IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Sierra leone

Restrictions lifted as Ebola retreats

Sierra Leone lifted crippling nationwide restrictions on movement on Friday, amid signs that the deadly epidemic is retreating. "Restrictions on movement will be eased to support economic activity. As such, there will no longer be any district or chiefdom level restrictions on movement," President Ernest Bai Koroma said. The rules were adopted at the height of the crisis.

Somalia

Joint call for political reforms

In a statement issued in Mogadishu, envoys from the United Nations, European Union, United States, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development and the African Union Mission to Somalia said: "We call on the President, Prime Minister and the Federal Parliament to unite for the greater good of the country and to move swiftly toward the implementation of Vision 2016 through a new cabinet endorsed by Parliament."

South africa

153 arrested on looting charges

South African police said 32 more people have been arrested for looting shops owned by foreign nationals, bringing the total number of people arrested to 153 since rioting broke out earlier this week. The police said on Friday that the suspects were arrested for public violence and possession of stolen property in Soweto township, south of Johannesburg.

France

Gunman buried after Mali refusal

One of the three jihadist gunmen who waged attacks in Paris this month was buried on Friday near the city, police sources said, after Mali, his country of origin, refused to accept his body. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Amedy Coulibaly - who killed a police officer and four Jews during the Jan 7 to 9 attacks - was buried in the Muslim section of the Thiais cemetery in the Paris region.

Russia

Putin blames Kiev for fighting, deaths

President Vladimir Putin blamed on Friday what he said were Kiev's "criminal orders" for a surge in fighting in east Ukraine in which civilians have been killed. The UN's human rights office said on Friday 262 people had been killed in intensified fighting in eastern Ukraine in the last nine days.

United states

Fired workers sue McDonald's

Some former McDonald's workers are suing the fast-food giant in the United States for alleged racial discrimination and sexual harassment after they were fired from several restaurants in Virginia. According to the civil rights complaint filed on Thursday, workers at restaurant franchises in Virginia were "subjected to rampant racial and sexual harassment, committed by the restaurants' highest ranking supervisors".

(China Daily 01/24/2015 page12)