Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh Al-Asheikh has called for reducing the cost of the Hajj pilgrimage, Arab News reported Wednesday. Al-Asheikh stressed the importance of early preparations for the Hajj this year and the completion of the tasks entrusted to the ministry as part of its mission to serve the pilgrims and create Islamic awareness. This year’s Hajj will be in September,…

Hackers invited by the US government as part of a pilot program to find flaws with five Pentagon websites discovered 138 security vulnerabilities, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday. The "Hack the Pentagon" event, the first "bug bounty" in the history of the federal government, attracted 1,410 computer-savvy Americans, according to the Defense Department. The program cost…

Twenty-four people were killed when Boko Haram fighters opened fire on mourners, a local community leader said Friday, in the second attack in northeast Nigeria this week after a relative lull. The attack happened at about 8:00 pm (local time) in Kuda village near the town of Gulak, in Adamawa state, according to Maina Ularamu, a former local government chairman in nearby Madagali. Adamawa police…

    French Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development, Jean-Marc Ayrault arrived Nay Pyi Taw Thursday night on a three-day visit to Myanmar, according to official report Friday. Ayrault's Myanmar trip is the first by a French government representative since Myanmar's new government took office. Ayrault will meet President U Htin Kyaw and his Myanmar counterpart Aung…

London: A 41-year-old British woman MP from the opposition Labour Party was killed today after being shot and stabbed in her constituency in northern England by a man who shouted "put Britain first" twice before attacking her, a week before the crucial referendum on UK's EU membership.     Labour MP Jo Cox was holding a meeting with constituents, in her local constituency when…

The US Senate has passed its draft of the National Defence Authorisation Bill, including a provision to set up a new fund to reimburse Pakistan for its efforts in the war against terrorism. The Senate version authorises $800 million under a provision called the `Pakistan Security Enhancement Authorisation’. It also fences $300m behind a similar Haqqani network provision that has existed in the…

A court in the Indian capital Delhi has sentenced five men to life imprisonment for the 2014 gang rape of a Danish woman in the city. The 52-year-old tourist was robbed and raped at knife point in January 2014. Nine people, including three minors, were arrested for the crime. One of the accused died, while the minors are being tried in a juvenile court. Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown…

A man has set off a homemade explosive device at Shanghai international airport, injuring four people as well as himself, Chinese officials say. The attacker threw a bottle containing explosives, which went off near a check-in counter in Terminal Two. The man then took out a knife and stabbed his own neck, officials say. In 2013 a man in a wheelchair detonated a bomb at Beijing airport to highlight…

ORLANDO: The gunman who killed 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida has been identified as an citizen of Afghan descent pledged allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston bombing in a 911 call, US television networks reported on Sunday.   Quoting law enforcement sources, CBS News named the shooter as Omar Mateen, lives in Port St Lucie, Florida.   Suspect Omar Mateen made the…

Fifty people are now known to have died in a shooting in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the city's mayor Buddy Dyer has said.   The gunman, named by officials as Omar Mateen, was killed after taking hostages at the Pulse club.   President Barack Obama said Americans were united in grief, outrage and "resolve to defend our people" after "an act of terror and an act…

Islamabad:  Former president Asif Ali Zardari has asked the US to "trust" and "mend ties" with Pakistan to defeat terrorism, amid tension between the two countries over an American drone strike that killed the Afghan Taliban chief in Baluchistan. Mr Zardari, who served as president from 2008 to 2013, also challenged those US Congressmen who doubt the intention of Pakistan…

When Sidwell Friends School asked President Barack Obama if he would like to speak at his elder daughter’s graduation this spring, he declined.   “I’m going to be wearing dark glasses,” he told a group of lunch companions during a visit to Detroit earlier this year, “I’m going to cry.”   Obama was true to his word Friday. He did not speak at Malia…

A Dutch woman is being detained in Qatar on suspicion of adultery after she told police she had been raped. The 22-year-old, who was on holiday, was drugged in a Doha hotel and woke up in an unfamiliar flat, where she realised she had been raped, her lawyer says. She was arrested in March on suspicion of having sex outside of marriage. She is due to appear in court on Monday. The alleged rapist is…