Briefly

YEMEN

Malnourishment hits 750,000 Yemeni children

SANAA | A year of turmoil in Yemen has increased the number of malnourished children under the age of 5 to about 750,000, UNICEF said Tuesday, appealing to the government and the international community to help develop the country’s infrastructure to tackle the problem.

In some parts of this country of 20 million people, the number of children suffering from malnutrition has doubled from what it was in 2000, said Maria Calivis, UNICEF director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Yemen for years has experienced localized insurgencies, and the number of displaced people has increased during the yearlong uprising against authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts.

According to UNICEF, 60 percent of internal refugees, or about 300,000, are Yemeni children.

ISRAEL

Extremist Jews attack woman

JERUSALEM | Israeli police said a group of ultra-Orthodox extremists attacked a woman who was putting up posters in a troubled town near Jerusalem.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said about a dozen ultra-Orthodox men in the town of Beit Shemesh surrounded the woman Tuesday, pelted her with stones and slashed her car’s tires. He said the woman suffered minor injuries.

Mr. Rosenfeld said it’s not clear why she was targeted. The woman was putting up posters for Israel’s national lottery at the time.

Beit Shemesh has experienced sharp tensions between ultra-Orthodox extremists and its remaining secular and modern Orthodox Jewish residents.

The recent case of an 8-year-old girl who was afraid to walk to school because extremists spat on her and cursed her attracted international attention.

EGYPT

Military ruler to lift emergency laws

Story Continues →