A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Polish reporter arrested in Belarus
MINSK/WARSAW – The Belarus correspondent of a Polish newspaper has been arrested on charges of slandering and insulting President Alexander Lukashenko, a Polish non-governmental organisation said.
A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also criticised the arrest of Andrzej Poczobut, saying he had been held while on the way to meet an EU delegation in Minsk.
Poczobut, who writes for the Gazeta Wyborcza, was detained last Wednesday and charged with the offences on Saturday, the Union of Poles in Belarus said. – (Reuters)
Eta suspects fire at checkpoint police
PARIS – Two suspected members of Basque separatist group Eta fired at French police as they sped through a checkpoint yesterday in the Creuse region of central France, injuring one officer, a regional official said.
The suspects – a couple in a car – fled the scene and vanished after abandoning their vehicle, Creuse prefect Claude Serra said.
Eta, which has killed more than 850 people in half a century of struggle for an independent Basque state, has been weakened by a string of arrests and arms seizures in Spain, France and Portugal. – (Reuters)
WikiLeaks soldier's detention criticised
NEW YORK – More than 250 of the US’s most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his “degrading and inhumane conditions” are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.
The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be the US’s foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He said he signed the letter because Pte Manning appeared to have been treated in a way that “is not only shameful but unconstitutional”. – (Guardian service)