(So says BBC news)
Israel has agreed to change the route of the controversial barrier it is building in and around the West Bank.
The deal will leave Palestinians more land near the largest Israeli settlement, Maale Adumim.
The decision came in response to complaints lodged by Palestinians with the Israeli High Court.
The Israeli government says it will move the barrier closer to the settlement to allow 400 hectares of Palestinian land to remain untouched. Maale Adumim is built on land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state and, like all settlements, is considered illegal under international law - although Israel rejects this. The Palestinians say the barrier violates their freedom of movement and robs them of their land, while Israel says it is needed to stop militant attacks.
Controversy
Israel began building the West Bank barrier in 2002. It has been widely criticised internationally for looping into Palestinian areas around Israeli settlements, rather than following the Green Line, which marks the boundary that separates Israel from the West Bank. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the barrier is illegal where it cuts into the West Bank and called for it to be pulled down. Only two of five changes of route ordered previously by the High Court have been carried out by the Israeli government.
UK bank gets Egyptian investment
 Panmure thinks the move will provide access to new clients |
Panmure Gordon, the British stockbroker and investment bank, has announced a large Egyptian bank will buy a share in its business for £3.2m.
EFG-Hermes, Egypt's largest investment bank by market value, has agreed to acquire 9.97% of Panmure. EFG-Hermes will pay £3.2m cash for some 6.7 million new shares at 47p each.
Panmure chairman Tony Caplin said the move was a good opportunity for each company to access the other's customer base and create new business streams.
"The markets we operate in are becoming more international and the opportunities available through a business relationship with EFG-Hermes are compelling," added Mr Caplin.
EFG-Hermes' chairman, Hassan Heikel, said the purchase would strengthen its strategy to service its Middle Eastern client base. Panmure Gordon has been in operation as a corporate and institutional stockbroker and investment bank for 130 years. It has a US subsidiary, ThinkPanmure, and about 280 employees in eight cities in the UK and the US. EFG-Hermes' clients include governments, corporations and individual investors. In June 2008, it had a market capitalisation of more than $3.5bn (£1.9bn). It employs 700 people and services clients from 13 offices in the Middle East and North Africa.
Scores killed in Somali clashes
 Bakara market was also bombed on Tuesday |
At least 50 people have reportedly been killed in clashes in the Somali capital Mogadishu and the port of Kismayo.
Some 30 people have been killed in two days of fierce fighting between Islamists and a clan militia in Kismayo, a BBC reporter says. Some mortars landed near the compound of President Abdullahi Yusuf, who is currently out of the country. Another landed near a mosque in the busy Bakara market, killing at least six people, a witness told the BBC.
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At least 3,000 people are reported to have fled the fighting around Kismayo.
Witnesses say that after the mortars landed in Bakara and near the president's compound, government troops and their Ethiopian allies opened fire, killing several civilians.
One witness told the BBC that the mortar landed outside the mosque as people were preparing for prayers. He said that the wounded could not be evacuated for some time because of the horrific scenes. Ethiopian troops entered Somalia in December 2006, to oust Islamist forces from Mogadishu. Somalia has been without a functioning national government since 1991 and has suffered ongoing civil strife. The UN's World Food Programme is expanding its programme to feed 2.4 million people in Somalia by the end of the year.
Nigerian faces death for 86 wives
 Mr Bello Abubakar challenged Muslim scholars two weeks ago |
Nigeria's Islamic authority has told the man who has 86 wives to choose only four and repent within three days or else he will be sentenced to death.
The Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) passed their verdict on Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, according to Sharia law.
This comes two weeks after the Nigerian press and the BBC reported on the case. Talking to the media then, Mr Abubakar challenged Muslim scholars, saying there is no punishment stated in the Koran for having more than four wives.
However, Mr Abubakar advised other men not to follow his example and marry 86 women.
No limit
The former teacher and Muslim preacher lives in Niger State with his wives and at least 170 children, and says he is able to cope only with the help of God. "A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them," he told the BBC. Most Muslim scholars agree that a man is allowed to have four wives, as long as he can treat them equally. But Mr Bello Abubakar told the BBC: "To my understanding the Koran does not place a limit and it is up to what your own power, your own endowment and ability allows.
"God did not say what the punishment should be for a man who has more than four wives, but he was specific about the punishment for fornication and adultery." Niger is one of the Muslim majority states to have reintroduced Sharia punishments since 2000.Several people have been sentenced to death for adultery by Sharia courts but none of these sentences have been carried out.
Well, I guess it's crazy all over the dang world, huh?
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