Libya says 14,000 prisoners still on the run

TRIPOLI :Some 14,000 prisoners who escaped from various Libyan detention centres after the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi are still on the run, the interior minister said.

Speaking less than three weeks after more than 1,200 detainees escaped during riots from a prison in the eastern city of Benghazi, Mr Mohamed al-Cheikh told ministry officials on Monday that the interior and justice ministries were "working together to get them back to prison so they can serve out their sentences".

Militants kill 44 people praying at a mosque in Nigeria

MAIDUGURI: Suspected Islamic militants wearing army fatigues gunned down 44 people praying at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, while another 12 civilians died in an apparently simultaneous attack, security agents said on Monday.

Sunday's attacks were the latest in a slew of violence blamed on religious extremists in this west African oil producer, where the radical Boko Haram group, which wants to oust the government and impose Islamic law, poses the greatest security threat in years.

Saudi king donates $100 million to UN anti-terror centre

RIYADH - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has announced a further donation of $100 million (75 million euros) to set up a United Nations centre for fighting terrorism, Saudi media reported on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with the UN in 2011 to create the centre and the oil-rich Gulf monarchy has already donated $10 million towards its launch.

Syrian TV shows Assad after reported attack on his motorcade

Syrian rebels said on Thursday they targeted President Bashar al-Assad's motorcade as he was heading to attend prayers at a Damascus mosque to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, but footage broadcast by state television showed him unharmed.

The Tahrir al-Sham rebel brigade, a unit of the Free Syrian Army, said in a statement: "After conducting reconnaissance (on) the timing and course of Bashar al-Assad's motorcade the area was hit with artillery. We pray to God and await the field report about the results."

Turkey’s ‘Ergenekon’ trial comes to an end, with 17 life sentences handed out

SILIVRI: A Turkish court on Monday sentenced a former army chief to life in prison in a high-profile trial of 275 people accused of plotting against the Islamic-rooted government, a ruling that sparked angry protests in the streets.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon at thousands of protesters outside the court near Istanbul after the verdicts were delivered in the divisive case, which resulted in lengthy prison sentences for the majority of the accused, including top brass, journalists and opposition lawmakers.

Malaysia arrests 10 over bizarre claim on throne

KUALA LUMPUR: Ten people dressed in ninja-style garb have been detained after they arrived at Malaysia's royal palace in a bizarre attempt to claim the throne, police said Tuesday.

The unarmed group, reported by local media to be suspected followers of a Malaysian Muslim figure claiming royal descent, were stopped by police guards in the confrontations early Monday morning at the palace in Kuala Lumpur.

Hassan Rouhani becomes new Iranian president

Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, vowed after assuming office on Saturday to work to lift the international sanctions imposed on Tehran over its controversial nuclear drive.

My government, "will take fundamental steps in elevating Iran's position based on national interest and lifting of the oppressive sanctions," the moderate cleric said in a first address, broadcast live on state television.

Rouhani was officially endorsed by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who praised the newly-elected president's decades of service to the Islamic establishment.

Attacks on Baghdad mosques kill nine

BAGHDAD: A Shia and a Sunni mosque in Baghdad were targeted in bombings that killed at least nine people, Iraqi officials said.

Police officials said a suicide bomber set off his explosives on Shia worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in the city's suburb of Hussainya late on Tuesday.

Seven people died and 11 were wounded in that attack.

Air raids kill 11 Syrian kids

BEIRUT: Seven children in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo and another four in Homs in the center were among 17 civilians killed in air raids on Tuesday, a watchdog said.

The deaths in Homs come as troops pressed an offensive against remaining rebel areas there, while in Aleppo province, the raid comes exactly a year into the rebel takeover of the targeted town of Anadan.

JUI-F may get two ministries

ISLAMABAD: The JUI-F’s strategy to delay till last minute its decision to support PML-N’s nominee Mamnoon Hussain in the presidential election is going to pay it with two posts in the federal cabinet, Dawn has learnt.

Although the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F officially denies having any “underhand deal” with the ruling PML-N, sources in the two parties said the PML-N had agreed to offer two ministries to the religious party as a reward for its support.

Tensions rise in Tunisia as rival protesters clash

TUNIS: Pro and anti-government  demonstrators clashed in two Tunisian cities on Monday, witnesses said, as tensions rose over opposition efforts to oust the Islamist-led government.

