In brief: Virginity-test doctor acquitted

CAIRO – An Egyptian military tribunal on Sunday acquitted an army doctor of a charge of public obscenity filed by a protester who claimed she was forced to undergo a virginity test while in detention.

The court denied the humiliating tests even took place, despite a ruling by another court and admissions by generals quoted by a leading rights group.

The ruling further infuriated the country’s revolutionary youth movements, who have said claims of the virginity tests were the first sign that the generals who took over from deposed President Hosni Mubarak 13 months ago were carrying on his repressive practices.

Samira Ibrahim, one of seven women who said they were forced to undergo examinations to determine if they were virgins while detained by the military a year ago, won a civilian court ruling last year that affirmed the tests were taking place at military jails and ordered they be halted.

Military prosecutors investigating her accusations brought only one individual, Dr. Ahmed Adel, to trial, and he was acquitted. The verdict cannot be appealed. The court denied that such tests were carried out.

Comics artist Moebius, 73, dies

PARIS – French comics artist Jean Giraud, known by fans from Hollywood to Japan as Moebius and the creator of unsettling, eye-opening fantasy worlds in print and on film, has died at 73.

Publishing house Dargaud announced the death in a statement and hailed “one of the greatest artists of world comic art.” France’s Europe-1 radio said he died Saturday after a long illness, according to his family, but no other details were announced.

Giraud worked on several Hollywood films including “Alien,” “Tron” and “The Fifth Element” and was a co-founder of U.S. comics magazine Heavy Metal in 1975. Born in 1938, he first found success with the “Blueberry” western series in France in the 1960s before moving into science fiction. He worked under his real name as well as the pseudonym Gir but was best known as Moebius.