ONE NEWS

NEW DELHI: A panel of clerics from the Kanpur-based Madrasa Jamia Ashraf-ul-Madaris issued on Friday a fatwa over mobile phone etiquette. The panel has objected to the use of Aayats (verses from the Holy Quran) as ringtones. The religious scholars argue that people who use Aayats as ring tones and answer their cell phone midway through the Aayat commit a sinful act.The panel of clerics in Kanpur also said that taking a cell phone to the toilet as it rings is a sin because Aayat cannot be heard in a toilet. They also condemned the habit that people have of keeping cell phones on vibration mode while attending prayer services.A fatwa is a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue.

DUBAI: Pakistan has been stripped of hosting rights for the 2011 World Cup because of the 'uncertain security situation' in the country, the International Cricket Council said on Friday."It is a regrettable decision (but) our number one priority is to create certainty and deliver a safe, secure and successful event," ICC president David Morgan said in a statement.Pakistan were due to co-host the event with India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.During the first day of ICC’s Executive Board’s meeting, Australia and New Zealand firmly opposed Pakistan’s co-hosting of the matches of World Cup 2011.David Morgan said: “I am unhappy to make this decision but it is has been made to ensure security of the cricket players.”The World Cup Secretariat will now be shifted from Lahore and the World Cup matches will now be hosted by Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh.According to sources, India was hopeful of support from India in this regard but it failed to extend the same.Report of attack ...

BOAO: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Saturday announced the establishment of a 10-billion-dollar fund to help promote infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. Speaking at the opening of the Boao Forum on the tropical island of Hainan in south China, Wen stressed the importance of developing infrastructure in the region in the face of the global financial crisis."We should accelerate the development of regional and sub-regional transport, power and communication infrastructure to gradually achieve interconnectivity and form a network," he said in a speech broadcast live on state television.The annual Boao Forum aims to promote regional economic integration. Wen had planned to announce the new fund at an Asian summit in Thailand last week but it was cancelled due to violent demonstrations.BOAO: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Saturday announced the establishment of a 10-billion-dollar fund to help promote infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. Speaking at the opening of the Boao F...

NEW DELHI: The bodies of the nine suspected Pakistani terrorists -- all believed to have been involved in the attacks on Mumbai -- are still lying in a hospital morgue almost five months after the attacks occurred.Security is tight for the trial of the only surviving alleged Mumbai terrorist. One of the two public prosecutors trying the lone surviving suspected gunman in the Mumbai attacks told the dead suspects have not been buried because no one has come to claim them and local Muslim officials are refusing to bury the men in Mumbai's Muslim graveyards.Public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said he would soon be in discussions with officials to decide what should happen with the bodies.The burial issue has stoked controversy. Groups such as the Indian Muslim Council don't want the people buried in Muslim cemeteries because they have defamed the religion. Other Muslims have disagreed, saying burial should be available for any Muslim.

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed his country's armed forces as the "guarantor" of regional security, during a low-profile parade on Saturday marking Army Day in the Islamic republic."Iran's armed forces are the guarantor of security in the region," Ahmadinejad in a televised speech during the parade, refraining from the confrontational tone that has marked previous Army Day addresses. "Today the Iranian nation, with its religious armed forces, is ready to have a wide role in world management and to establish security based on justice across the world," he added. Local media had said that 140 fighter jets and other aircraft would stage an aerial display on Saturday but the show was cancelled due to what the media said was bad weather and poor visibility. In previous years, Iran -- which has long been at odds with the international community over its disputed nuclear drive -- has used army day to display its military might includi...

KABUL: NATO-led forces and Afghan troops killed three suspected militants during a raid Saturday in central Afghanistan, where insurgent attacks have spiked this year, officials said. At least two other militants died in an air strike in the south. The joint force was targeting insurgent commanders in a village in Logar province. The three suspected militants were killed in a gunfight following a call for them to surrender, the statement said.

ISLAMABAD: In India Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Saturday stunned everyone by saying that the Congress was as much responsible as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992. After blaming the BJP and its senior leader L.K. Advani for demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said that the Congress was also responsible for the razing of the 16th century mosque, an Indian television channel reported. "The BJP and its leader L K Advani, who is dreaming of becoming the next prime minister, were mainly responsible for demolition of the mosque, but the Congress cannot escape for its failure to protect it", Lalu said. The RJD chief had told an election meeting in Darbhanga constituency Friday that the Congress was also responsible for demolition of the mosque along with the BJP. He on Saturday said that if the Congress had wanted, it could have prevented the mosque's demolition.

RAMALLAH: Palestinian officials say a Palestinian teen was killed by Israeli army fire near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.The youth was killed late Friday near the Beit El settlement. The Israeli military says soldiers guarding the settlement spotted a group of Palestinians who threw firebombs toward the gate of Beit El. The military says troops fired warning shots and then toward the group. Palestinian security officials said Saturday that a16-year-old was killed and a 19-year-old was wounded in the leg. Also Saturday, the Gaza-Egypt border opened to allow Gazans seeking medical treatment to leave the blockaded territory. Gaza's borders have been virtually sealed since the Islamic militant Hamas seized control two years ago.

WASHINGTON: Buffeted by millions of digital scans and attacks each day, federal authorities are looking for hackers _ not to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation's networks.General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could ``think like the bad guy.'' Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems. And in the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates hung out his own help-wanted sign, saying the Pentagon will increase the number of cyber experts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011.Amid dire warnings that the U.S. is ill-prepared for a cyber attack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology to protect everything from the nation's electrical grid and stoc...

