It takes a lot for the French to lose patience with their ageing stars, and Brigitte Bardot was given a lot of rope. On Wednesday the free ride for her tirades against the decadence of modern society ended after two anti-racist and human rights movements announced they would take the 68-year-old to court. Her latest outburst, a book called Un Cri Dans Le Silence, attacks Islam, gays, the unemployed, teachers and illegal immigrants, and calls for a return of the guillotine. The Movement Against Racism and For the Friendship of Peoples (MRAP) and the League of Human Rights said they would sue Bardot.
■ Algeria
Hostages arrive home
Seventeen European tourists were reunited with their families in emotional scenes Wednesday after being freed from their Islamic extremist abductors deep in Algeria's Sahara desert, but there were fears for another 15 still held captive. Six Germans, 10 Austrians and one Swede were freed when Algerian troops stormed a desert hide-out of the Islamic Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, reportedly linked to the al-Qaeda network, near the Sahara's largest city of Tamanrasset. The remaining tourists were being held by a "second terrorist group", Algerian officials said.
■ Israel
Clashes erupt in Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers killed at least three Palestinians in clashes which erupted after a large armored force raided the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun early yesterday, Palestinian medical and hospital sources reported. Dozens of Israeli army tanks, armored personnel carriers and jeeps, backed by Apache attack helicopters, entered the town before dawn. The force destroyed two buildings which according to Israel were structures used by militants to fire rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, outside the Gaza Strip but not far from Beit Hanoun.
■ United States
Court decides fetus's fate
A judge postponed debate over whether a guardian should be appointed for the six-month-old fetus of a mentally disabled rape victim. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and two other groups filed a brief Tuesday, claiming such a judgment would go against a 1989 Florida Supreme Court ruling that said fetuses cannot have guardians because they are not legally people. An attorney for the ACLU said a delay could endanger the mother's life. The 22-year-old woman has lived in a nursing home since she was three. She has no family, is too disabled to speak and cannot help police find who impregnated her.
Agencies
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