World in brief: Violence quelled after deadly clash
The army restored order in the Lebanese capital Friday as mourners buried victims of a bloody student clash that took a dangerous sectarian tone, prompting leaders to appeal for calm in an effort to keep the country from sliding deeper into violence.
A rare curfew in Beirut was lifted early Friday, imposed after factions supporting the Western-backed government and Hezbollah protesters trying to bring it down turned a university campus into a battle zone a day earlier.
At least three people were killed and dozens injured after mobs faced off with homemade clubs and stones.
London
Royal voicemail hacker sentenced
A British tabloid journalist who hacked into royal officials’ voicemail was sentenced Friday to four months in prison, and his editor resigned.
The judge said he had no option but to hand a prison sentence to Clive Goodman, royal editor of the News of the World, describing his crime as “reprehensible in the extreme.”
Goodman’s accomplice, the 36-year-old private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was sentenced to six months in prison for hacking into the messages, including some from Princes William and Harry.
Shortly after the sentencing, the News of the World’s editor, Andy Coulson, announced his resignation.
Beijing
Women killed to be dead men’s wives
Police in northern China have detained three men for the deaths of two women whose corpses were to be sold as “ghost brides” to accompany dead men in the afterlife, state media said.
Authorities indicated that the killings last year were not isolated cases, the Legal Daily newspaper said on its Web site.
Yang Dongyan, 35, a farmer from Shaanxi province, said he had bought a young woman for $1,600 and planned to sell her as a bride, according to the paper.
But then he met Liu Shenghai, who told him that the woman could command a higher price as a “ghost bride,” it said. The tradition, called “minghun” or afterlife marriage, is common in the Loess Plateau region of northern China, where a recently deceased woman is buried with a bachelor to keep him company after his death.
Yang killed the woman in a ditch, bagged her body, and sold her for $2,077 to Li Longsheng, an undertaker, who said he could find a buyer, the paper said. Yang gave Liu a portion of the profits, it added.
Yang later went to the city of Yan’an and hired a prostitute he had used before, killed her and sold her for $1,000 to Li because she was “less pretty,” the paper said.
United Nations
U.N. condemns Holocaust denial
The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution Friday condemning the denial of the Holocaust, with only Iran rejecting it as an attempt by the United States and Israel to exploit the atrocity for their political interests.
The resolution, introduced by the United States and approved by consensus, “condemns without any reservation any denial of the Holocaust.”
London
Poison that killed spy was put in tea
British police have concluded that a former Russian spy was poisoned by a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210 added to his tea at a London hotel, British and American television stations reported Friday.
Investigators have identified the teapot believed to have contained the radioactive tea, which eventually killed Alexander Litvinenko in November, Sky News said, citing unnamed Scotland Yard officials. ABC News had a similar report, citing an unidentified official.
The reports also said police have identified another former Russian spy, Andrei Lugovoi, as a suspect in the murder. Sky News said British prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge him.