ISLAMABAD: Oil and gas regulatory authority (Ogra) has announced new prices of the petroleum products on Thursday.
The prices of Petroleum, Hi-Octane, Hi-speed diesel and light diesel have been slightly lowered whereas kerosene oil’s cost has been increased.
Ogra’s spokesperson Jawad Naseem during a press conference in Islamabad told that petrol price has been lowered by 27 paisas while cost of Hi-Octane has been decreased by 29 paisas
COPENHAGEN: A book on the crisis sparked by a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed five years ago hit stores in Denmark Thursday amid concerns over a backlash from the Muslim world.
At one bookshop in Copenhagen, staff prepared for a busy day of trading with Flemming Rose's “The Tyranny of Silence” on the shelves, but fears were also high after a month in which Denmark faced two new security alerts.
On Tuesday an Iraqi Kurd being held in Norway on suspicion of planning bombings admitted that his target was the Jyllands-Posten daily.
Exactly five years ago on September 30, 2005 the newspaper, where Rose was cultural editor, ran a front-page spread featuring 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The drawings sparked outrage across the Muslim world and led to violent protests against Denmark and Danish interests in 2006. Rose himself has since received numerous death threats.
Danish police confirmed the Norwegian claim and said Denmark had become a “priority terrorist target for militant extremists.” “Among militants, it is a priority objective to lead terrorist attacks against Denmark and symbols related to the caricature case,” the head of Danish intelligence Jakob Scharf said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Danish police arrested a Chechen man in connection with a small explosion at a central Copenhagen hotel.
Investigators later said he was planning a letter bomb for the Jyllands-Posten.
“This is the second time in a very short period that the public has learned that Jyllands-Posten has probably been the target of organised terrorist acts,” head of the Danish Intelligence Service PET, Jakob Scharf, said in a statement.
“This naturally illustrates that, among extremist militants, it is a priority objective to lead terrorist attacks against Denmark and symbols related to the caricature case,” he added.
In a bid to “avoid new confrontations” Denmark’s foreign minister met ambassadors of 17 Muslim countries on Wednesday, ahead of the book's publication.
The 499-page book will not reprint the drawings separately, but its inside pages will feature “a picture of the front page of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper that had the Prophet Mohammed’s cartoons on it,” it’s editor said.
Asked about the possibility of a strong reaction to the book's publication, Karsten Blauert told AFP: “It’s clear that a lot of things are happening, but everything is taking place as planned, and nothing will change that.”
In an August interview, Rose insisted he was not trying to be provocative with the new book, stressing that he simply wanted to “tell the story of the 12 drawings and put them into a context of (other) pictures considered offensive.
It was important to write the book because, he said: “Words should be answered with words.
“That’s all we have in a democracy, and if we give that up, we will be locked in a tyranny of silence.” – AFP
NEW DELHI: A court ruled on Thursday that the site of a demolished 16th century mosque in northern India would be divided three ways between Hindus and Muslims, local television reported.
The information has not been confirmed by the court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The demolition of the 16th century mosque by Hindu mobs in 1992 triggered some of India's worst riots that killed about 2,000 people. More than 200,000 police have fanned out in India on Thursday to guard against any communal violence.
Hindus wants to build a temple on the site. Muslims want the mosque rebuilt after it was demolished in 1992.
The verdict is almost certain to be challenged in the Supreme Court and a final decision could take years. – Reuters
KARACHI: The Anti terrorist court in Karachi concluded the hearing of Allama Hassan Turabi’s murder case on Thursday. Three of the six accused were sentenced to death and the other three were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Allama Hasan Turabi, and his young nephew were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the religious leader’s Gulshan-i-Iqbal residence on July 16, 2006.
The six accused had been charged with masterminding the suicide attack on the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader and also with planting a remote-control bomb to kill him.
The anti terrorist court judge, Anand Ram based on the evidence provided to the court ordered death sentences to Amanullah, Muhammad Rehman and Sultan Mahmood.
Life imprisonment was ordered to the remaining three, Ashfaque, Muhammad Akber and Rahim
DUBAI: Yemen’s foreign minister acknowledged the United States has launched attacks on Al-Qaeda in his country in an interview published on Thursday, the first confirmation from Sanaa of a US military role.
Abu Bakr al-Kurbi told the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat that the US strikes were suspended in December because his government viewed them as counterproductive.
“Fighting Al-Qaeda is the responsibility of security and anti-terrorism forces in Yemen,” Kurbi said.
However, the New York Times reported in mid August that the US military carried out a secret air strike in May against a suspected Al-Qaeda target in Yemen, killing a deputy provincial governor in the process.
Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said the strike was a secret mission by the US military, and was at least the fourth such assault on Al-Qaeda in the mountains and deserts of Yemen since December.
The United States operates a major counter-terrorism base in Djibouti just across the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait from Yemen.
In June, human rights watchdog Amnesty International released images it said were of fragments of a US Tomahawk cruise missile, reportedly taken at the scene of a December 17 strike in Al-Majalah in Abyan province in the south of Yemen, in which it said 55 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
The White House said US President Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan visited Yemen on September 20 and discussed cooperation in the fight against Al-Qaeda.
The United States has become increasingly concerned about the threat posed by terrorist militancy in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, particularly the activities of his jihadist network's local franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
In the interview, Kurbi also said that while Yemen had launched a manhunt for US-born jihadist preacher Anwar al-Awlaqi, who is on a US most-wanted list, it would not hand him over if it succeeded in capturing him.
“Awlaqi is in an area where we are conducting operations against Al-Qaeda, and he is among those targeted for arrest in these operations,” the Yemeni foreign minister said.
“The US has already requested the extradition of other Yemenis holding US citizenship, but we refused because the Yemeni constitution prohibits the extradition of a Yemeni citizen to a third country. This applies to Awlaqi.”
In April, a US official said the Obama administration had authorised the targeted killing of Awlaqi, after intelligence agencies concluded the Muslim cleric was directly involved in anti-US plots.
Born in the southwestern US state of New Mexico, Awlaqi, 39, rose to prominence last year after he was linked a US army major who shot dead 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas, and to a Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on December 25.
Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, faces a growing threat from Al-Qaeda, a sporadic Zaidi Shiite rebellion in the north and a separatist movement in the south. – AFP