Angry opposition protesters tried to storm municipal offices in Sidi Bouzid and stop employees there from working, residents said, sparking clashes between them and supporters of the Islamist Ennahda party, which leads the transitional government.

Tensions rise in Tunisia as rival protesters clash

TUNIS: Pro and anti-government  demonstrators clashed in two Tunisian cities on Monday, witnesses said, as tensions rose over opposition efforts to oust the Islamist-led government.

Angry opposition protesters tried to storm municipal offices in Sidi Bouzid and stop employees there from working, residents said, sparking clashes between them and supporters of the Islamist Ennahda party, which leads the transitional government.

Tensions rise in Tunisia as rival protesters clash

TUNIS: Pro and anti-government  demonstrators clashed in two Tunisian cities on Monday, witnesses said, as tensions rose over opposition efforts to oust the Islamist-led government.

Angry opposition protesters tried to storm municipal offices in Sidi Bouzid and stop employees there from working, residents said, sparking clashes between them and supporters of the Islamist Ennahda party, which leads the transitional government.

Twin blasts near courthouse in Libya's Benghazi: sources

Two powerful explosions went off near the courthouse in Libya's second city of Benghazi on Sunday night, leaving 10 people injured and causing damage, witnesses and a security source said.

The blasts came a day after 1,000 inmates escaped during a prison riot in the restive eastern city, birthplace of the 2011 armed uprising that ousted and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi.On Friday night, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Benghazi to condemn the assassination in the city earlier the same day of Abdessalem al-Mesmari, an anti-Islamist lawyer who campaigned for a civil state.

Imran says fall from forklift saved him from dying in a blast

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has confirmed speculations doing the rounds in the country in the run-up to the May 11 elections that there was a plot to assassinate him and that the fall off a forklift at a Lahore rally on May 7 that nearly killed him “had quite possibly saved my life”.

In an article carried by Britain’s MailOnline on Sunday, Mr Khan wrote he had been told he was number one on the terrorist hit-list. There are perhaps 25 militant groups which call themselves ‘Taliban’ and any one of them could have been hired by his political opponents.

Malaysia court quashes Hindu kids' conversion to Islam

KUALA LUMPUR :A Malaysian court on Thursday ruled against the 2009 conversion of three Hindu children to Islam without their mother's knowledge, a verdict welcomed by non-Muslim groups.

A high court in the northern city of Ipoh declared the conversion of Ms Indira Gandhi's children, now aged five, 15 and 16, by their father to be unconstitutional, said Indira's lawyer K. Shanmuga. The judge ruled that the father failed to take the mother and children to Islamic authorities for their consent to the conversion, in a rare verdict in the multiracial but Muslim-majority nation, Mr Shanmuga said.

Egypt blast kills one, wounds 28

CAIRO: A blast Wednesday at a police station in a Nile Delta city killed one person and wounded 28, a medic said, in the latest incidence of violence sweeping Egypt since president Mohamed Morsi's ouster.

Mohamed Sultan, deputy head of the emergency services, told AFP an explosive device went off very early in the morning outside a police station in the city of Mansura, in Dahqaliya province.

European Parliament identifies Wahabi and Salafi roots of global terrorism

It is not merely the faith or oil that flows out of Saudi Arabia. The oil-rich Arab state and its neighbours are busy financing Wahabi and Salafi militants across the globe.

A recent report by the European Parliament reveals how Wahabi and Salafi groups based out of the Middle East are involved in the "support and supply of arms to rebel groups around the world." The report, released in June 2013, was commissioned by European Parliament's Directorate General for External Policies.

Bashar al-Assad's militias 'cleansing' Homs of Sunni Muslims

The "Shabiha", a loyalist militia drawn largely from the Syrian president's Alawite sect, is systematically looting and then destroying the homes of any Sunnis who have fled the province, a key battleground in the country's civil war.

"They pushed out the rebel fighters and now they are trying to push out all the Sunnis," said Bilal, a 23-year-old from the Sunni village of Talkalakh in Homs province. "They took our houses, threatened us, destroyed our villages."

Six of a family killed in Okara road mishap

At least six members of a family, including women and minor children were killed in a road accident here in Okara late on Sunday night.

According to details, the accident took place at Okara bypass where a speedy private car carrying six people of a family got out of control due to slipperiness caused by rain and rammed into a trailer parked by roadside.

As a result of accident the six occupants of the car including Khalid Hussain, his wife Kalsoom, mother, sister and two minor children died on the spot.