Shaken Egypt enacts new sex-crime law

CAIRO -- Egypt's new president ordered a crackdown on sexual harassment Tuesday after a string of assaults against women who were celebrating his inauguration.

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi also called for the decisive implementation of a new law that makes sexual harassment punishable by up to five years in prison, a presidential spokesman said.

Several women were assaulted during Sunday's inaugural festivities -- including a mass attack on a 19-year-old student and her mother in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Sexual harassment has long been a problem in Egypt, but assaults have increased in ferocity and in number in the three years since the ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

El-Sissi described sexual harassment as an "alien phenomenon" in Egypt and called for the restoration of the "real and moral" values of the country's streets, his spokesman, Ehab Badawi, said in a statement.

The president instructed Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of police, to do whatever it takes to bring the situation under control, and to honor a policeman who went to the teenager's rescue.

The Interior Ministry has arrested seven suspects ages 15 to 49, three of whom have been charged with sexual assault under the threat of force and attempted rape, chief prosecutor Hesham Barakat said. A statement from his office said they would immediately be put on trial.

Subway walkout in Brazil over for now

SAO PAULO -- Striking subway workers went back to work in Sao Paulo on Tuesday, but the union warned it could walk off the job again Thursday -- the day the city hosts the opening match of Brazil's World Cup -- if 42 workers fired over the strike are not returned to their posts.

Union members voted Monday night to temporarily suspend the strike they began last week over pay and benefits, but also decided they would take a new vote today to determine whether to resume the work stoppage Thursday.

Meanwhile, a union representing subway workers in Rio de Janeiro said its members also would vote on whether to strike.

The actions are a severe threat for World Cup fans because the subways in both cities are being counted on as the main way for spectators to get to the stadiums.

A Sao Paulo labor court over the weekend fined the union $175,000 for the first four days of the strike and said it would add $220,000 for each additional day the work stoppage continued.

Colombia talking peace with No. 2 rebels

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The government of President Juan Manuel Santos and Colombia's No. 2 rebel group announced Tuesday that they have initiated a peace process.

A statement published on the Colombian presidency's website Tuesday said exploratory talks with the National Liberation Army began in January and that the agenda will include "victims and the participation of society. The other topics remain to be agreed upon."

Publication of the brief six-point statement comes five days before presidential elections in which Santos is seeking re-election against Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, the chosen candidate of hard-line former President Alvaro Uribe.

Santos' government has been engaged in peace talks with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia since November 2012, and the fate of those talks hangs in the balance in Sunday's election.

Zuluaga has not guaranteed that he would continue the negotiations and he, like Uribe, has been highly critical of what he calls the "impunity" that Santos would allegedly offer rebel leaders as part of a pact. Santos denies any such offer has been made.

Moderate Muslim leader slain in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Gunmen shot and killed a moderate Muslim leader Tuesday, an official said, the fourth prominent Muslim to be shot dead in the coastal city of Mombasa in two years.

Sheik Mohamed Idris, the chairman of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, was shot as he left his home for a mosque early in the morning. A Mombasa police commander, Henry Ondiek, said neither the motive nor the killers' identities were known.

Human-rights activists have accused the government of being behind a string of killings of Muslim leaders. Sheik Aboud Rogo Mohammed was killed in August 2012. Sheik Ibrahim Ismael was killed in October 2013. In April gunmen shot and killed Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, known as Makaburi, near a mosque. All those slayings remain unsolved.

But while the three previous slayings of Muslim leaders were against men seen as radical and tied to extremists, Idris was known for opposing radicalism in the Muslim community.

-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

A Section on 06/11/2014