Mexico City  - Five police officers were killed in a grenade attack in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, near state capital Guadalajara, local authorities said Thursday.

The attack was allegedly perpetrated by hired killers around 11:30 pm Wednesday (0530 GMT Thursday) at a petrol station on the road linking Guadalajara to Lagos de Moreno.

The state's Public Security Minister, Luis Carlos Najera, confirmed the deaths and said nine out of 10 grenades launched exploded.

New Delhi, Oct. 9 : Dussehra, which marks the triumph of good over evil, was celebrated peacefully in the national capital and different parts of the country with full religious fervour on Thursday.

Also known as Vijayadashmi, the festival is celebrated as the day when Lord Rama killed Demon King Ravana in a fierce battle. The main function for Vijayadashmi was held in the popular Ramlila Ground here.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Congress President Sonia Gandhi attended the Dussehra celebrations in Subhash Maidan here.

London  - Two doctors went on trial in Britain Thursday over failed car bomb attacks on a London nightclub and Glasgow airport last year which the prosecution said were aimed at "committing murder on an indiscriminate and a wholesale scale."

Bilal Abdulla, a 29-year-old Iraqi doctor, and Jordanian neurologist Mohammed Asha, 27, were members of an Islamic terrorist cell who wanted to "kill the innocent and seize public attention around the world," prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw told Woolwich Crown Court in London.

New Delhi, Oct 9 : India ranked 50th in the latest list of global competitiveness ranking compiled by the World Economic Forum.

India has dropped two places from last year''s 48th spot in the annual Global Competitiveness 2008-09 Report, while China has improved its ranking to the 30th spot.

The US has topped the league of 134 countries even as the financial turmoil is ravaging its economy.

Among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia India and China) economies, China has the highest rank, followed by India, Russia (51) and Brazil (64).

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell below 80 dollars for the first time since October 2007 on Wednesday, according to data released by OPEC on Thursday.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC crude stood at 77.38 dollars Wednesday, a decrease of 2.66 dollars from 80.04 dollars on the previous day.

Washington, Oct 9: Afghanistan is in a "downward spiral" and there are serious doubts on the ability of the Afghan Government to stem the rise in the Taliban''s influence there, according to a draft report by US intelligence agencies.

The report finds that the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the government of President Hamid Karzai and an increase in violence by militants who have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks from safe havens in Pakistan.