Student jailed for biting officer

Refusing to muzzle his criticism of Israel's temporary settlement moratorium, a settler took matters into his own teeth and bit a policeman to mark his outrage, a local newspaper has said.

Ephraim Haikin, 18, a student at a Jewish seminary in the hardline settlement of Yizhar in the north of the occupied West Bank, was apparently doggone mad during a November 26 rally against the moratorium.

An Israeli court found him guilty of "aggressing a civil servant carrying out his duties" and slashing the tyres of a police jeep, the Haaretz daily said.

The Israeli youth was sentenced to a month in prison and three months community service, it said.

The settlers of Yizhar are among the most hardline in the West Bank and doggedly opposed to a 10-month limited moratorium on new housing starts imposed in November after months of US pressure.

Meanwhile, settlers protested yesterday over the decision to freeze construction.

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