A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Dutch 'shocked'by execution of woman in Iran
TEHRAN/AMSTERDAM – An Iranian-Dutch woman, arrested in Iran after taking part in demonstrations, has been hanged for drug smuggling, prompting the Netherlands to freeze official contacts.
Dutch foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal received official confirmation of the execution on Saturday of Zahra Bahrami after summoning the Iranian ambassador at The Hague following news reports.
“The minister was deeply shocked, this was an act committed by a barbaric regime. The fact that Iranian diplomats had told us just on Friday that not all legal avenues had run their course made this even more shocking,” he said.
Israel jails human rights activist
JERUSALEM – An Israeli court sentenced an Israeli-Arab human rights activist to nine years in prison yesterday after convicting him last year of spying for the Lebanese guerrilla group, Hizbullah. Amir Makhoul had confessed to the spying charge as part of a plea bargain at Haifa district court, which added a further year’s suspended sentence to the nine years.
The court dropped a separate charge carrying a much longer sentence. Makhoul had originally pleaded not guilty. – (Reuters)
Tiger first to have hip replacement
BERLIN – A tiger at an east German zoo has had a hip replacement in a world-first operation by vets from the University of Leipzig.
The eight-year-old Malaysian tiger, called Girl, had been suffering from arthritis in her right hip. Now she has been given a prosthetic hip of the kind first developed for dogs. The university says there is every chance she will take the new hip to her grave. She has a life expectancy of about 20 years. – ( Guardianservice)
Morocco unhappy with Spanish TV
RABAT – Morocco lodged a protest with the Spanish government yesterday, saying a state-owned TV channel in Spain had spread false information by reporting deployment of Moroccan army units to quell riots. Two Moroccan ministers spoke with their Spanish counterparts to express “Morocco’s indignation and to draw Spanish authorities’ attention to the perils linked to such repetitive media distortions”. – (Reuters)