World In Brief

Orthodox Jews attack woman

ISRAEL: A mob of ultra-Orthodox Jews attacked a young woman in her car in the town of Beit Shemesh on Tuesday — apparently because they thought her clothes were too revealing.

Natali Mashiah said that the assailiants smashed her car windows and punctured her car tyres before pouring bleach inside the car.

Ms Mashiah said she was hit in the head with a stone as she made her escape.

Five people have been arrested for alleged involvement in the incident and police are still searching for others.

Minister calls for end to resistance

LIBYA: The defence minister met tribal leaders in Bani Walid today in a bid to convince them to end their armed resistance to the new Western-backed regime.

Abdul Azziz al-Jmaili, a member of the new local council that was appointed after regime officials were forced out, said: “The minister came here today and we are speaking to him to find a solution to this problem.”

He reported that militiamen loyal to the new regime were gathering around the town.

Paedophile priest appears in court

IRELAND: A defrocked Irish priest who was extradited from Brazil with British help has appeared in a Dublin court charged with 55 counts of sexually abusing 18 children.

The judge ordered 72-year-old Peter Kennedy to be held without bail today in Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison until his next court appearance on February 8.

Mr Kennedy fled to England in 2002 after his accusers told police he had molested them between 1968 and 1984.

Nine men killed in hostage rescue

SOMALIA: US special forces killed nine Somalian men today as they tried to rescue two Western aid workers who had been held hostage in the war-torn impoverished country since they were kidnapped in October.

The commandos bundled US citizen Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted into their helicopters and flew them to the US Camp Lemonnier military base in Djibouti.

Minister: ‘reforms are irreversible’

INDIA: Visiting Myanmarese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin declared today that the transition from military rule to liberal representative democracy in his country will be gradual and systematic.

“The reform process that we have started is irreversible,” Mr Lwin said in New Delhi during a trip to meet Indian leaders. “There will be no turning back or derailment on the road to democracy.”

Myanmar’s elected government has bolstered civil rights and released hundreds of political prisoners since it took office last March. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is now a candidate in parliamentary elections.

Genocide law hits freedom of speech

FRANCE: A Bill passed by the senate on Monday would violate freedom of expression by making it a criminal offence to publicly question events termed as “genocide” under French law, Amnesty International has warned.

The new Bill would impose up to a one-year jail sentence and/or a €45,000 (£37,000) fine on anyone found guilty of “outrageously” questioning or trivialising such events.

Amnesty said the law “would have a chilling effect on public debate and contravene France’s international obligations to uphold freedom of expression.”

Steel workforce to be decimated

CZECH REPUBLIC: ArcelorMittal bosses announced on Tuesday that they intend to lay off 630 of the 6,000-strong workforce at their steel plant in Ostrava in order to “improve worker productivity.”

ArcelorMittal Ostrava spokeswoman Vera Breiova said: “The number of 630 is not definitive, the process is still underway. The plan covers both blue and white collar workers of all ages.”

Ms Breiova went on to blame “the uncertain situation currently dominating the European steel market.”

Government part nationalises gas

BOLIVIA: Energy Minister Juan Jose Sosa reported on Tuesday that the government has taken over Pan American Energy’s 25 per cent share in one of the country’s biggest natural gas fields.

Mr Sosa said that Pan American Energy’s shares would be transferred to Bolivia’s state-owned hydrocarbons company as it had not handed over £1 billion worth it promised in investment money.