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Reports: Sudan arrests UK teacher for teddy bear blasphemy

(CNN) — Sudan has arrested a British teacher for insulting faith and religion, the British Foreign Office said Monday.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, is being held by police in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and has not been charged, British officials said.

Numerous media reports say Gibbons was arrested after allowing her class of 7-year-olds to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

That could be seen as an insult to the Prophet Mohammed, the reports said.

Blasphemy is punishable with 40 lashes under Islamic Sharia law, Britain’s Press Association news agency reported.

Gibbons asked the children to pick a name for the bear as part of a lesson on animal habits at Unity High School, PA said.

A British Embassy spokesman in Khartoum was quoted as saying the naming of the bear did not cause immediate trouble.

The children chose the name because it is very common here, the spokesman told PA.

This happened in September and the parents did not have a problem with it.

Unity director Robert Boulos told Reuters news agency that Gibbons was arrested Sunday at her home on school grounds after a number of parents made a complaint to Sudan’s Ministry of Education.

He said she had since been charged with blasphemy, an offense he said was punishable with up to three months in prison and a fine, Reuters.com reported.

Gibbons left the northwestern English city of Liverpool for Sudan in July, PA said.

A family spokeswoman told the agency: I have spoken with her children and they do not want to say anything and aggravate the situation over there.

Boulos told Reuters he had decided to shut the school until January for fear of reprisals. The school on its Web site calls itself a British international school teaching children aged 4 to 18.

This is a very sensitive issue, Boulos was quoted as saying on Reuters.com.

We are very worried about her safety, he added. This was a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam. E-mail to a friend

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‘I just lost it’: Ivy League prof admits killing wife

NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania (AP) — A former Ivy League professor pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter for killing his wife as she wrapped Christmas presents last year.

Rafael Robb, once a tenured economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faces a prison sentence of no more than seven years for bludgeoning his wife, Ellen, on December 22.

Robb, 57, said Monday that he got into an argument with his wife about a trip she was taking with their daughter and whether they would be returning in time for the daughter to return to school.

We started a discussion about that. The discussion was tense, Robb said. We were both anxious about it. We both got angry. At one point, Ellen pushed me. … I just lost it.

Ellen Robb, 49, described as a stay-at-home mother who doted on their only child, died in the kitchen of their home in Upper Merion Township, outside Philadelphia.

Detectives believed the scene had been staged to look like a burglary. The murder weapon, which Robb described as an exercise bar, was not found.

The couple married in 1990 but had long been estranged, keeping separate bedrooms.

Rafael Robb apologized to his daughter and family in court Monday.

I know she liked her mother. … And now she doesn’t have a mother, he said, stifling tears. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Ferguson charged ahead of Euro tie

LONDON, England (AP) — Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was charged Monday with using abusive and insulting words towards referee Mark Clattenburg during his team’s 1-0 defeat at Bolton.

Ferguson, who faces a fine and a possible ban from the team dugout, has until December 11 to respond to the English Football Association.

The Scot was sent to the stands after verbally clashing with Clattenburg in the tunnel at halftime during Saturday’s Premier League match at the Reebok stadium.

I told him exactly what I thought and he didn’t like it, Ferguson said after the match. I told him just how bad he was in the first half. The game was becoming a shambles.

Sporting Lisbon, meanwhile, should not expect an easy ride at Old Trafford on Tuesday — even though Manchester United has already advanced to the Champions League knockout phase.

The Portuguese side needs a victory to pressure AS Roma for second spot while a win for United would put Ferguson’s side through as Group F winners and a place among the seeds for the last-16 draw on December 21.

The incentives are huge for us, United manager Alex Ferguson said Monday. If we win the group we can look forward to being seeded for next February’s knockout stage.

Sporting also stumbled over the weekend, being held 1-1 by lowly Leixoes and slipping to third place in the Portuguese first division. Brazilian forward Liedson bruised his right thigh, but is expected to play Tuesday.

