Teacher Held for Teddy Bear Blasphemy

A UK teacher in Sudan may get 40 lashes and a 6-month sentence over a teddy bear named "Mohammed," the Telegraph reports. Sudanese cops nabbed Gillian Gibbons yesterday for blasphemy after she let her elementary school kids name the bear after Islam's prophet. School director Robert Boulos, who has closed the school for fear of attacks, said Gibbons used the bear as a teaching tool.

Parents reportedly grumbled to Sudanese officials when they heard about it. Now the UK is trying to intervene, and an angry mob has gathered outside the station where Gibbons is held. "We are very worried about the kind of conditions she is subjected to," said one of Gibbons' former neighbors. "Being held in a police cell in Khartoum must be a horrendous experience." (More Sudan stories.)