By IANS,

Lucknow : As many as 210 SIM cards issued against fake identities were seized and four people were booked Thursday in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district, along the Indo-Nepal border, police said.

A Special Operations Group of the Uttar Pradesh police seized the SIM cards issued by a Airtel franchisee shop in Bahraich, about 120 km from here. The police did not rule out the possibility of use of these SIM cards for anti-national activities.

By Awais Saleem, IANS,

Lahore : A day after three back-to-back blasts by militant outfit Lashkar-i-Islami in a Shia congregation in Lahore killed at least 35 people and wounded over 200, the city in Pakistan's Punjab province wore a deserted look Thursday while traders have declared a three-day mourning.

A mass funeral of the dead would be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, officials said.

Almost all parts of the city and particularly the area near Lower Mall wore a deserted look. The Traders Alliance and the Shia Action Committee have announced a three-day mourning.

By IANS,

Patna : As a second deadline expired Thursday, Maoists said the fate of four Bihar policemen held captive by them would now be decided by a 'jan adalat' or kangaroo court. The families of the cops are desperately pleading with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for help.

Maoist spokesperson Avinash called up local TV channels and said they would hold a jan adalat Thursday. The Maoists had said that the rebels - who were abducted after a gunfight in Lakhisarai district Sunday - would be killed unless eight jailed Maoist leaders were released.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

Washington : An armed man shot and killed by police after a tense four-hour standoff at the Discovery Channel's headquarters told a TV channel he had several bombs strapped to his body "ready to go off."

The gunman who had taken three hostages Wednesday in the Discovery building in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring in neighbouring Maryland spoke to an NBC producer for about 10 minutes during the siege.

By Asit Srivastava, IANS,

Naugarh (Uttar Pradesh) : Call it an act of atonement. A woman who is in jail in Uttar Pradesh for torturing her daughter-in-law has donned the role of a teacher for fellow prisoners and their children.

Famous as 'masterni', 45-year-old Urmila Devi is in a prison here in Siddharthnagar district, some 300 km from Lucknow, serving a sentence of three years. But she is spreading literacy behind the bars.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

Washington : The United States has designated the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, linked to the botched Times Square bombing attempt by a Pakistani American, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday also designated two senior TTP leaders Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali Ur Rehman as specially designated global terrorists as the US imposed financial and travel sanctions on the Pakistan based group that trained Times Square suspect Faisal Shahzad.

By IANS,

Jerusalem : Two Israelis were wounded Wednesday night in a shooting attack in the West Bank, media reports said.

The victims, a man and a woman, were travelling in a car when they were shot at 11 p.m. local time (2000 GMT). The man was in critical condition and the woman sustained light injury, Xinhua said, citing a report of Israel's Channel 10 TV.

The incident, which happened at Rimonim Junction near Ramallah, is the second similar attack against Israelis in two days. Gunmen Tuesday evening killed four Israeli civilians travelling in a vehicle near Hebron.

By IANS,

Washington : An armed man, who held three hostages in the Discovery Communications building in the US state of Maryland, was shot dead Wednesday afternoon, police said.

All three hostages are safe, J. Thomas Manger, police chief of Maryland's Montgomery County, was quoted as saying by The Washington Post.

Law enforcement officials fired at the suspect, James J. Lee, because police "believed the hostages' lives were in danger," he said.

Police had been negotiating with Lee for several hours. Manger said Lee displayed "a wide range of emotions" during the talks.

By IANS,

United Nations : The UN Wednesday said the number of civilians who had been brutally gang raped recently in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo now exceeds 240.

The UN alleged July 30 that Congolese militants of the Mai-Mai group and Rwandan rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) descended upon villages in Kibua and the Walikale areas of the North Kivu province and engaged in the violent assault of at least 154 civilians.

By Awais Saleem, IANS,

Islamabad : Three back-to-back blasts in a largely attended Shia congregation rocked Lahore, capital of Punjab province Wednesday, killing at least 28 people and injuring more than 200, an official said.

Lahore's Executive District Officer (Health) Fayyaz Ranjha confirmed death of 28 people in the blasts, adding that 213 injured were brought to several hospitals. SP City Faisal Gulzar said that the first two blasts were suicide hits and the nature of third blast was still uncertain.