United are again without Wayne Rooney who has missed two Premier League matches after injuring his ankle earlier in training on November 9 while playing head tennis.

The freak injury also ruled 22-year-old Rooney out of England’s 3-2 loss against Croatia last week, which cost the team a spot in the European Championship.

Rooney is still not fit, hopefully he will be ready for next Monday’s game against Fulham, Ferguson said. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Mideast chiefs to meet Bush ahead of summit

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Israeli and Palestinian leaders will meet with President Bush at the White House on Monday ahead of a Mideast summit that’s aimed at kick-starting the stalled Mideast peace process.

More than 40 countries, including a wide array of Arab nations such as Syria and Saudi Arabia, will be represented at Tuesday’s conference in Annapolis, Maryland.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met first with Bush at the White House Monday, explaining to reporters that this visit was different because we’re going to have lots of participants involved.

I hope we’re going to launch a serious process of negotiations between us and the Palestinians, said Olmert. This will be a bilateral process but the international support is very important. Watch Bush respond to Olmert’s comment

After separate meetings with Bush, Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will attend a dinner hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Bush is expected to speak at the State Department dinner.

The Bush administration is hoping the conference will trigger final status talks on major issues such as Jerusalem and Israeli borders. U.S. officials are looking for a commitment by the Palestinians and Israelis to carry out previous agreements linked to the so-called road map plan for Mideast peace.

Administration officials also said they hoped the summit would lead toward the strengthening of the Palestinian government’s infrastructure after the recent split between Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas.

The talks come amid domestic distractions for both Olmert’s government and that of President Abbas. Abbas has been involved in a political power struggle against Gaza-based leaders of Hamas, a group which Israel considers terrorist and which opposes the Jewish state.

Palestinian protesters, anxious about possible concessions by the Abbas delegation have taken to the streets with demonstrations.

Olmert’s administration has been plagued by low approval ratings in opinion polls in the wake of Israel’s 2006 war against Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants.

Syria and Saudi Arabia agreed to attend the conference just days ago after a push from the Arab League, which agreed to participate following a meeting on Friday. The Syrian decision to send its deputy foreign minister comes less than three months after Israeli warplanes attacked a site in Syria reported to be a facility linked to nuclear weapons.

Israel accuses Syria of helping Palestinian militants who oppose Israel’s existence. It says Damascus is helping Iran and its anti-Israel policy.

Like Iran, Syria is listed on the U.S. State Department’s roster of State Sponsors of Terrorism along with Cuba, North Korea and Sudan.

On Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the conference will draw a line between moderates and extremists in the Arab world. There will be those who are here, those who support the process, and there will be those who are shouting — Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, she said. They will be on the outside trying to stop this conference from happening.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat agreed that no magic stick would emerge from the 24-hour meeting in Annapolis, but he said it would provide the basis for talks that should begin the day after Tuesday’s meeting.

I think the most important thing today is [the] 28th of November, the day after Annapolis, Erakat said. Palestinians and Israelis will stand next to each other and announce that they are launching the permanent status negotiations, deciding to put a work plan for the negotiations and to carry out their obligations emanating from the road map.

Erakat told CNN that his team is open to discussing land swaps, meaning that if Israel takes parts of the West Bank, then the Palestinian Authority could take parts of Israel for a future state.

Tuesday will be the main event, a full — and likely long — day of meetings. On Wednesday, the president again will meet the Israelis and Palestinians at the White House.

Rice described the final U.S. push for the conference, persuading the Israelis and Palestinians to move past a demand for a new document before the conference and leap ahead to these new negotiations.

It’s hard in something this complex to just have principles, Rice explained. The devil is in the detail. You might as well get to the detail and that is what they are going to do.

The main thrust of the Annapolis talks will be establishment of an independent Palestinian state — the two-state solution. But other huge issues related to regional peace are expected to surface, especially since long-time Israeli foes, Syria and Saudi Arabia and others, will attend.

