London, May 27
A 20-year-old man has been stabbed in Woolwich here, days after British Drummer Lee Rigby was butchered and beheaded near the same spot, the police said today.

The victim was stabbed last evening just 300 metres from where Drummer Rigby was struck by a car and hacked to death.

The Scotland Yard said officers were called to the Wellington Street — just around the corner from the John Wilson Street where Rigby was killed — following reports of a stabbing yesterday.

In the latest incident, the man sustained non-life threatening stab wounds to his chest and arm, and was subsequently taken to a south London hospital for treatment.

The Metropolitan police said a man had been arrested in connection with the assault without elaborating.

There was nothing to suggest the stabbing was related to the death of Drummer Rigby, sources said.

"We are working on the basis that the stabbing is not linked with anything to do with Wednesday," the source said.

The stabbing comes after the family of Drummer Rigby visited the exact spot of his murder and added to a sea of floral tributes at the nearby Woolwich Barracks.

The counter-terrorism police made their ninth arrest over his murder yesterday, while the two main suspects remain under armed guard in hospital. — PTI 

London, May 27
The police investigating the grisly murder of a soldier in London by two Islamists made another arrest today, as 1,000 far-right protesters demonstrated near Prime Minister David Cameron's office.

A 50-year-old man, held on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, becomes the tenth person arrested over the hacking to death of 25-year-old Lee Rigby near a barracks in Woolwich on Wednesday.

This includes the two prime suspects — Michael Adebolajo (28) and Michael Adebowale (22) — who remain under armed guard in separate London hospitals after being shot at by the police at the murder scene.

The attack by two men spouting Islamist rhetoric has sparked community tensions, with several mosques attacked in recent days and a charity reporting a surge in anti-Muslim incidents.

About 1,000 members of the English Defence League (EDL) staged a protest near Cameron's Downing Street office today, waving red and white England flags and banners saying "no surrender".

EDL leader Tommy Robinson addressed the largely male crowd on Whitehall, many of them shouting "Muslim killers off our streets", saying: "They've had their Arab Spring. This is time for the English spring." The crowd, about half the number who attended a protest in the northern city of Newcastle on Saturday, shouted "coward" as Robinson told them the prime minister was on holiday "because he doesn't care". — AFP

London, May 27
Two former students from Pakistan have defied death threats to tie the knot in Britain's first Muslim lesbian civil partnership.

Rehana Kausar (34) and Sobia Kamar (29) took their vows at a registry office in Leeds and instantly applied for political asylum in the UK, according to local media reports.

"This country allows us rights and it's a very personal decision that we have taken. It's no one's business as to what we do with our personal lives,” Kausar, originally from Lahore, told the Birmingham-based 'Sunday Mercury' newspaper.

"The problem with Pakistan is that everyone believes he is in charge of others’ lives and can best decide about the morals of others but that’s not the right approach. We are in this state because of our clergy who have hijacked our society, which was once tolerant and respected individuals’ freedoms," she added.

Kamar, originally from Mirpur in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, described her partner as her "soul mate".

Relatives of the couple said the women had received death threats both in the UK and from their native Pakistan, where homosexuality is still deemed illegal under Pakistani law.

During the ceremony earlier this month, the couple dressed in white bridal wear reportedly told the registrar that they had met three years ago while studying business and healthcare management at Birmingham, having travelled to the country on student visas, and had been living together in South Yorkshire for about a year. — PTI

Paris, May 27
Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, begins her first solo official visit abroad today, a two-day sojourn to Paris that will include a trip to a charity of which she is a leading patron, a tour of the Louvre and a stop at a haute couture workshop.

"The Duchess is visiting France on her own for the first time without Prince Charles and it is her first official visit abroad on her own," an official from the British embassy told AFP.

The centrepiece of her visit will be a tour of Emmaus, an international charitable movement founded in Paris in 1949 by the Catholic priest Abbe Pierre to combat poverty and homelessness, he said.

