Islamic World

Doha, July 24: The Political Council for the Iraqi Resistance, which represents four major groups, has engaged with the United States as well as a number of Arab countries.
“It is a major achievement for the resistance to force a military superpower like America to negotiate,” Ali Al-Gabbouri, the Council’s Secretary General and official spokesman, told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview.

He said they held two rounds of negotiations with representatives of the US government and signed an initial protocol on the mechanism of negotiations.

Dubai, July 24: In a damning indictment, a top US General has said the ISI is fomenting “chaotic activity” in Kashmir and Afghanistan and asked the Pakistani spy agency to change its “strategic thrust”.

The US is having “discussions” with the Pakistani leadership on this issue, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

Elaborating, he said the ISI has been supporting militant groups in Kashmir and the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) bordering Afghanistan.

Dubai, July 24: The United Arab Emirates government will control and monitor all private sector wage payments from September to protect workers’ rights, a government aide said Thursday. The move comes as some crisis-hit firms delay salaries.

The payments system will give the Labor Ministry access to information on all salary and wage payments in the private sector, the ministry said.

Jeddah, July 24Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Prince Naif before the king’s departure for Morocco from the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on Thursday.

Baghdad, July 24: The U.S. military says an American soldier has died of non-combat related injuries in Iraq.

A statement says the Multi-National Division — Baghdad died Friday in an eastern section of the capital and the incident is under investigation.

The military hasn’t identified the soldier pending notification of relatives.

At least 4,329 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003. That’s according to an Associated Press count.

–Agencies

Dubai, July 24: Emirates Airline, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), plans to increase its flights to Angola and South Africa later this year and will organise promotional activities in both the countries ahead of the launch, the WAM news agency reported.

Flights to the South African city of Durban will start Oct 1, while new services to the Angolan capital of Luanda will begin Oct 25, the airline said in a statement Thursday.

The launch of flights to Durban will supplement the daily services to Cape Town and Johannesburg, it said.

Kurdish, July 24: “I must ask you to leave because you are criticising the authorities on state property,” said a Kurdish official, interrupting our conversation with a critic of the Kurdish government.

We were speaking to Peshko Hama Fares Mohammed, a representative of Goran, or Change, the new political party which is seeking to dislodge the two parties which have ruled Kurdistan for the past 18 years. The result will be decided in a hard-fought general election taking place tomorrow.

New York, July 24: An American-born terrorist-in-training learned how to shoot rockets and assault rifles and construct a suicide bomber’s vest at al-Qaida camps in Pakistan, according to documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Bryant Neal Vinas took courses in plastic explosives and bomb theory, according to a statement he gave to investigators as part of a terrorism case in Belgium. The statement, provided to the AP on Thursday, was to be released after a hearing Friday, officials said.

Jeddah, July 24: The Saudi companies demanded the government to lift ban on cement export, as they have 10 million additional stock of cement with them.

The cement manufacturing companies said this ban has caused to dwindle their income to a great extent.

Saudi Cement Company, the country’s second-largest producer, said its second-quarter net profit declined 2.3 per cent as a government export ban hit sales.

Kabul, July 24: A few days after the Taliban were toppled in 2001 I was in Kabul. The city was jubilant and full of hope for the future, and I remember talking to some laughing teenage girls in the street. One was excited because she could now go back to school. Another sang terrible disco songs and showed me dance steps she had been practising for five years in secret. A third debated whether to take off her burka. “Is it safe enough yet?” she asked me. “For five years, I lived inside this prison.”

Makkah, July 24: Amid an overwhelming ambience of spirituality characterized by Takbeer chants of (Allahu Akbar) and Tahleel (La Ilaha Illallaah) Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal early Thursday washed the inside walls and floor of the Holy Kaaba using pieces of cloth soaked in Zamzam water mixed with rosewater.

After the washing, the prince did Tawaf (circumambulation) around the Kaaba, performed the two Rakaas, kissed the Black Stone and drank Zamzam water which was being served by senior Sadin of the Kaaba (keepers of the keys of Kaaba) at the door of the Kaaba.

Cairo, July 24: In a bid to contain the spread of swine flu, Arab health ministers agreedto ban the elderly and young children from going on Umrah and hajj in Saudi Arabia this year.

“Hajj and ‘Umrah will continue with some conditions,” said Ibrahim al-Kerdani, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman in Egypt, reported. “Some groups will be excluded from hajj: people over the age of 65, people under the age of 12 and people with chronic illnesses.”

Kabul, July 24: The first televised debate ahead of Afghanistan’s presidential poll has been held – without Hamid Karzai, the country’s president.

