COLOMBO, June 19, (AFP): Several hundred Muslim-owned businesses shut down in the Sri Lankan capital on Thursday to protest deadly riots by extremist Buddhists, defying President Mahinda Rajapakse’s plea to stay open. Shops and restaurants in central Colombo were shuttered following the riots in two mainly Muslim coastal resorts popular …

7 security forces and 10 rebels killed in clashes MANILA, Philippines, June 19, (AP): Philippine security forces battled Abu Sayyaf militants in the south on Thursday in fierce clashes that killed seven troops and 10 rebels in the latest confrontation in the insurgency-wracked region, military officials said. Government forces were …

AMMAN, June 19, (AFP): A Jordanian court Thursday reduced the sentence of a Pakistani man who killed his teenaged wife and her alleged lover last year “to cleanse his honour”, a judicial official said. “Amman criminal court today initially condemned the 28-year-old Pakistani to death by hanging but immediately reduced …