News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) A British teacher will receive 40 lashes in Sudan if convicted of insulting Islam's prophet by letting her class name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, England, was arrested on charges of blasphemy in Sudan on Sunday.  She is accused of allowing her seven-year-old students at the Unity High School in Khartoum to name a teddy bear Mohammed to reinforce a lesson on animal habitats. Another school teacher who was offended by the naming of the toy allegedly reported Gibbons to the school's principal.

Sudan has been governed by Islamic Sharia law since 1983.