Islamic World

Baghdad, JUly 19: One Iraqi soldier was killed and six people were wounded in twin bomb attacks in Abu Ghraib, just west of the Iraqi capital, police said on Sunday.

The soldier died when a roadside bomb planted near a police checkpoint exploded. A second soldier and two policemen were wounded in the blast, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

Three other people were injured when a car bomb exploded in an outdoor market in Abu Ghraib, which lies 20 kilometres to the west of Baghdad, police said.

Kabul, July 19: A civilian military aircraft working with international forces and a US helicopter crashed in Afghanistan on Sunday, while a NATO soldier and 35 Taliban militants were killed in volatile southern region, officials said.

The civilian helicopter, which was working for the international forces in southern Afghanistan crashed during the take-off from Kandahar province’s airfield on Sunday, NATO said in a statement.

Canada, July 19: Thousands of Canadians have been ordered to evacuate their homes after wildfire spread through a residential area in the country’s west.

Officials said on Sunday that the fire erupted in west of Kelowna, British Columbia, Saturday afternoon.

The British Columbia Forest Service reported that 4,500 homes have been ordered to evacuate and over 10,000 people have been displaced.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, although at least nine houses have been destroyed so far.

Ankara, July 19: Thousands of people in Turkey have poured into the streets to throw their weight behind efforts to try coup leaders plotting to bring down the government.

Around 5,000 people convened in Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul on Saturday demanding action in an investigation into an alleged coup plot against Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The demonstrators called for a free and fair trial of the suspects without foreign intervention.

Gaza, July 19: Hamas intelligence sources say they have received word of a pre-planned assassination plot against senior members of the resistance movement.

Top Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said Sunday that there is compelling evidence that an unidentified group intended to stage a number of terrorist operations against resistance leaders to sabotage long-awaited Palestinian reconciliation talks.

For months, Palestinian factions have been striving to reach an agreement on forming a unity government and setting up a date for elections.

Tehran, July 19: Former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani will discuss the current political crisis with senior clerics in the religious city of Mashad in north-eastern Iran, state media reported Sunday. “I will hold talks with the high-ranking clerics over the current developments,” Rafsanjani told Mehr news agency upon arrival in the Mashad airport.

Rafsanjani’s speech at the Friday prayer ceremony in the Tehran university provoked controversy within Iran’s political circles.

Mosul, July 19: Kurdish Peshmerga militias have the right to remain in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an Iraqi Kurdish general on Sunday said in defiance of the Arab nationalist governor there. General Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government’s Ministry of Peshmergas, said Governor Athil al-Najifi had overstepped his authority when he recently promised to eliminate Peshmerga paramilitary fighters from Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Gaza, July 19: Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah on Sunday decided to postpone talks on forming a “national unity” government until August 25, a Palestinian official said.

The senior official, speaking to the German Press Agency dpa on condition of anonymity, said the rivals and Egyptian mediators agreed to postpone the talks until after Fatah’s general assembly on August 4.

Tehran, July 19: Iran’s oil minister says the country is committed to reducing its crude oil exports in order to increase the export of more valuable oil products.

Gholam-Hossein Nozari stressed that decreasing the amount of crude exports is a “strategy” of the Islamic Republic.

Today, Iran has the capacity to produce 4.3 million barrels of oil per day, Nozari said, adding that the Oil Ministry is tasked with turning the country into the biggest producer of petrochemical products in the region, IRNA reported.

Jerusalem, July 19: Israel on Sunday rejected a U.S. demand to suspend a planned housing project in east Jerusalem, threatening to further complicate an unusually tense standoff with its strongest ally over settlement construction.

Israeli officials said the country’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, was summoned to the State Department over the weekend and told that a project being developed by an American millionaire should not go ahead.

Baghdad, July 19: Iraq’s first major religious festival since US troops pulled out of its cities ended largely peacefully on Saturday, officials said, a sign Iraqi forces may have passed a first serious solo test.

Over the weekend, millions of pilgrims, mostly dressed in black, streamed to the golden domed Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in northern Baghdad, site of some of the deadliest attacks on Iraqi civilians since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Washington, July 19: The US defense secretary has admitted that the American public will likely stop backing the war in Afghanistan a day after a top US military chief said he can not see an end to the long-fought war.

“After the Iraq experience, nobody is prepared to have a long slog where it is not apparent we are making headway,” Robert Gates told The Los Angeles Times.

Gates admitted that the American public, and the US military are unwilling to get trapped in an aimless quagmire abroad, following the Iraq war.

Tehran, July 19: With a sharp lookout for Jundullah Ringleader Abdulmalek Rigi, Iran hands down the death penalty to another two members of the notorious Jundullah terror group.

Ebrahim Hamidi, the head of the judiciary in the restive southeast province of Sistan-Baluchestan, announced Sunday that two Jundullah militants would receive the death penalty for their involvement in terrorism.

