Briefs, January 12, 2013

Saudi women enter corridors of power

RIYADH - Saudi King Abdullah appointed 30 women to the previously all-male consultative Shura Council in decrees published yesterday, marking a historic first as he pushes reforms in the ultra-conservative kingdom. The decrees give women a 20 per cent quota in the Shura Council, a body appointed by the king to advise him on policy and legislation. They stipulate that men and women will be segregated inside the council, with a special area designated for females, who will enter through a separate door so as not to mix with their male colleagues. AFP

Female Kurd activists shot at least 3 times

PARIS - Three female Kurdish activists killed in Paris all received at least three bullets in the head, judicial sources said, boosting the theory that they were the victims of an execution-style hit. Autopsies revealed that one was shot four times and the others three times. One, Sakine Cansiz, was a founding member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which took up arms in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey. The other two were also Kurdish activists. The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community. AFP