KABUL: The Taliban announced Mullah Akhtar Mansour as their new leader on Friday, marking a historic power transition for the militant movement that has waged a 14-year insurgency in Afghanistan. The Taliban also announced his deputies -- Sirajuddin Haqqani, who leads the Taliban-allied Haqqani network and has a $10 million US bounty on his head, and Haibatullah Akhundzada, former head of the Taliban courts. The anointment of Mansour -- seen as a moderate and a proponent of peace talks -- comes a day after the Taliban confirmed the death of their near-mythical leader Mullah Omar, who led the fractious group for some 20 years. The power transition raises hopes that Mansour's leadership will pave the way for an end to nearly 14 years of fighting as the US-backed Afghan government struggles to contain the Taliban's intensifying summer offensive.

Gay Pride attack

JERUSALEM: An ultra-Orthodox Jew accused of stabbing six people at a Gay Pride march in Jerusalem weeks after his release from jail for a similar attack lashed out in court on Friday, Israeli media reported. "I do not accept this court's authority," said a defiant Yishai Shlissel, representing himself at a hearing. "This court is part of the mechanism of evil," Haaretz newspaper's website quoted him as saying at the Jerusalem magistrate's court. "I have no interest in cooperating at all. I do not recognise any of the regime's institutions," he said. Police said Shlissel's detention was extended for 12 days.

Pre-poll violence

COLOMBO: One person was killed and at least 12 were injured on Friday in a shooting incident in the Sri Lankan capital in the run-up to the Parliament elections due to take place next month. Election monitors said the shooting incident claimed the first victim of the 2015 parliamentary elections. Police said a group of ruling United National Party supporters were engaged in campaigning activities in the Kotahena area in Colombo to support former UNP legislator and Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake when gunmen travelling in a vehicle opened fire. Elections to elect a new Parliament will take place on August 17 with the UNP and the United Peoples Freedom Alliance being the main contenders. — Xinhua