PORT-OF-SPAIN: President Barack Obama says the United States is seeking a ``new beginning with Cuba.'' The president made the remark in Trinidad on the first day of a summit of Western Hemisphere democracies. He said the United States is ready to engage with the Cuban government but cautioned the country would not simply talk for the sake of talking. Obama noted ``decades of mistrust'' and said he wants to talk with Cuban leaders about human rights, democratic reform and economic issues. The United States has announced eased restrictions on travel and finances to the Cuba, and Cuba has signaled willingness to talk with the new administration.

CHARLESTON: Top seed Elena Dementieva cruised into the semi-finals of the Family Circle Cup on Friday after her opponent Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia retired hurt. The Russian, who won Olympic gold in Beijing, will meet Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who trounced France's Virginie Razzano 6-2 6-0. Dementieva, who had lost only four games in her two previous matches, was leading 6-4 1-0 in the quarter-final when the seventh-seeded Slovakian retired with a left thigh injury.Fifth seed Wozniacki, who won last weekend's Florida claycourt title, completely outclassed 13th seed Razzano, but was banking on a sterner test in the semi-final. Another teenager in Sabine Lisicki of Germany booked a semi-final place, the 19-year-old riding out a comfortable 6-46-0 winner over Elena Vesnina of Russia. Lisicki, who upset world number five and second seed Venus Williams in the previous round, will play the winner of the quarter final bout between sixth seed Marion Bartoli of France and Hunga...

NEW DELHI: The lawyer representing the man alleged to be the lone surviving terrorist from the attacks on Mumbai last November said yesterday his client plans to plead "not guilty" to the charges.Abbas Kazmi, lawyer for Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, who police accuse of being the only gunman of a band of 10 to survive the attacks, told a special high-security court yesterday that his client was tortured into confessing to the attacks."I have filed a retraction application and hence he [Mr Kasab] is going to plead not guilty," Mr Kazmi told the Financial Times last night.Any plea of not guilty by Mr Kasab will create shockwaves in India, after Mr Kasab was allegedly captured on close circuit television and by press photographers while on a rampage through Mumbai's main train station with an AK-47 rifle in hand.Police claim he and his accomplices were trained as terrorists in Pakistan before arriving by boat in Mumbai, where they fanned out and attacked the train sta...

BEIJING: Eighteen people were killed and three injured in an explosion at a mine in central China, an official said Saturday, in the latest deadly accident to hit the nation's coal industry. The tragedy struck Friday afternoon at a mine in Chenzhou city in Hunan province when a detonator and explosives warehouse blew up, an employee at the city's coal industry bureau, who would only give his surname Li, told. "Up to this morning we have confirmed there are 18 dead and three injured," he said. Li said the victims were in dormitories next to the warehouse at the time of the explosion.According to the official Xinhua news agency, a further two people were missing, and police have said the detonators and explosives might have been illegally bought and stored. China's coalmines are notoriously dangerous. Official figures show that more than 3,200 workers died in collieries last year, but independent observers say the actual figure could be much higher, as many accident...

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ: Mexican police say two buses collided head-on in the southern state of Chiapas, killing at least 19 people.Federal police say in a statement that 62 more are injured, and several are in critical condition. The collision happened just after midnight Friday outside the town of Ocozocoautla, near the Guatemalan border. Police said it involved two passenger buses. One was carrying tourists bound for the coastal resort of Huatulco.

OTTAWA: A Toronto man has been arrested for allegedly procuring and trying to clandestinely export a device used to enrich uranium to Iran, federal police said Friday. Mahmoud Yadegari was detained after an "extensive" eight-week probe by Canada's federal police and foreign service, Canadian and US border officials, and the US Department of Homeland Security, police said in statement. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police allege Yadegari "attempted to procure and export items known as 'pressure transducers.'" The devices are used in the production of enriched uranium, for military applications or commercial use. Initially, police said the suspect was attempting to send them to Dubai, but at a press conference RCMP Inspector Greg Johnson told reporters they were ultimately destined for Iran."The declared point of destination was Dubai, United Arab Emirates, however we have evidence to support the fact its ultimate destination was Iran," Johnson said...

BOAO: China's Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday that the country's stimulus package is working and the economy is``better than expected.''He also vowed to expand the country's domestic demand and pull China out of the global economic slump. Wen spoke at the Boao Forum, an annual gathering of government and business leaders on the southern island province of Hainan.Wen said he is confident China can overcome the crisis but cautioned that global economic recovery will be a ``long and torturous process.'' ``We should not lose sight of the fact that the international financial crisis is still spreading, the basic trend of world economic recession is not reversed,'' he said.China has sufficient capital and rich labor resources, as well as institutional advantages to overcome the crisis, he said. Wen's comments came just days after China announced its economy expanded at its slowest pace _ 6.1 percent _ in at least a decade in the first quarter.

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is starting a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent Taliban from using radio stations and Web sites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks, according to senior U.S. officials.As part of the classified effort, American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations in Pakistan's lawless regions on the Afghanistan border that Taliban fighters use to broadcast threats and decrees.U.S. personnel are also trying to block the Pakistani chat rooms and Web sites that are part of the country's burgeoning extremist underground. The Web sites frequently contain videos of attacks and inflammatory religious material that attempts to justify acts of violence.The push takes the administration deeper into "psychological operations," which attempt to influence how people see the U.S., its allies and its enemies. Officials involved with the new program argue that psychological operations are a ne...

BEIJING: President Asif Ali Zardari said terrorism creating fear and scare in Asia. Addressing Boao Forum, President Zardari said Pakistan need global help to fight terrorism. Terrorism needs urgent check otherwise it will dampen hopes.He said terrorism and extremism are biggest challenges for the region. Global troops are present in Afghanistan. Terrorism needs to be tackle on urgent basis. President said he would utilize every forum to brief the world about prevailing situation.