DHAKA - Bangladeshi police broke up a protest by tens of thousands of religious hardliners and shut down an Islamist television station on Monday after 37 people died in some of the fiercest street violence for decades.Hundreds more people were reported injured in running battles as riot police ...

DHAKAHundreds of thousands of Islamists demanding a new blasphemy law blocked highways and fought running battles with police, leaving four people dead in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Sunday, police said.Chanting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is greatest!") and "One point, One demand: Atheists must ...

YANGON : Police in Myanmar, where mobs this week desecrated mosques and burned homes, said Thursday they would charge a Muslim woman for blasphemy after she apparently collided with a young monk on the street, sparking the unrest. Win Win Sein and another Muslim woman were detained by police in ...

ISTANBUL - An Istanbul court on Monday slapped world-renowned pianist Fazil Say with a 10-month suspended jail term for blasphemy. The court handed down the sentence after finding Say guilty of "insulting religious values of a part of the population" in a series of tweets that critics said insulted ...

DHAKA  - Bangladesh’s prime minister has ruled out a new blasphemy law despite a mass campaign by Islamists to introduce the death penalty for bloggers whom they accuse of insulting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).As part of their push for a change in the law, the Hefajat-e-Islam group on ...

 ISLAMABAD - Members of the Senate Standing Committee on National Harmony have stressed that people levelling false allegations in blasphemy law, should be faced the legal consequences under the country’s laws.The members were attending Senate body meeting held here to receive briefing ...

LAHORE - A Pakistani headteacher caught over blasphemy was Wednesday released on bail, his lawyer said.Asim Farooqi, 77, of Farooqi Girls’ High School, was released after the Lahore High Court granted him bail against a Rs200,000, his lawyer Jawad Ashraf said.A lower court had early this ...

LAHORE  - A court on Saturday refused bail to the principal of a school caught in a blasphemy row over a piece of homework allegedly containing derogatory references to the prophet Muhammad (PBUH).Asim Farooqi, 77, was remanded in custody for 14 days on charges of blasphemy – which can ...

The Saudi Arabia Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh said that Islam is being maligned in the name of freedom of speech and democracy highlighting that blasphemy would not be tolerated.In his Hajj Sermon at Masjid-e-Namra in Maidan-e-Arafat Thursday‚ he said the world of Islam has been entangled ...

KARACHI - Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has stressed the US and the UN to declare the blasphemy as international crime and announced to take up the issue in United Nations and OIC.The prime minister was addressing a gathering organised at CM House Karachi for distributing cheques of Rs0.4 ...

A cleric who submitted evidence against a Christian girl accused of blasphemy has been arrested on suspicion of evidence-tampering and desecrating the Quran, police said Sunday.Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, the imam of the mosque in Rimsha's area who first handed over evidence, was arrested on ...

LAHORE - Governor Latif Khosa said here Thursday that no amendment would be made in the Blasphemy Law, asserting that no such legislation on the law was being envisaged by the government. The fact finding committee constituted by President Asif Ali Zardari is merely aimed at stopping the path of ...

LAHORE A Conference held by Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat through a resolution Thursday demanded of the Parliament to carry a resolution in favour of the Blasphemy law and end to the Committee set up at the head of Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti to amend the Law. The Paighame Hussain ...

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday assured the nation that no amendment in the blasphemy laws would be made but at the same time made it loud and clear that his government would not let any one misuse these laws. Addressing Ulema and Mashaikh Conference here at National ...

Prime Minsiter Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Tuesday urged religious leaders to propagate the true interpretation of Islam and educate people about its teachings of tolerance and mutual respect for each others religions. Addressing religious scholars at the Ulema and Mashaikh Conference 2011 at the ...

Pakistan has no intention of amending its controversial blasphemy law, a government minister said Thursday, despite a global outcry over a Christian mother sentenced to death. Conservative religious groups have called for a national strike, threatening protests and anarchy if the government makes ...

KARACHI Politicians and members from civil society have condemned the misuse of the blasphemy act in the country and demanded of the Government to make amendment in the law. They expressed their serious concerns over the orchestrated incidents occurred at Hyderabad in which Dr Naushad Ahmed ...

Governor Punjab Salman Taseer has said that he called for review and not annulment of blasphemy laws, report said on Friday. Talking to media after attending Punjab Assembly parliamentary party meeting, Taseer said that he took the mercy petition of death convict in blasphemy case Aasia Bibi to ...

Chief of the Sunni Ittehad Council Sahibzada Fazal Karim has said that terrorism has distorted the image of the nation across the globe, adding that those persuading people for suicide attacks are not loyal to Pakistan. According to media reports, Chief of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) Sahibzada ...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The government plans to change blasphemy law to check its misuse by extremist groups, officials said on Thursday. The law, which carries the death penalty for blasphemer, is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan. Liberal and secular groups have called for the repeal of the ...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan live in fear of persecution and even execution or murder on false charges of blasphemy, the World Council of Churches says. The Council, a global body linking Protestant and Orthodox churches in 110 countries, has called on ...

Former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia said spending more than one year in solitary confinement was difficult and left a "deep mark" on her mind, according to an interview published Friday. The former prime minister, who had been detained since last September, was released on bail ...