Karzai, widely seen as the front runner in the August 20 election, pulled out less than 24 hours before the debate took place on the country’s most popular television network on Thursday.

An empty podium marked his absence while his policies were criticised by two of his biggest challengers, Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister, and Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister.

Baghdad, July 24: The Iraqi prime minister has admitted US troops could stay in the country beyond 2011.

Under the US-Iraq Status of Forces agreement, which sets out a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, American troops must exit the country by December 31, 2011.

But Nouri al-Maliki said at the US Institute of Peace in Washington on Thursday: “The security relations between the Americans and the Iraqis … is a relationship based on co-operation and all the foundations and rules that were put forth in the agreements.

Jerusalem, July 23: In a setback to Israel”s defence preparedness, Tel Aviv”s newly upgraded Arrow II missile defence system, in which India is also said to have evinced keen interest, failed at least three tests over the past week due to ”technical glitches”. The tests were conducted at a US range off the California coast.

Kabul, July 23: It is a year since I last saw Malalai Joya. She was at Stansted airport preparing to return to Afghanistan: a tiny figure clutching a large holdall and a gold-coloured trophy.

It was the Anna Politkovskaya Award for human rights campaigning and Ms Joya was the second recipient. Some might say the trophy brings with it a curse. It was created in memory of the Russian journalist gunned down outside her Moscow apartment in 2006.

Riyadh, July 23: Arab health ministers agreed on Wednesday to ban certain people including the elderly and young children from pilgrimage to Makkah in an effort to control the spread of swine flu.

“Hajj and Umrah will continue with some conditions,” Ibrahim al-Kerdani, World Health Organisation spokesman in Egypt, said after a meeting of Arab health ministers in Cairo.

“Some groups will be excluded from hajj: people over the age of 65, people under the age of 12 and people with chronic illnesses,” he told reporters.

Sana’a, July 23: At least three people were killed and more than 20, including six policemen, were injured in clashes between security forces and supporters of a separatist leader in southern Yemen on Thursday, witnesses said.

The clashes erupted during a rally in Zunjubar city, some 420 kilometres south of Sana’a, held by members of the Southern Movement, a group calling for the south of Yemen to secede from the north, witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa.

Israel, July 23: Israeli defence officials say three tests in the US of a missile defence system meant to shield Israel from Iranian attack have been aborted over the past week.

They say an upgraded version of the already-deployed Arrow 2 was being tested off the coast of California. They say communication glitches between the missile and the radar led U.S. defense officials to abort.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the tests.

Tehran, July 23: Iran is to launch a domestically-built semi-floatable drilling rig for the Caspian Sea which will immediately begin exploration for oil and gas reserves.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to participate in the inaugural ceremony of the semisubmersible rig called Iran-Alborz, the largest in the Middle East, says Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari.

Tehran, July 23: Amid a continued political controversy in Iran over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first vice presidential pick, cabinet members engage in a verbal quarrel with the president over his insistence on the choice.

The quarrel broke out at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting between President Ahmadinejad and the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi.

Kyrgyzstan, July 23: People in Kyrgyzstan, a Muslim nation key to U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan, streamed to the polls on Thursday in a presidential vote watched closely for any signs of unrest that could disturb peace in Central Asia.

From its nomadic settlements in the north to the ethnically divided south, Kyrgyzstan’s 2.7 million voters started casting their ballots at 0200 GMT in a poll certain to extend incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s rule by another five years.

Phuket (Thailand), July 23: Pakistan will take action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba if proof was found of its involvement in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said here Thursday.

“We will take action against LeT if any proof is found,” Qureshi told reporters when asked what action Pakistan planned to take against the perpetrators of the Nov 26 Mumbai carnage.

Riyadh, July 23: Riyadh will host a major international conference aimed at removing the misconceptions about Islam and its Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz issued an order Tuesday directing the Saudi Society for Sunnah [Tradition of the Prophet] and its Sciences to organise the International Conference on “Prophet of Mercy” on May 9 and 10 next year.

The conference will highlight the salient features of Islam as a religion of mercy and tolerance as well as its denunciation of all forms of extremism and terrorism.

Tehran, July 23: With continued attempts in Iran for staging rallies in protest at the presidential election results, Tehran’s governor general says most of those arrested in the latest gathering of July 21 have been released.

“A handful of people were arrested in Tehran’s Haft-e-Tir Square on July 21,” Etemad-e- Melli daily quoted Morteza Tamaddon as saying on Wednesday.

“Most of Tuesday’s detainees have been released,” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iran’s police department put the number of those arrested in demonstrations after the Friday Prayers on July 17 at 40.