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The latest attack brought to nearly 60 the number reported killed in Blida province in under a week. The provincial capital of the same name is just 30 miles south of Algiers.Reuter - Paris. President Nelson Mandela has signed South Africa's new abortion bill, clearing the way for one of the world's toughest abortion laws to be replaced with one of the most liberal. The law gives girls of any age the sole right to decide whether to have an abortion Reuter - Johannesburg. International police in Bosnia said they spotted the indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic under armed escort but the Nato-led force took no action to arrest him. International police monitors saw Mr Karadzic in a Jeep on Monday, escorted by special police in the Serb government seat of Pale, outside Sarajevo. A spokesman for the UN police said: "In the back seat with the window open the monitors saw one of the most wanted men on the planet, Radovan Karadzic, enjoying the view." Reuter - Sarajevo.

A day after Bethlehem officials said they lacked the money to celebrate Christmas properly, Finland announced it was sending a 40ft Christmas tree and a Santa Claus to the West Bank town. The 40-year-old tree will stand in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity. The Santa will arrive with the Christmas Day procession and will entertain pilgrims and visitors, assisted by Palestinian children dressed as gnomes. AP - Jerusalem. The Consumers Association yesterday reacted furiously to news that the cost of making a call from conventional phones to Orange and One2One mobile phones would more than double soon after the new year. The unexpected blow to consumers is due to Orange and One2One sharply increasing the charges they levy for transmitting calls from BT's land lines across the airwaves to mobile phone users. Orange, which was formed through a joint venture between British Aerospace and Hutchison Whampoa, and One2One, which is owned by Mercury, are increasing the charges to BT to close the price gap with more expensive rivals - Vodafone and Cellnet.The price hike, which will take effect in February, will see the cost of making a one-minute daytime call from a BT phone to an Orange or One2One handset on weekdays leap from 16.71p to possibly as much as 30p The price of an evening call could go up from 9.85p to 20p. Weekend calls, though, would probably stay at the same price.Both Orange and One2One are currently believed to be making a loss on incoming calls from the BT network, but feel that the competitive charges are one way of enticing customers away from rivals.The increase will bring the two network's price structure for incoming calls much closer into line with Cellnet and Vodafone. Calls made from BT to these two operators have come down recently after pressure from the industry watchdog, Oftel, but still cost 37.5p a minute at peak times and 25p during weekday evenings.The Consumers Association, which has been severely critical of some of the marketing practices adopted by the industry, slammed the price increases.

Philip Cullum, the Consumers Association's policy manager, said the price differential between the rival operators should have been reduced through big cuts in Cellnet and Vodafone charges, and not with increases in Orange and One2One charges."We would obviously be very concerned if prices were going up just after people bought their phones over Christmas. It's an industry which has grown fast on the back of fairly dubious selling techniques."Many consumers are already unaware that it costs much more to make a call to a mobile phone from the BT network than it does to make an ordinary local or long-distance call. This is because the mobile company charges BT to connect the call over its airwaves. The bill for this service is then passed on by BT to its own customers, plus the cost of the local call connection and additional profit.BT declined to comment on the figures, though it is believed that this internal charge that the two networks make to the company for weekday calls is to rise dramatically from 7.3p a minute to more than 15p a minute. The charge for evening and nighttime calls made during the week would rise from around 5p a minute to as much as 12p.Discussions are still going on between BT and Orange and One2One, though one of the two operators is already thought to have formally agreed the new price regime.Asked about the increases last night a spokesman for BT explained: "We can confirm that we have been approached by the two PCN operators, Orange and One2One, who are both requesting higher payments for calls our customers make to their networks. Any increase would obviously result in higher retail prices for our customers, which we would regret."However, Orange insisted even after any price rise it would still be more competitive for incoming calls: "It remains the case that it is substantially cheaper to call an Orange or One2One phone than it is to call a Cellnet or Vodafone customer."Despite its objections, BT is not believed to have made a complaint about the increase to Oftel. Industry observers cynically pointed out that the move by Orange and One2One would make the Cellnet network, in which BT has a 60 per cent stake, look more attractive.

Oftel is also likely to attract controversy because it is thought to have agreed to the price rises.. Halifax Building Society has had 400,000 callers to its helpline in the last few days, many of them querying details of the share allocations they are to receive in next year's flotation. The flood of inquiries, which at times led to long queues of calls at the switchboard, is in response to a mailing of 11 million letters to members giving individual details of bonus entitlements and checking account records. A Halifax spokeswoman denied reports that the calls were from furious customers who have been told wrongly they are not eligible for share bonuses averaging pounds 1,000 a head."Whether they are furious is another matter. We have had a lot of basic inquiries seeking reassurances or more information, or volunteering further information," she added.Halifax was aware that there might be some discrepancies in the account details mailed to customers and "we want to be sure our understanding is the same as their's".For example, some callers had several accounts opened in different years, and the details of the address on one of the accounts - such as a house name - might differ.The computer would read this as belonging to a separate member and the mailing was to allow such discrepancies to be eliminated."With more than 11 million going out, to have 400,000 telephone calls is not a huge proportion," said Halifax.One common complaint appears to be that the information in Halifax documents on how much must be retained in an account to qualify for the bonus shares is not clear."I was on the phone to the Halifax for 20 minutes trying to get this sorted out," an angry caller told The Independent.Meanwhile, Halifax said it was appointing Gren Folwell, former head of the building society and estate agency subsidiary, as deputy chief executive. James Crosby is to be financial services and insurance director, Mike Ellis is to head banking and savings and John Lee will run personnel and services.. Gerald Ronson, who spent six months in jail as a result of his involvement in the Guinness scandal, set the seal on his corporate rehabilitation yesterday with the announcement of a pounds 100m property programme by his Heron International group.

The company is to sink the money into four city centre projects in London, Madrid and Barcelona over the next two years or so. Finance for the developments will be provided by Deutsche Pfandbrief und Hypothekenbank, United Bank of Kuwait and Banco Santander. Scottish Amicable, the fund manager, is also involved. The news represents a remarkable comeback for Mr Ronson, whose conviction for theft, conspiracy and false accounting was upheld by the Court of Appeal in London a year ago.He, along with Ernest Saunders, the former Guinness chairman, Jack Lyons, a financier, and stockbroker Anthony Parnes, were all found guilty of involvement in an illegal share support scheme which paid out guarantees and "success fees" in return for help in boosting Guinness's share price in the pounds 2.7bn take-over battle for Distillers.Mr Ronson's fall from grace was compounded in 1992 by the collapse under debts of pounds 1.4bn of Heron International, which he had built into Britain's second-largest private company on the back of astute property deals and businesses ranging from Suzuki car and motorcycle distribution to one of the UK's largest chains of independently-owned petrol stations.The group was bailed out in a controversial pounds 142m takeover by a US investor group led by Steven Green, the man behind Samsonite suitcases. HNV Acquisition, the acquisition vehicle backed by Rupert Murdoch and family trusts of Michael Milken, the Wall Street financier who more or less invented junk bonds, was criticised for its decision to keep on Mr Ronson as chief executive with a pay deal worth pounds 5m over five years.Following the failure, Heron sold off most of its trading subsidiaries to concentrate on property, but this is the first big deal to emerge.