Washington: Influential lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard has figured in the list of 25 most influential women in the US Congress. Gabbard, 33, the only Hindu member of the US Congress, was listed in CQ-Roll Call's new book, "Powerful Women: The 25 Most Influential Women in Congress" in the ranks of the most accomplished and influential female leaders in Congress. The book discusses that despite just two years in Congress, Congresswoman Gabbard has been able to work with Democrats and Republicans and become a leading voice on military and foreign affairs on both the House Armed Services Committee, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She is a US Democrat Congresswoman from Hawaii.
Sri Lanka police bust fake Indian currency racket
Colombo: Two persons have been arrested in Sri Lanka for printing fake Indian currency, police said. Following information received by the Crime Investigation Department (CID), two people were arrested on Saturday, a spokesman said. The two from the Colombo suburbs of Ja-Ela and Wattala were found to be exchanging fake Indian currency notes with genuine notes, police said. Police have recovered 25 fake currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination from the first person and another 156 fake currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination from the second person.
27 killed as Taliban and ISIS jihadists clash in Afghanistan
Kabul: Ongoing clashes between Taliban and Islamic State jihadists in western Afghanistan have left at least 27 insurgents dead and 20 other people injured, officials said. Afghan military spokesman Mohamad Hanif Rezaey specified that 15 ISIS jihadists and 12 from the Taliban were killed in fighting in three areas within Farah province's Khak-e-Safid district. Among the injured were 13 ISIS members and seven from Taliban ranks. "Taliban fighters captured alive 12 alleged ISIS members, including four women of foreign nationalities, however, their nationalities are still uncertain," the spokesperson explained, adding that Afghan security forces would not intervene unless civilians become involved. Armed feuds broke out just a few hours after Nato's mission in Afghanistan warned of the growing IS presence in the country, while the government has been at war with the Taliban for 14 years. In the last two weeks, at least 19 insurgents from both groups have lost their lives in clashes to gain control over several strategic areas in the province of Nangarhar in eastern Afghanistan.
29 militants killed in military operations in Balochistan
Islamabad: At least 29 militants, including those of the dreaded Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, outfit have been killed in military operations in the country's restive Balochistan province during the past one month. The militants killed belonged to the outlawed Baloch insurgent groups and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). They were targeted in different districts of the province. Balochistan home minister Sarfaraz Bugti and Brigadier Mohammad Tahir of Frontier Corps provided details of the operation against the militants and miscreants, the Express Tribune reported. "Frontier Corps (FC) killed 29 militants associated with the Baloch separatist groups and the TTP, including two suicide bombers, during the search operation in the province," they said. Bugti said TTP militants were sneaking into Balochistan from North Waziristan where 'Zarb-e-Azb' operation is in its decisive phase, but they were not allowed by the FC to set up camps in the province.
John Nash, mathematician who inspired 'A Beautiful Mind,' killed in car crash
New Jersey: Mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Prize winner whose long time struggle with mental illness inspired the movie "A Beautiful Mind", was killed in a car crash along with his wife in New Jersey. The couple were in a taxi when the driver lost control, crashed into a guard rail and hit another car on the New Jersey Turnpike, said police. Nash, 86, and his wife, Alicia, 82, were thrown from the taxi and pronounced dead at the scene. Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994 for his work on game theory and the mathematics of decision-making. The film "A Beautiful Mind" was loosely based on his battle with schizophrenia. Nash received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1950 and spent much of his career there and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Mob storms Christian colony in Pakistan, attempts to torch Church
Lahore: A mob rampaged through a Christian locality in this eastern Pakistani city and attempted to torch a Church after looting several houses following reports that a Christian man had allegedly committed blasphemy. The mob vandalised the thickly-populated Sanda locality of the after police arrested a Christian man, Humayun Faisal Masih, under the blasphemy law on a complaint. On the reports that police have arrested a suspected blasphemer, a number of people gathered outside the Ravi Road police station and demanded handing over the accused to them. The police, however, refused and dispersed the mob which then headed to Masih's house in Sanda and looted his house and several other Christian houses. "The Christians left their houses on the information that the mob was heading towards them. The mob looted several houses and torched the furniture and other household items. It also tried to torch a Church in the locality," Christian leader Aslam Pervaiz Sahotra said.
3 dead in attack targeting Pakistan President's son
Quetta: Three people were killed and four others injured when Baluch separatists targeted a convoy carrying the Pakistani president's son in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. "An explosive laden motorbike parked at a roadside was blown up with a remote control device when the convoy of President Mamnoon Hussain's son, Salman Mamnoon was passing in Hub Industrial Zone near the border with Karachi," local police official said. He said the president's son was unharmed as his vehicle had already passed the spot where the device exploded hitting a rickshaw and the last vehicle of the convoy. "The rickshaw driver, a 12-year-old child in the rickshaw and a passer-by died at the spot while four police personnel of the security squad received minor injuries," he said.
Meerak Baluch, spokesman of the Baluch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.
Suicide bomber kills 21 at Saudi Shi'ite mosque
Dubai: A suicide bomber killed 21 worshippers in a packed Shi'ite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, residents and the health minister said, the first attack in the kingdom to be claimed by Islamic State militants. It was one of the deadliest assaults in recent years in the largest Gulf Arab country, where sectarian tensions have been aggravated by nearly two months of Saudi-led air strikes on Shi'ite Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen. More than 150 people were praying when the huge explosion ripped through the Imam Ali mosque in the village of al-Qadeeh, witnesses said.
Asia's largest Cross being built in Karachi
Karachi: A 140-foot bullet-proof cross is being erected here in Pakistan's largest and most populous city by a devout Christian who calls it a "symbol of God". Parvez Henry Gill, Christian Pakistani businessman is building the largest cross in Gora Qabristan, one of the oldest Christian cemetery.
Gill said he decided to build Asia's largest cross "after God asked him to do something for the Christian community" in the Muslim majority nation, Dawn reported. "Cross is a work of God," one of the Muslim worker said. Of Karachi's 21 million population, about one million is from the Christian community. Gill says the cross will "be a symbol of God, and everybody who sees this will be worry-free." The cross stands on a 20-foot underground base and according to Gill it is "bulletproof and made of tons and tons of steel, iron and cement." "If anyone tries to hit this cross, they will not succeed," Gill said. The Christians are often marginalised in Pakistan and face hostility.
