Jewish settlers attack village in West Bank
JALOUD, West Bank – Masked Jewish settlers burst into a school Wednesday, vandalizing cars and torching olive trees during a rampage that forced schoolchildren to remain locked in classrooms to keep safe, residents of a Palestinian village in the West Bank said.
Fawzi Ali, a teacher at the school in Jaloud, said the settlers entered the village and began throwing stones. He said teachers locked classroom doors to protect the school’s 175 students as the doors were pelted.
The settlers smashed the windshields of several cars outside, and then lit a fire that burned through a nearby olive grove.
Jaloud is next to a hard-line Jewish settlement outpost.
Saudia women seek talks on driving ban
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi women on the ultraconservative kingdom’s top advisory council have called for a discussion on the sensitive issue of allowing women to drive, a move that could embolden reformers pushing to lift the ban.
The official request was made this week to the head of the Shura Council, council member Latifa al-Shaalan said, to address all “excuses” raised to keep women from driving since Islamic law and Saudi traffic laws do not forbid it.
Saudi law does not explicitly prohibit them from driving, but religious edicts by senior and influential clerics are enforced by the police, effectively banning it. Authorities do not issue driving licenses to women.
Associated Press
