

The six, nine and 11-year-old sisters left their home looking for their mother last Thursday.

The girls' bodies were later found dumped in a well.

Smuggler sentenced

INDONESIA: A court sentenced a 20-year-old Afghan man to six years in prison today for smuggling asylum-seekers to Australia.