World News in brief for October 22, 2012

Oct 22 2012 By Cheryl Mullin

LEBANON: Troops in Lebanon have begun a major security operation to force gunmen off the streets, trying to contain the violence prompted by the murder of a top intelligence official.

Syria has been blamed for the killing of General Wissam al-Hassan in a Beirut car bomb on Friday. With Lebanon already tense and deeply divided over the civil war next door, the murder has threatened to drag the country back into the kind of sectarian strife that plagued it for decades – much of it linked to Syria.

AMERICA: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will tangle over foreign policy in their final presidential debate tonight, both candidates still looking for a breakout from a deadlocked White House campaign with just two weeks to run.

Polls show Mr Obama with a small advantage about which candidate is best prepared to handle US foreign policy in chaotic world.

LIBYA: Pro-government militias battled fighters in a former stronghold of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the fifth straight day of clashes that have killed at least 30 people.

The fighting in Bani Walid, some 90 miles south east of Tripoli, has overlapped with the anniversary of Gaddafi’s capture and killing on October 20, 2011.

JORDAN: Eleven men with suspected links to al Qaida have been charged with terrorism conspiracy in Jordan accused of planning attacks on shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions.

The suspects – all Jordanians in their 20s and 30s – have confessed to plotting attacks and illegally possessing weapons and explosives, officials say.

POLAND: The oldest known former prisoner of the Auschwitz death camp has died in Poland at the age of 108.

Antoni Dobrowolski died yesterday in the north-western town of Debno. The former Polish teacher was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz in 1942 for holding secret classes.

AMERICA: A man accused of killing three and wounding four at a Wisconsin day spa had slashed his wife’s tyres two weeks before the shooting.

Police Chief Dan Tushaus said at a news conference that the man’s wife was an employee at the spa. It is not clear if she was among the victims.

AMERICA: An elderly man attacked his housemate with a chainsaw after being locked out of their shared home in the US.

Guy Black, 76, cut through a door and swung the saw at Ronald Tanner, who was saved when the blade became tangled in his shirt.

AMERICA: The trial of Britney Spears’ parents for defamation of the pop star’s ex-manager is due to begin hearing evidence today.

Lawyers for Sam Lutfi declined to say whether he would be the first witness in the case in Los Angeles.