Paris, May 26
A state anti-terrorism unit is investigating the stabbing of a French soldier in Paris that the police said might have been inspired by the killing of a British serviceman in a London street.

The police are hunting for a bearded man about 30 years old and possibly of North African origin who fled into a crowded train station after attacking the 23-year-old soldier from behind with a knife or a box-cutter on Saturday.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls tasked a Paris anti-terror unit with the investigation.

He said on Saturday night that the attack's spontaneous nature recalled the daytime murder of a British soldier on May 22 by two men shouting Islamist slogans.

Police union UNSA spokesman Christophe Crepin said there were similarities with the London attack.

A police source said the attacker fled without a word after striking the soldier, who was patrolling the La Defense business neighbourhood west of Paris with two other servicemen when he was stabbed in the back of the neck.

The assailant struck at least once and narrowly missed the soldier's jugular vein. On Sunday, the soldier was recovering at a military hospital near Paris, French media said. The police originally described the attacker as tall, athletic, dark-skinned and wearing an Arab-style tunic under his jacket.

But the source said the police now had doubts about the tunic after reviewing surveillance footage, saying it could be a sweater instead. — Reuters

London, May 26
The British police have arrested three more persons in connection with the murder of a soldier who was butchered and beheaded on a busy London street this week by two suspected Islamist extremists.

Two men, aged 24 and 28, were detained at an address in south-east London yesterday, while a 21-year-old man was arrested in the street in Charlton Lane, Greenwich, all of whom were held on suspicion of the conspiracy to commit the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday. — PTI

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has decided to field Javed Hashmi as its candidate for the Prime Minister’s slot against his one-time boss Nawaz Sharif spurning efforts to get Sharif elected unopposed.

But Syed Khurshid Shah, senior politician of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), hinted his party could consider the proposal if approached.

Shah was chosen as PPP’s parliamentary party leader with the prospect of becoming Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly because the PPP has the largest number of seats (31) in the Opposition against PTI’s 28 and is also likely to be backed by the MQM which has 18 seats.

The suggestion to elect Nawaz Sharif Leader of the House unopposed was mooted emulating the example of Yousaf Raza Gilani who got unanimous vote of confidence after being elected in 2008.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, vice-chairman, PTI, said his party dismissed the idea to promote democratic traditions knowing fully well Nawaz Sharif’s unassailable position in the number game. Party sources, however, did not rule out support when the Prime Minister-elect seeks the mandatory vote of confidence.

Islamabad, May 26
The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan have issued a fresh threat to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf, currently detained in his palatial farmhouse over a string of high-profile cases.

In a video posted on the jihadi website Umar Media, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said, "Soon, we will punish this Satan (Musharraf) to death for his wicked deeds."

"From Balochistan to Waziristan, Musharraf engulfed this country in blood and fire. He is the killer of hundreds of innocent students of Lal Masjid," Ihsan said.

This is the second video issued by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan with a threat against Musharraf.

Taliban leaders said Musharraf would be targeted for joining the war on terror and for cracking down on militants. Musharraf angered militants when he ordered the army to launch an operation against extremists holed up in the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in 2007 which left some 100 persons dead. — PTI

Portland, May 26
A US teenager who intended to blow up his school will be charged with attempted aggravated murder after six bombs were found in his bedroom, a prosecutor said today.

Grant Acord, 17, planned to attack his school in Oregon in a plot "forged and inspired" by a 1999 mass shooting at a high school in Columbine, Colorado, said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson.

Acord will be charged as an adult and also faces six counts of manufacturing and possessing a destructive device after investigators found the six bombs in a secret compartment in his bedroom, Haroldson said.

Acord was taken to a juvenile jail Thursday night after police received a tip that the youth was making a bomb to blow up West Albany High School.

Haroldson said Acord had written plans, a checklist and a specific timeline for the attack. The bombs investigators found included pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, a Drano bomb and a napalm bomb, he said.

The police found no bombs during a search of the high school. Haroldson declined to provide the specific date Acord allegedly planned to attack the school, but said it would be included in court paperwork to be filed after the weekend.

Haroldson said he's not aware that the youth had any major problems, such as a suspension, at school.

"In any case that you have a young person that in essence plans to take a video game approach to killing people at school, you have to take a close look at the mental health issues," he said. "And the process will certainly provide for that once he's represented by counsel." Phone listings did not appear to be available for either of the boy's parents to reach them for comment.

The district attorney said it did not appear the teenager was targeting a specific person or group of people. He said Acord will likely be arraigned Tuesday.

"I can't say enough about how lucky we are that there was an intervention," the district attorney said. "When I look at the evidence in the case, I shudder to think of what could have happened here." — AP

New York, May 26
Veg egg! In a good news for vegetarians, a US company says it is developing nutritious eggs from plant materials as substitutes for chicken eggs.

For decades, egg substitutes of various types have been around, however, more scientific methods could finally produce new products that actually taste good, said Josh Tetrick, CEO of Hampton Creek Foods, a company based in San Francisco, California, that is developing plant-based egg substitutes.

People have come up with egg and meat alternatives, with decidedly mixed results. But only 8 per cent of plant species have been explored for food alternatives, so there could be many others that would work to replace eggs, Tetrick said.

To achieve better results, Tetrick's company is deconstructing the egg systematically, 'LiveScience' reported.

Eggs have some amazing properties, such as the ability to enable oil and water-based foods to mix permanently. So the company is analysing hundreds of different plant-based compounds to determine how well they emulsify.

Scientists are making hundreds of "microcakes" with candidate replacements in test tubes in order to replace eggs in baked goods.

They are also analysing the protein content and molecular weight of many different compounds to make sure they can replace the nutritional benefits of eggs.

Hampton Creek Foods, so far, has created a powdered egg product for baked goods. It was convincing enough that billionaire Bill Gates tried a muffin and couldn't tell the difference, the report said.

According to Tetrick, production of eggs and other livestock is environmentally taxing. Livestock consume more food than it would take to feed the 1.3 billion people who go to bed hungry every night, and are responsible for 51 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions due to flatulence and land needed to produce their food, he said. — PTI

A fan dressed in a Star Wars costume takes part in a parade in Spain on Saturday to mark the 30th anniversary of the premiere of the film “The Return of the Jedi”. — AFP

11 dead, 16 hurt in Myanmar bus crash 
Yangon: Eleven people were killed and 16 injured after a bus rammed into a bridge after suffering a puncture in central Myanmar, state media reported on Sunday. The Yangon to Mandalay bus, which was carrying 27 passengers, hit a traffic island after its tyre burst and then "plunged headlong" into the side of a bridge on Saturday, according to the state-run Myanmar language newspaper Myanma Ahlin. — AFP