News Briefs

Local and VCU

31 arrested in prostitution sting

Richmond police arrested 21 women and 10 men in four citywide prostitution stings over eight days.

The operations were conducted along Chamberlayne Avenue, Hull Street and Jefferson Davis Highway between Aug. 20 and Aug. 28. The women charged with prostitution ranged in age from 23 to 57 and listed addresses in Richmond and Chesterfield County, according to police.

The men charged with soliciting a prostitute ranged in age from 23 to 61 and gave addresses in Richmond, Mineral and the counties of Henrico and Chesterfield, police said.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond police set curfew initiative

With capital-area public schools set to open next week, Richmond police are planning a “curfew initiative” this week to remind juveniles not to violate curfew.

School resource officers, who work with youths throughout the school year at city schools, will be deployed to enhance police presence on the streets after 11 p.m.

The city’s code bans anyone under 18 years of age from being in public places between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. the following day unless they are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, engaged in an employment activity, engaged in a government, civic or religious activity, involved in an emergency situation or are within 25 feet of their residence.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

City councilman’s nephew held in VUU shooting

A Richmond city councilman’s nephew is being held without bond today in the malicious wounding of a Virginia Union University student early Sunday.

Jamir Jewell, whose uncle is Councilman E. Martin Jewell, was arrested Sunday at approximately 1:15 a.m.-minutes after a student was shot in front of Newman Hall, an all-female dormitory on the northern edge of campus near Brook and Graham roads. Jamir Jewell is not a VUU student.

University police confirmed yesterday the shooting occurred as they tried to deal with a crowd that had grown to as many as three dozen people.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

National and International

Indonesian quake kills 32, flattens homes

A disaster management official said the death toll from a powerful Indonesian earthquake Wednesday has more than doubled to 34.

Social Affairs Ministry official Mardi said more than 700 houses and buildings have been badly damaged in the 7.0 magnitude quake.

Scores of people have been injured.

Many of the victims died when their homes were buried in a landslide triggered by the temblor.

The official Antara news agency reports about 30 people are trapped under rocks and dirt from the landslide in one village.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck at 2:55 p.m. off the southern coast of the main island of Java. A tsunami alert was issued but revoked less than an hour later.

Brief by The Associated Press

Best-selling Bible to undergo revision ?

The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text.

The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship. The revision proposal was announced Tuesday, and is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.

Past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions have been plagued by controversies about gender language that have pitted theological conservatives against one another.

The changes did not make all men “people” or remove male references to God, but instead involved dropping gender-specific terms when translators judged that the original text didn’t intend it.

Brief by The Associated Press

Israelis, Palestinians resume high-level talks

Israel and the Palestinians held their first high-level talks since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in March, sharing ideas on how to shore up a fledgling Palestinian economic recovery.

The meeting between Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and Palestinian Economics Minister Bassem Khoury was the latest sign of a thaw in frosty relations. Last week, both sides said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could soon hold his first meeting with Netanyahu, despite Israel’s refusal to freeze settlement construction.

The meeting Wednesday at a Jerusalem hotel was the first Cabinet-level encounter between the Netanyahu and Abbas governments.

The agenda included easing restrictions on the entry of Palestinian businesspeople and VIPs to Israel, boosting Israeli meat exports to the West Bank and dairy imports from the West Bank to Israel, allowing more Palestinians to seek medical care in Israel, and joint industrial parks, Israeli officials said.

Brief by The Associated Press