LONDON: A woman was jailed for seven years on Friday for falsely imprisoning her three daughters-in-law from Pakistan who she treated as "slaves and dogs" and subjected to regular beatings. Naseebah Bibi, 63, would not allow them to leave the family home in Blackburn without her permission, One of her victims told detectives she was forced to work on an industrial sewing machine day and night for 13 years.Bibi was convicted last month of falsely imprisoning Nagina Akhtar between 1993 and 2006, Tazeem Akhtar from 2001 to 2003 and Nisbah Akhtar between 2005 and 2007.All three women were brought to Britain following arranged marriages to Bibi's three sons and had little contact with the outside world. The jury heard they were treated as "slaves and dogs" and subjected to beatings and abuse on arrival.Nagina told the court that Bibi struck her with a brush handle and slapped her across the face whenever she disobeyed her. Sisters Nisbah and Tazeem also gave evidence to the jury that Bibi made their lives "hell."They too said they were slapped across the face, hit with a brush handle and struck with shoes when they answered Bibi back. Sentencing her, Judge Robert Brown said it was evident that her victims were "traumatised by you both physically and psychologically and spent long periods living in fear."He ordered that Bibi serve three and a half years of her sentence in prison before she would be allowed out on licence. She will then be monitored for up to nine years from the start of her custodial sentence.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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