World news in brief...
Insurgents kill 17 policemen in India
NEW DELHI – India plans to launch a large-scale offensive against Maoist rebels in its insurgency- riddled eastern and central states, senior police officials said yesterday, against a backdrop of rising attacks.
Underscoring what prime minister Manmohan Singh has called one of the gravest threats to India’s security, Maoists killed 17 policemen in western Maharashtra state yesterday, days after they beheaded a police officer in eastern Jharkhand state. – (Reuters)
Refugees warned against return
GATUMBA, Burundi – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) told refugees in Burundi yesterday who want to return to Congo’s volatile South Kivu province that it was not ready to receive them there, a Burundian official said.
More than five million people have died in conflict in Congo since 1998.
On Tuesday, Burundian police fired in the air to stop about 2,300 ethnic Tutsi refugees crossing the border into Congo. The group has refused to move to a new camp in eastern Burundi. – (Guardian service)
Bristol Palin’s ex to pose nude
WASHINGTON – Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin’s grandchild, plans to pose for an online nude magazine.
The 19-year-old former high school hockey star and one-time partner of Palin's daughter Bristol will pose for Playgirl, an online nude magazine read by women and gay men. – (Reuters)
Party wants to outlaw burkas
MILAN – Italy’s anti- immigration Northern League party is pushing for legislation to prosecute women who cover their faces with burkas and veils.
The league, a government ally of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, wants to amend a 1975 law introduced to combat subversive groups, which punishes people covering their faces with anything preventing their identification by police. – (Reuters)
Israel and US plan defence exercise
TEL AVIV – Israel and the US will hold their biggest joint air-defence exercise next week, officials said, testing missile interceptors that would serve as a strategic bulwark in any future showdown with Iran. – (Reuters)
Arrests for internet fraud
CAIRO – Egyptian authorities have held 23 people for questioning in connection with an internet “phishing” scheme that targeted US citizens and banks, Egyptian security sources said yesterday.
The FBI said on Wednesday that a multinational inquiry had uncovered a sophisticated US-Egyptian phishing operation that fraudulently gathered personal data from thousands of people and used it to defraud US banks. – (Reuters)