News in brief.

Gilani to brief parliament

ISLAMABAD: Faced with mounting criticism from the public and media for his government’s response to the US raid that killed Osama, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would brief the parliament on Monday to “take the nation into confidence” on the issue. The announcement came after Gilani held a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

‘Osama, Zawahiri split 6 years ago’

Washington: Osama and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, likely to be the new chief of al-Qaeda, “parted ways” six years ago, after Osama was “marginalised” by the Egyptian surgeon, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said. “They had parted ways six years ago,” with Osama being sidelined because he no longer had funds to support operations, the official was quoted as saying by Wall Street Journal.

US drone in Yemen missed al-Awlaki

WASHINGTON: The US drone attack that killed two mid-level al-Qaeda militants in Yemen on Thursday was targeting Anwar al-Awlaki, leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, US media reported. CBS News and The Wall Street Journal, citing Yemeni and US officials, said on Friday that Awlaki was not hit. “We were hoping it was him,” a US official told CBS News.

Taken off US flight, say Muslim leaders

Nashville: Two Muslim religious leaders say they were asked to leave a commercial airliner in Memphis and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard. Masudur Rahman, who is also an adjunct instructor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, said by phone from the terminal at Memphis International Airport that he and Mohamed Zaghloul, of the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis, were asked to get off the Delta Connection flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. Rahman said he was dressed in traditional Indian clothing and his companion was dressed in Arab garb, including traditional headgear.

(source:.indianexpress.com)

================================================