Iran’s Revolutionary Court convicted the militants of being (mofsede fel arz) (one who spreads corruption on Earth) and Mohareb (one who wages war against God).

Baghdad, July 19: The Iraqi government has taken a step forward for a more independent handling of the country’s affairs, imposing new restrictions on US activities in Iraq.

Following a security accord between Baghdad and Washington, which ended the presence of US troops on the streets of Iraq on June 30, the Baghdad Operations Command issued a letter to top US commanders limiting their movements in the city.

Iraq’s top commanders called on their US counterparts to “stop all joint patrols” in Baghdad, banning US resupply convoys from traveling in day time.

Kabul, July 19: The Taliban has released a 28-minute video of an American soldier who was captured by the group after he went missing in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.

The clip shows the soldier saying the date he was captured — July 14th . The captive soldier adds he went missing after he lagged behind on a patrol.

He also calls for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

“Well I’m scared, scared I won’t be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner,” the soldier said on the video.

Tehran, July 19: A group of Iranian hardliners raised objections on Sunday to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s decision to appoint close aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as the country’s new first Vice President.

“It is imperative to terminate the appointment of Mashaie as first vice president in order to respect the wishes of the majority of the people,” said Hossein Shriatmadari, managing director of the hardline Kayhan newspaper who was appointed to his post by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tehran, July 19: Former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani will discuss the current political crisis with senior clerics in the religious city of Mashad in north-eastern Iran, state media reported Sunday.

“I will hold talks with the high-ranking clerics over the current developments,” Rafsanjani told Mehr news agency upon arrival in the Mashad airport.

Rafsanjani’s speech at the Friday prayer ceremony in the Tehran university provoked controversy within Iran’s political circles.

Tehran, July 19: Iran’s new Atomic Energy Organisation chief Ali Akbar Salehi Saturday urged more efforts to gain mutual trust in order to end the disputes over the country ‘s nuclear programme, local English-language Press TV reported.

‘We hope that, instead of a continuation of the hostilities over the past six years, more efforts will be made to obtain mutual trust. So that the case lasting for six years will be closed as soon as possible,’ Salehi was quoted as saying in his first official interview since his appointment with the state broadcaster IRIB.

London, July 19: Observing that deployment of more foreign troops is not a solution to rid his country of extremists, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has appealed to the West to develop a new strategy for the war-ravaged nation, including talks with the Taliban, even their top leader Mullah Omar.

“Military operations are no longer enough,” Karzai told ‘The Sunday Times’ as the offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan continued to claim the lives of British and other coalition soldiers.

Damascus, July 19: The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, will not adopt a policy that will jeopardize the peace of the Middle East, said Hamas politburo chief Khalid Mishaal.

These remarks came during Mishaal’s meeting Saturday night with Russia’s Middle East Envoy Alexander Sultanov, who is visiting Damascus within his regional tour.

Sultanov is scheduled to discuss with Syrian Foreign Minister Waleed Al-Muallem the situation in the region, and the peace process.

Djibouti, July 19: A Djibouti official welcomed Sunday the visit of His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to the African country, and hailed it as “historic” and one that emphasized the Gulf state’s keenness to strengthen relations between the two sides.

Baghdad, July 19: Millions of pilgrims poured across the Imam’s Bridge in Baghdad on Saturday, on their way to a Shiite shrine that has been the target of some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq this year.

That the bridge was open was a sign of Iraqi security forces’ confidence as they faced the biggest challenge to their ability to keep order since US forces withdrew from Iraqi cities and towns on June 30.

Jeddah, July 19: King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, received at his palace here on Saturday a number of Saudi ambassadors-designate to a number of brotherly and friendly countries who came to take the oath of office.

Those who took oath of office included ambassador-designate to Hungary Nabil Bin Khalaf Bin Ahmad A’ashoor, ambassador-designate to Guinea Amjad Bin Hosain Bin Abdul Hameed Bdaiwi and ambassador-designate to Syria Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah Ala’aifan.

Makkah, July 19: About 95 percent of the Mas’a tier expansions at the Grand Mosque in Makkah has been completed, with the focus now shifting to completing the Mas’a dome before the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

The expansion will provide a capacity exceeding 300,000 people per hour on an area of 72,000 sq. meters.

The total width of the Mas’a will reach 40 meters over three tiers connected with the ground floor, the first floor and the roof by escalators and lifts.

London, July 19: With Britain’s prime minister under attack for under-equipping the armed forces, a report adds fuel to the fire, revealing that a shortage of helicopters has forced British forces in Afghanistan to use Russian choppers to fight the Taliban.

A report by The Mail on Sunday claimed that the Ministry of Defense is using civilian Russian-built Mi-8 and Mi-26 transport helicopters with freelance Russian and Ukrainian pilots to transport supplies and soldiers in Afghanistan.