LAHORE: Thousands of Islamist activists hit the streets on Friday, demanding holy war and torching US flags to condemn a $10 million bounty slapped on the founder of a terror group.

The Defence Council of Pakistan, an alliance of right-wing organised the rallies to denounce the US move against Hafiz Saeed, who established the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The day’s largest demonstration came in Lahore, a stronghold of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the charity seen as a front for LeT.

HOUSTON - A towboat fueled with 11,500 gallons (274 barrels) of diesel sank in the Mississippi River at New Orleans overnight but there was no immediate evidence of a spill and the river was not closed, a Coast Guard spokesman said Friday.

A safety zone has been put in place at the scene near the river bank at Marrero, Louisiana, across from New Orleans, to alert and control vessel traffic in the vicinity, but the river remained open, said spokesman Steve Lehmann.

Police in Pasadena, California, have asked the FBI to review the shooting death of an unarmed black college student by two white officers.

Kendrec McDade, 19, was fatally shot on March 24 after police received a 911 call about an armed robbery. Officers responded and saw McDade and a second teenager, and when the two suspects split up, they chased McDade and shot him when they thought he was reaching for a gun.

Pasadena Police Chief Phillip Sanchez said in a statement posted Thursday on the department's website that he had asked the FBI to consider reviewing the shooting.

SANFORD, Florida - "Shaken Baby Syndrome" was cited on Friday in the defense of George Zimmerman, the Sanford, Florida, man who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, in a case that has sparked a widespread public outcry.

Hal Uhrig, a lawyer and former Gainesville, Florida, police officer who recently joined Zimmerman's defense team, cited in a TV interview the brain damage that can seriously injure or kill an infant.

DOHA: Afghan soil will not be used to launch attacks against any country after foreign troops withdraw, the war-torn nation’s foreign minister told Al-Jazeera in an interview, excerpts of which were received by AFP on Friday.

“Afghan soil will not be used against any country in the region,” Zalmai Rassoul said, when asked if the United States would be allowed to continue drone attacks on Pakistan after all foreign combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

SARAJEVO - With row upon row of empty red chairs, one for each of the 11,541 victims of the siege of Sarajevo, Bosnia on Friday remembered when war broke out 20 years ago and the West dithered in the face of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War Two.

The anniversary finds the Balkan country deeply divided, with power shared uneasily between Serbs, Croats and Muslims in an unwieldy state ruled by ethnic quotas. It languishes behind ex-Yugoslav neighbors on the long road to the European Union.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration's man in charge of squeezing Tehran over its nuclear program is unapologetic for the difficulties faced by banks in their dealings with Iran since the U.S. tightened sanctions against the country.

NEW DELHI: India will deploy at least 2,000 police personnel for Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to New Delhi and Ajmer, a report said on Friday.

Zardari will meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a ‘quick’ lunch before setting off for Ajmer, where he will visit the shrine of Muslim saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti on Sunday, April 8.