Pak: Christian couple burnt alive for allegedly desecrating the Quran

LAHORE: In a gruesome incident, a Christian couple was on Tuesday thrashed and burned alive by a group of angry Muslims in Pakistan's Punjab province for allegedly desecrating the Quran.

The horrific crime was reported from the villages of Kot Radha Kishan of Kasur district, some 50 kilometres from here.

A large number of police personnel were deployed in the villages to provide security to the minority community.

Emaneul Sarfraz, a relative of the deceased couple, said that his cousins, Shahzad Masih, 35, and his wife Shamah, 31, had been working in the kiln of Muhammad Yousuf Gujjar for sometime near Chak (village) 59.

"The couple along with their four children wanted to leave the kiln as Yousuf was not paying their remuneration. He demanded Rs 5,00,000 from them, if they wanted to quit.

"Two days ago, after an exchange of words Yousuf locked the couple along with their children in a room," Emaneul said.

He further said that an announcement was made today from two mosques of Chak 59 that Shahzad Masih and his wife had committed blasphemy by burning the pages of Quran.

"A large number of Muslims led by area clerics reached the kiln and dragged the couple out of the room after breaking into it.

They first tortured them and then threw them in the kiln.

No one from the crowd listened to the couple, who were pleading that they were innocent as Yousuf had levelled false allegation of blasphemy against them to settle money dispute," Emanuel said adding, "Thank God they did not burn the couple's children".

He alleged that police from the nearby post had reached there on time but did not intervene seeing the charged mob.

"We have taken some 50 people into custody in connection with the killings and raids were underway to arrest more including the kiln owner," Jawad Qamar, police chief of Kasur district, said.

Qamar also denied the incident had taken place in police presence.

Human Liberation Commission Pakistan chairman Aslam Sahotra said he visited the district headquarters hospital in Kasur and saw the remains of couple.

"It was all ashes and some bones of the couple which is left to bury," he said.

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Pak: Christian couple burned alive for allegedly desecrating the Quran

LAHORE: In a gruesome incident, a Christian couple was on Tuesday thrashed and burned alive by a group of angry Muslims in Pakistan's Punjab province for allegedly desecrating the Quran.

The horrific crime was reported from the villages of Kot Radha Kishan of Kasur district, some 50 kilometres from here.

A large number of police personnel were deployed in the villages to provide security to the minority community.

Emaneul Sarfraz, a relative of the deceased couple, said that his cousins, Shahzad Masih, 35, and his wife Shamah, 31, had been working in the kiln of Muhammad Yousuf Gujjar for sometime near Chak (village) 59.

"The couple along with their four children wanted to leave the kiln as Yousuf was not paying their remuneration. He demanded Rs 5,00,000 from them, if they wanted to quit.

"Two days ago, after an exchange of words Yousuf locked the couple along with their children in a room," Emaneul said.

He further said that an announcement was made today from two mosques of Chak 59 that Shahzad Masih and his wife had committed blasphemy by burning the pages of Quran.

"A large number of Muslims led by area clerics reached the kiln and dragged the couple out of the room after breaking into it.

They first tortured them and then threw them in the kiln.

No one from the crowd listened to the couple, who were pleading that they were innocent as Yousuf had levelled false allegation of blasphemy against them to settle money dispute," Emanuel said adding, "Thank God they did not burn the couple's children".

He alleged that police from the nearby post had reached there on time but did not intervene seeing the charged mob.

"We have taken some 50 people into custody in connection with the killings and raids were underway to arrest more including the kiln owner," Jawad Qamar, police chief of Kasur district, said.

Qamar also denied the incident had taken place in police presence.

Human Liberation Commission Pakistan chairman Aslam Sahotra said he visited the district headquarters hospital in Kasur and saw the remains of couple.

"It was all ashes and some bones of the couple which is left to bury," he said.

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Obama to meet Aung San Suu Kyi on Nov 14: White House

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will meet Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon on November 14, during a six-day trip through Asia, the White House said on Tuesday.

The president will also hold a bilateral meeting with President Thein Sein earlier in his November 12-14 Myanmar stop, which comes after a state visit in China with President Xi Jinping. Obama will also participate in the G20 in Australia, the statement said, noting that further details would be forthcoming.

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Circus tiger kills eight-year-old girl in China

BEIJING: An eight-year-old Chinese girl was killed by a circus tiger after she slipped into an enclosed "animal training site", state media said.
The girl died of her injuries in hospital following the attack at Leheledu Amusement Park in the southwestern city of Chongqing, Xinhua reported, citing the park.

She was visiting the circus on Friday night with her relatives when she was attacked, the news agency added.

"A spokesman from the park said they have reached (an) initial agreement on settling the incident with the victim's family and vowed to beef up security measures," it said.

The incident comes after a zookeeper was killed by a tiger while cleaning out his cage in the financial hub Shanghai last December.

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China's new laser weapon may help Pak counter US drones

BEIJING: China claimed on Monday it has developed a highly accurate laser weapon system that can shoot down small aircraft and drones within seconds.

This important development opens up the possibility of the weapon being exported to China's close ally, Pakistan, which has been battling drone attacks by the United States, informed sources said.

China's laser weapons' programme is already a cause of worry for the western nations.

But a senior Chinese official said that the laser weapon will actually be used against terrorist using drones, and for checking the growing menace of mapping agencies.

These agencies use low-flying aircrafts to map areas that the government does not want revealed.

