World News from the BBC

The European Commission has approved plans by the American technology giant Microsoft to buy the Internet voice and video service Skype. Officials said the deal, worth $8.5bn, would not significantly

impede

competition. A BBC correspondent says Microsoft reckons Skype's popularity will provide new commercial opportunities, even though most of its services are free.

Two former monks at a Tibetan monastery are reported to have set themselves on fire in a protest against the authorities in southwestern China. A campaign group said one of the teenagers had died from his injuries after they set themselves alight near the restive Kirti monastery in Sichuan province.

Police in the Midwestern United States say there's been a spate of unusual attacks among members of the deeply traditional Amish community. The victims have included a 13-year-old girl and a 74-year-old man. From Washington, here's Paul Adams.

Over the past three weeks, at least half a dozen men and women have been attacked, losing their beards or, in the case of the women, clumps of their hair. One man was dragged from his home by the beard before his attackers tried to cut it off. These attacks appear to target cherished symbols of Amish identity. What makes them so

baffling

is that the attacks have been carried out by fellow Amish, apparently members of a particular clan from the town of Bergholz in rural eastern Ohio. The incidents may spring from some doctrinal dispute or merely represent a series of