Assistant Secretary of State David Welch told reporters last week that everyone would have the opportunity to speak at Annapolis. We will not turn the microphone off for anyone, he said.

Rice also stressed the importance of Palestinian leadership, especially Abbas.

He brings to this a bedrock commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state not born of violence or terrorism, Rice said. No one questions that he is someone who believes in a nonviolent negotiated solution. And I frankly don’t think that was ever true of Yasser Arafat. He was someone who had one foot in politics and one foot in terror.
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Dutch man to face judge in Holloway case

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) — A Dutch man who has been transferred from Netherlands to Aruba to face charges in the suspected death of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway will go before a judge in a closed hearing Monday afternoon.

The judge in the Caribbean island territory will determine if there is enough evidence against Joran van der Sloot, 20, to hold him for eight days, per Aruban law.

With a judge’s approval, suspects can be detained eight days while investigators develop their case.

Van der Sloot’s jail time began Wednesday, the day he and two other men were re-arrested in the case, which has been ongoing since Holloway’s disappearance in May 2005. Watch how the case is heating up

The prosecutor’s office in Aruba says it will request van der Sloot be held for a second eight-day stretch.

Van der Sloot, the son of a judge in Aruba, was attending college in Netherlands when a Dutch court OK’d his transfer to Aruba, a Dutch territory, to face charges. He was flown Friday to Aruba with a police escort.

Van der Sloot was bitterly surprised by the charges, said one of his attorneys after the arrest.

Van der Sloot and two men from Suriname — brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 24, and Satish Kalpoe, 21 — were allegedly the last people seen with Holloway after she left a bar in Aruba. View a timeline of the case

A judge in Aruba ruled Friday that authorities can continue to hold the Kalpoes for eight more days.

They are charged with involvement in the voluntary manslaughter of Natalee Holloway or causing serious bodily harm to Natalee Holloway, resulting in her death.

Van der Sloot and the Kalpoes have maintained their innocence.

Aruba’s chief prosecutor said Friday that there is enough evidence to prove Natalee Holloway is dead — even if the Alabama teenager’s remains are never found.

There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s dead, said Hans Mos. I think we have enough evidence to prove the girl is not alive anymore, even without a body.

Mos further explained that Aruban law does not require a body to prove someone is dead and any day that passes now is just more evidence that she is not alive anymore.

Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were arrested in the case in 2005, but a court released them, citing insufficient evidence.

In the recent investigation, advanced techniques were used to re-examine existing information, including cell phone records and text messages exchanged the night Holloway disappeared, Mos said.

Investigators also returned to the homes of the suspects to try to re-create transmissions.

The team also discovered that some existing evidence was improperly analyzed, Mos added.

When she disappeared, Holloway was on vacation with about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School near Birmingham, Alabama.

Van der Sloot and the Kalpoes were the last people seen with Holloway as she left Carlos’n Charlie’s nightclub in Oranjestad, Aruba, about 1:30 a.m. on May 30, 2005. The men have maintained they had nothing to do with her disappearance. She has not been found.

Holloway’s high school group had planned to leave Aruba the next day, and Holloway’s packed bags and passport were found in her hotel room after she failed to show up for her flight.

The Kalpoes have told police they dropped Holloway and van der Sloot off near a lighthouse on the northern tip of the island after they left the nightclub.

Van der Sloot’s mother, Anita, has said her son told her he was on the beach with Holloway but left her there because she wanted to stay.

She said Friday she had no comment on her son’s latest arrest.

Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, said her ex-husband, Dave Holloway, has hired divers who will use sonar equipment from a benefactor to search for the girl’s remains in deep water surrounding the Caribbean island.

Aruba’s criminal justice system is based on Dutch law and the Napoleonic code, legal experts say.

In Aruba, authorities can make an arrest if they have reasonable suspicion that someone knows about or is involved in a crime. Magistrates investigate cases, and judges determine a suspect’s guilt or innocence. There are no jury trials.
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