"Intercepting such drones is usually the work of snipers and helicopters, but their success rate is not as high and mistakes with accuracy can result in unwanted damage," Yi Jinsong, a manager with China's Jiuyuan Hi-Tech Equipment Corp, a firm under the China Academy of Engineering Physics told the official Xinhua news agency.

He said that small-scale, unmanned drones were relatively cheap and easy to use, making them a likely choice for terrorists.

The weapon, which can be installed on vehicles, shot down more than 30 drones in a recent test with a "100 per cent success rate" the CAEP statement said.

The new weapon has a range of two kilometres, which makes it capable of shooting down "various small aircraft" within five seconds of locating the target, the statement further said.

The weapon is expected to "play a key role in ensuring security during major events in urban areas" and address concerns on unlicensed mapping activities, the official Xinhua news agency said.

It is effective against aircraft flying at up to 50 metres per second up to a maximum altitude of 500 metres, Xinhua said.

The CAEP said it is developing similar laser security systems with greater power and range, according to Xinhua.

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Sierra Leone says another doctor dies of Ebola

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE: A doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola, the fifth local doctor in the West African nation to die of the disease, authorities said on Monday.

Dr Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone, died overnight, according to Sierra Leone's government.

George's death, which was announced by Dr Brima Kargbo, Sierra Leone's chief medical officer, was a blow to efforts to keep desperately needed health care workers safe in a country ravaged by the deadly virus.

George had been driven to the capital, Freetown, after reporting that he was not feeling well.

Doctors and nurses have been particularly vulnerable to contracting Ebola, as the virus is spread through bodily fluids.

Ebola is high on the agenda of a regional meeting of the World Health Organization that opened Monday in Benin, a West African nation that has not had any Ebola cases. WHO chief Margaret Chan said the Ebola epidemic has set back political stability and economic recovery in the afflicted countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.a

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Bangladesh recovers from blackout after 24 hours

DHAKA: Lights came back on in most of Bangladesh on Sunday after a near 24-hour blackout that brought much of the country to a standstill.

"The production of electricity is hovering around 5,000 megawatts, meaning now we are able to feed almost all the demand," said Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, an adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, responsible for power, energy and mineral resources.

"The relay system failed due to massive disruption and that caused a country-wide blackout," he said.

The outage on Saturday forced hospitals and garment factories to rely on back-up generators and even plunged the prime minister's official residence into darkness.

Tawfiq said a committee had been formed to look into the incident and was asked to submit a report along with recommendations on how to prevent any future outages by Tuesday.

Electricity imports from India had resumed, he added.

Tawfiq said it was to early to assess the impact of the blackout on the economy.

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ISIS lines up, kills at least 50 in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials and Sunni tribal leaders say Islamic State group extremists have shot 50 tribesmen, women and children in the head, killing them.

Sunday's attack is the latest mass killing attributed to the militants in Iraq's Anbar province.

Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud, a senior figure in the targeted Al Bu Nimr tribe, says the militant group killed 40 men, six women and four children, lining them up in in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of Ramadi, and then publicly killing them one by one. He says another 17 people were kidnapped by the militant group.

An official with the Anbar governor's office corroborated the account, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief journalists.

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Iraq blast targeting Shiites kills 10: officials

BAGHDAD : A car bomb targeting Shiites in Baghdad ahead of the major Ashura religious commemorations killed at least 10 people on Sunday, security and medical officials said.

The bombing near their tent in the area of Al-Ilam in southwest Baghdad also wounded more than 20 people, the sources said.

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UN warns of 'unprecedented' number of foreign jihadists in Iraq, Syria

LONDON: Foreign jihadists from more than 80 countries have flocked to fight in Iraq and Syria on an "unprecedented scale", according to extracts of a UN report published by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Friday.

Around 15,000 people have travelled to fight alongside Islamic State (IS) and other hardcore militant groups from "countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaeda," said the report.

The number of foreign jihadists travelling to fight since 2010 exceeds the cumulative total of the 20 preceding years "many times", the Security Council study said.

"There are instances of foreign terrorist fighters from France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland operating together," it said, according to the Guardian.

Britain's top police officer, Bernard Hogan-Howe, estimated last week that five people a week were leaving the country to fight with IS. Security officials estimate that there are currently around 500 British nationals fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Dozens have been arrested for preparing to leave to join the IS group or helping others to do so.

France is also moving closer to adopting an "anti-terrorism" law which would slap a travel ban on anyone suspected of planning to wage jihad.

The UN warned that more nations than ever face the problem of dealing with fighters returning from the battle zone.

The US Central Intelligence Agency last month announced figures showing that there were around 20,000 to 31,500 IS fighters active in Iraq and Syria, much higher than previous estimates.

A US security official estimated that there were close to 2,000 westerners among the 15,000 foreign fighters.

Previous figures showed there were 7,000 foreign jihadists fighting in March and 12,000 in July suggesting 1,000 a month were travelling to fight, despite the launch of US air strikes three months ago, although there is a lag of a few weeks in the figures.

The report was produced by a committee that monitors al-Qaeda, and concluded that the once mighty and feared group was now "manoeuvring for relevance" following the rise of the even more militant IS, which was booted out of al-Qaeda by leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Despite the split, the UN concluded that the legal basis for US President Barack Obama's fight against IS was justified by its ideological congruence with al-Qaeda, and considered the two groups as part of a broader movement.

"Al-Qaeda core and Isil (IS) pursue similar strategic goals, albeit with tactical differences regarding sequencing and substantive differences about personal leadership," the UN wrote.

Obama has vowed he will not order a large force into combat in Iraq or Syria, relying instead on air power and local forces.

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