Islamabad, Dec. 13: In the wake of last month's terror attacks in Mumbai and the subsequent crackdown by the Pakistan Government on the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba and its political wing – the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a coalition of five major Jihadi organisations, led by militant commander Syed Salahuddin, has disappeared.

According to The News, these Jihadi organizations have temporarily dissolved themselves, closed down their offices, removed all signs and asked their leaders to stay quiet.

"Following the Mumbai attacks and the subsequent tension between Pakistan and India, the United Jihad Council has decided to remain silent," The News quoted an unnamed UJC commander, as saying.

New Delhi, Dec. 13 : The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, will inaugurate a two-day international conference of jurists on terrorism, the role of law and human rights here on Saturday.

The event, which is taking place on the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, comes almost three weeks to the day Mumbai was subjected to a terror strike.

New Delhi, Dec 13: President Pratibha Patil will open the Nature Trail at president''s estate here today.

The Nature Trail is a result of Patil''s keen interest to protect the ecological heritage of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and to bring people closer here.

It is a part of the Roshini project which is an effort taken on the directions of the President to ecologically make the President''s Estate a green, energy efficient and a zero waste model township.

Nicosia, Dec. 13 : Moussa Maarafi, a member of the Kuwaiti Supreme Petroleum Council, has said that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at its meeting in Algeria next week should take a decision to cut oil production by two million barrels a day (b/d).

Maarafi added that the oil cartel needs to set up a new mechanism to control oil markets if it wants to raise oil prices to 75 dollars a barrel and stressed the need for coordination among all the members of the organisation.

OPEC should now rethink its policy, he said, taking into account the interests of both producers and consumers. He also stressed that OPEC and Russia, the world's biggest non-OPEC producer, should coordinate their moves.

Lahore, Dec. 13: Criticizing the Pakistan Government for toeing the line of the United States through its crackdown on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) Chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad said that move in the wake of a UN ban on the organization, was solely aimed at favouring India, a key strategic ally of Washington.

He described the current situation as painful, especially when Pakistan has rendered yeoman support as a frontline ally in the global war on terror.

London, Dec. 13: FIA president Max Mosley on Friday ushered in a new Spartan age for Formula One, the sport's most extravagant showpiece.

He announced a ban on in-season testing, major revisions to engine regulations and dramatic cuts in aerodynamic development.

According to The Telegraph, these moves will see team budgets cut by roughly 30 per cent in 2009.

Based on the 10 teams'' spending last season of three billion dollars, it should see more than a billion lopped off the collective bill at one stroke.