FBI probe into violent arrest of schoolgirl

WASHINGTON • The FBI and the US Justice Department said they have opened a civil rights investigation into the violent arrest of a black female high school student by a white police officer.

In two mobile phone videos of Monday's confrontation at a high school in Columbia, an officer has a short conversation with a girl before grabbing her by the neck, flipping her and her desk over, and dragging her along the floor.

She does not appear to put up any resistance, though Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said on Tuesday he had learnt of a third video of the incident, from a different angle, that shows the student hitting the officer.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Islamist cleric faces jail for inciting violence

JERUSALEM • An Israeli court has ordered the jailing of a firebrand Islamist cleric, whose group has been accused of inciting a wave of violence over Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Raed Salah, head of the radical northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was found guilty on appeal of inciting violence at the holy site in a 2007 speech.

His 11-month prison term is to begin on Nov 15.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Saudi Arabia executes Pakistani murderer

RIYADH • Saudi Arabia has executed a Pakistani convicted of murdering an Indonesian couple.

The interior ministry said yesterday that Amal Jan Hajji had been found guilty of killing Bambang Sukyato and his wife Suryati Widyastuti.

He broke into their home and beat them with a metal object, it said, without giving a motive for the killing.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE