SYDNEY: An Australian lawyer tore pages from the Koran and the Bible and smoked them on YouTube, days after a US pastor`s threat to burn Islam`s holy book triggered deadly protests and global condemnation.In a 12-minute clip entitled "Bible or Koran -- which burns best?" Alex Stewart, who

BAGHDAD: Tens of thousands of detainees are being held without trial in Iraqi prisons and face violent and psychological abuse as well as other forms of mistreatment, Amnesty International said Monday.The London-based human rights watchdog estimates 30,000 people are held in Iraqi jails,

Washington: A man shot dead five people Saturday in a park in the US state of Kentucky before turning the weapon on himself, Xinhua reported. The attack took place around 11.35 a.m. in a trailer park in Mount Carmel community. The assailant was armed with a shotgun. Police found the

NEW YORK: President Barack Obama told a deeply polarized America on Saturday that Islam is not the enemy as ceremonies took place to mark an unusually tense, ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.Moving remembrance ceremonies were held to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed when Islamist

NEW YORK: Remembrance ceremonies, marred by global tensions over a Florida pastor`s threat to burn the Koran, were to take place Saturday in New York and at the Pentagon on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.The rituals honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed on September 11, 2001,

JOHANNESBURG: A Johannesburg court has blocked a South African businessman from burning Bibles on Saturday in response to a Florida pastor`s threat to burn the Koran, a local newspaper said.The Johannesburg High Court issued an urgent interdict late Friday blocking Mohammed Vawda from

Washington/New York: After a day of flip-flops, a Florida pastor, who earned international headlines and censure after threatening to burn copies of the Quran on the 9/11 anniversary Saturday, "has agreed in principle" not to go ahead with the controversial event.Pastor Terry Jones

MUZAFFARABAD: At least 13 people were killed on Friday when a passenger bus plunged into a ravine in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, police said.The accident took place near the town of Kotli, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of regional capital Muzaffarabad, local police station chief

SAN FRANCISCO: California firefighters were battling a huge fire still raging Friday hours after a gas pipeline exploded destroying or damaging more than 170 homes, amid reports at least six people had been killed.The massive explosion and inferno ripped through a neighborhood in San

MECCA: The imam of Mecca said on Friday that a US pastor`s threat to burn copies of the Koran was an incitement to "terrorism.""The call to burn copies of our holy book is a form of terrorism and an incitement to terrorism," Saleh bin Humaid said in a sermon marking the Muslim feast of

GAINESVILLE: A Florida pastor suspended plans to burn hundreds of Korans but the move failed to stem a global tide of Muslim outrage Friday, as he warned the torching ceremony could yet take place. Radical evangelist Terry Jones first announced on Thursday he had scrapped Saturday`s mass

Mumbai: As Mumbai gets ready to usher in Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has stated that two suspected terrorists are trying to enter the city, reports NDTV. The government has released photos of these men. Chavan says it was the Union Home Ministry who

KUNDUZ: One man was shot dead when protesters, angry over plans by a U.S. pastor to burn copies of the Koran, attacked a NATO base in Afghanistan`s north on Friday, a provincial government spokesman said.A crowd, estimated at 10,000 by a spokesman for the Badakhshan province governor, had

MOSCOW: Staff at a hydro-electric power station in Russia`s volatile North Caucasus found explosives in what appears to have been a bid to blow up the plant, Russian news agencies reported Thursday. Staff found the makeshift explosive device following a fire at the Irganaiskaya power

LONDON: Large daily doses of B vitamins could halve the rate of brain shrinkage in elderly people with warning signs of Alzheimer`s, potentially delaying the onset of the disease, a study suggested Thursday. Brain shrinkage, a natural part of ageing, happens faster in people with mild

TORONTO: North America`s largest film festival opens Thursday in Toronto with a focus on disturbing abuses of human rights and modern clashes of civilization. The Toronto International Film Festival also welcomes back screen legends Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood, returning for the

PESHAWAR: Nine people were killed and seven wounded Thursday when their vehicle hit a landmine in a remote tribal town in northwest Pakistan, local officials said. The incident occurred in Dol Ragha village in Kurram tribal district, close to the Afghan border, which has been hit by

SEOUL: South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek warned Thursday of a global "nuclear domino effect" unless North Korea scraps its atomic weapons. He was speaking days before senior US officials travel to South Korea, Japan and China for talks on the issue. "North Korea`s

BANGKOK: Police in Thailand defused three unexploded bombs discovered in Bangkok and surrounding suburbs over a matter of hours, one of them in front of a school and one in a shopping mall, they said Thursday. The first device was found under a footbridge outside a school in central

BHOPAL, September 9, 2010 (AFP) - At least 17 people were killed and a further 35 feared dead after a passenger bus plunged into a fast-flowing river in central India, police said Thursday.The bus crashed into the river when trying to cross a flooded bridge in the state of Madhya Pradesh