World in brief

Muslims attack Egyptian envoy in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM - Radical Muslims attacked Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher during Monday evening prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's most revered sites and a flashpoint for Arab-Israeli violence in the heart of Jerusalem's Old City.

Enraged men lunged at Maher, pelted him with shoes - a particularly deep insult in the Muslim world - and screamed, "Traitor!" "Collaborator!" and "God is great!" Television footage showed Maher, 68, caught in a crush of bodyguards at the center of a mob. The official, who has undergone two heart bypass operations, was hospitalized briefly after he complained of a choking sensation and chest pressure.

While Maher suffered no serious injuries, the episode reflected the tensions surrounding efforts to restart peace talks as Maher has increased contacts with Israelis.

VALLEDUPAR, Colombia - Rebels released four Israelis and a Briton to a humanitarian commission Monday after holding them 101 days in the jungle-covered mountains of northern Colombia, where they endured hunger, isolation and the threat of death.

"We're free! We're free!" Mark Henderson, the British hostage, told the Associated Press by cell phone as he was flown to freedom on a helicopter. He lost 29 pounds while held captive.

Gunmen from the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, kidnapped the five along with three other foreign backpackers from archaeological ruins in the northern Sierra Nevada on Sept. 12. One of the hostages, a British teenager, escaped days later. Two other hostages - a German and a Spaniard - were released to the humanitarian commission in November.

BERLIN - In the first case of its kind in Germany, a right-wing rock band was deemed a criminal organization and its lead singer was sentenced Monday to more than three years in prison for lyrics that venerate Nazism and incite racial hatred.

A Berlin criminal court sentenced Michael Regener, 38, to 40 months in prison after a six-month trial that tested the bounds of free expression in a nation with strict laws against hate speech. The court ruled that Regener's band, Landser, is a threat to the country's Jews and millions of African and Muslim immigrants.

The band's bass player, Andre Moericke, and its drummer, Christian Wenndorff, were each sentenced to nearly two years' probation and ordered to perform 90 hours of community service. Founded in 1992 as the Final Solution, the band has been a favorite of neo-Nazis worldwide.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - An armed gang opened fire on antigovernment protesters Monday during a clash that killed one man and left President Jean-Bertrand Aristide facing growing unrest.

The gunmen were in a truck when they shot at the crowd. Riot police returned fire. It was not immediately clear who shot the man or if he was a demonstrator. Monday's demonstration was one of the largest in the capital, swelling to 10,000 people.

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - Sitting in a bulletproof glass cage, 21 suspected gang figures and members of an elite police unit went on trial Monday on charges of assassinating Serbia's pro-Western prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, on March 12 in a plot to return former President Slobodan Milosevic's allies to power.

The indictment charges 36 suspects with forming a "criminal enterprise" that attempted to topple Djindjic's government, though 15 suspects are at large and will be tried in absentia. The defendants could face up to 40 years.

PHILIPPINE MUDSLIDES: The death toll from devastating mudslides in the Philippines rose Tuesday to at least 151.

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