Were these articles in your newspaper?

Gang terrorizes train in France
By Marc BurleighAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEJanuary 5, 2006

PARIS -- A gang of more than 20 youths -- thought to be North African immigrants -- terrorized hundreds of train passengers in a rampage of violence, robbery and sexual assault on New Year's Day, French officials said yesterday. The five-hour-long criminal frenzy was "totally unacceptable," French President Jacques Chirac told reporters. "Those guilty will be found and punished, as they deserve." The gang of between 20 and 30 youths boarded the train, heading from Nice on the French Riviera to Lyon, in eastern France, early on Jan. 1, as it carried 600 passengers home from New Year's Eve partying overnight.
Once inside, they went wild, forcing passengers to hand over mobile phones and wallets, and slashing seats and breaking windows.
A 20-year-old woman cornered by several of the marauders was sexually molested. "It was a real scene of pillage on the train," said the regional state prosecutor, Dominique Luigi, adding that the passengers were in a state of "panic." Train staff alerted police, and the train pulled into a station to wait. The three officers who initially turned up later were joined by reinforcements. A waitress in a bar near the station said two young women from the train had come inside in tears.
"They told me there had been groping. They talked about sexual assaults. They were really traumatized," she said.
The train resumed its journey with the heavy police presence on board but, just before Marseille, the youths pulled the emergency stop and many escaped. Only three -- two 19-year-old Moroccans and a minor, all living in France -- were arrested. Both men were being held for robbery and one also was facing charges of sexual assault. The minor was to be judged separately. Three others -- a man and two boys -- were arrested briefly in Marseille but were released despite reports they were carrying a knife, a screwdriver and a small amount of hashish.Police in Nice, meanwhile, said they had escorted the group of drunken youths and put them on the train Sunday to ensure they did not cause trouble in the city.
Police said they thought the gang was part of a bigger group of 100 youths from the Marseille area who had gone to Nice and nearby seaside resorts for New Year's Eve, taking advantage of a special $1 New Year's Day train fare. News of the violence shocked France, which still was reeling from three weeks of rioting that flared in impoverished suburbs across the country in late October and early November last year.
The opposition Socialist Party said it viewed the incident with "astonishment." It said "such acts show a worrying lack of security" and questioned why it took so long for police to rescue the passengers and why so few arrests were made. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has championed hard-line security policies in France, partly blamed the state rail company SNCF for not communicating better with the police. "The problem is that law-enforcement services didn't know that there was a promotional fare going," he said.

Read Article Here

Taliban beheads educator of girls
By Noor KhanASSOCIATED PRESSJanuary 5, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Taliban militants beheaded a teacher in a central Afghan town while his wife and eight children watched, officials said yesterday, describing the latest in a string of attacks targeting educators at schools where girls study. Four men stabbed Malim Abdul Habib eight times late Tuesday before decapitating him in the courtyard of his home in Qalat, said Ali Khail, a spokesman for the provincial government of Zabul, where the attack occurred
. The assailants made Mr. Habib's wife, four sons and four daughters watch, Mr. Khail said. The children were between ages 2 and 22. No other family members were hurt. The insurgents killed Mr. Habib, 45, after he refused to go with them to meet their commander, said the victim's cousin Esanullah, who goes by only one name. The attackers fled and Mr. Habib's wife called the police, Mr. Khail said. Police are questioning three persons who were guests in the victim's home at the time. Mr. Habib was the headmaster of Sheik Mathi Baba High School, which is attended by 1,300 boys and girls.
Zabul, a remote and mountainous province populated mainly by Pashtuns and bordering Pakistan, is a hotbed of Taliban militancy. The Taliban regime, ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001, had prohibited girls from attending school as part of a widely criticized drive to establish what it considered a "pure" Islamic state.
Zabul's education director, Nabi Khushal, blamed Taliban rebels for the killing.
"Only the Taliban are against girls being educated," he said. "The Taliban often attack our teachers and beat them. But this is the first time one has been killed in this province." Hundreds of thousands of girls have returned to school since the Taliban's ouster. A UNICEF spokesman said the attacks were "incredibly worrying." "Militants are clearly trying to intimidate communities and force families not to send their girls to school," Edward Carwardine said. "We hope these incidents will not deter families. ... Fortunately, so far we have not seen a decline in girls attending." Mr. Habib's funeral yesterday was attended by hundreds of students and teachers. In the past year, Taliban insurgents occasionally have put up posters around Qalat demanding that girls schools be closed and threatening to kill teachers, Mr. Khushal said. He said 100 of the province's 170 registered schools have been closed in the past two to three years because of poor security. Of the 35,000 students attending schools in Zabul, 2,700 were girls, he said.

Read Article Here