The wife of the heir to the British throne is a president of Emmaus in Britain.

Camilla will visit the Emmaus facility this afternoon in the posh western Paris suburb of Bougival, where Abbe Pierre converted a factory to provide shelter for 30 homeless persons.

It now houses a shop selling unwanted and donated goods -- ranging from furniture and electronic items to rare books, raising more than $3.8 million in sales every year on average.

She will visit the communal and kitchen areas and deliver a speech in French before going on to another Emmaus facility in the nearby town of Chatou -- a workshop where electric goods are repaired before being sold.

The Duchess of Cornwall will attend a reception in her honour at the British embassy this evening where British writers, actors, chefs, influential fashion designers and entrepreneurs have been invited.

On Tuesday, Camilla will visit a barracks of the Republican Guard near the famed Place de la Bastille for a cavalry display, meander in a city market and visit a haute couture workshop before making a private one-hour visit to the Louvre.

"It combines the things dear to her heart -- her commitment to Emmaus, her love for horses and her interest in fashion," the official said. — AFP

President Asif Zardari has summoned the newly elected National Assembly on June 1 and announced a schedule for transition to the new government led by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif by June 6.

The present caretaker administration under Mir Hazar Khan Khoso will pack up on June 5, information minister Arif Nizami told mediapersons here on Monday.

This will be the first time in country's history that a civilian government would peacefully take charge after its predecessor under the PPP completed full five-year term before making way for an interim government to oversee the elections.

The formal election of Pakistan's new Prime Minister by members of the National Assembly will be held on June 5, officials said.

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif is set to become premier for an unprecedented third term.

PML-N officials said his election to the post will be a mere formality as the party has the required numbers in the 342-member National Assembly or lower house of Parliament.

The first session of the new National Assembly will be convened on June 1. Soon after the House convenes, the newly elected members will take oath. Nomination papers for the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly will be submitted on June 2 and elections will be held the next day.

Nomination papers for the post of Prime Minister will be submitted on June 4 and the election will be held the following day.

The PML-N won 126 of the 272 directly elected seats in the National Assembly in the May 11 general election.

Eighteen independent candidates recently joined the party, taking its tally of directly elected seats to 144. The PML-N will also be allocated 37 reserved seats for women and non-Muslims.

This will give it 181 seats in the 342-member House, or 10 seats more than the 171 required for a simple majority.

The PML-N's strength in the National Assembly is set to increase further as several parties -- including the PML-F, National People's Party and National Party -- are expected to enter into an alliance with it.

However, the PML-N's dream of getting Sharif elected unopposed as the new premier has been shattered as Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf has announced it will field veteran politician Javed Hashmi for the post. This is more a symbolic gesture rooted in the PTI’s opposition to the PML-N. Hashmi is a former PML-N leader who quit the party and joined the PTI last year. (With Agency inputs)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday despatched his special envoy Satinder K Lambah to Lahore to meet PML-N leader and Prime Minister-designate Nawaz Sharif. Lambah conveyed to him Singh’s greetings and good wishes for his tenure as the Prime Minister. — TNS

Houston, May 27
Six days after a ferocious tornado devastated Moore in Oklahoma, US President Barack Obama visited the city's residents, consoling them and and promising that the government will be behind them "every step of the way".

The president's tour of the city included visits to the victims and first responders and a firsthand look at the destruction brought by a twister that was rated as the most powerful on the five-step scale used to measure a tornado's might.

The White House said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has already provided $57 million in rebates and incentives to help build about 12,000 storm shelters in Oklahoma.

Once on the ground in Oklahoma, Obama urged the American people to make contributions, saying the damage was "pretty hard to comprehend". Obama noted the tornado destroyed some 1,200 homes and damaged thousands more.

The President also thanked Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and Moore's Mayor Glenn Lewis for their quick response, and praised other local officials instrumental in helping save lives and jumpstart the town's recovery efforts.— PTI