Islamic World

Tehran, July 19: A total of 268 road accidents over the weekend has claimed the lives of near 60 people and left 367 others injured, a senior traffic police officer announced.

“During the previous weekend, the country saw 268 road accidents, which claimed the lives of 59 of our citizens and put 367 others in hospitals,” Head of Traffic Control Department, Colonel Hossein Alishahi, told ILNA.

“Drivers overlook traffic rules. Exceeding vehicle speed limits and failing to comply with double white lines top dangerous offences on the country’s roads,” he added.

Baghdad, July 19: Antique dealer Riyadh al-Khafaf has so few customers he hasn’t bothered to dust his collection of fine metalware from the early 20th century. Other dealers say they can go for days without seeing even a browser.

But while their business may be sparse, the two dozen or so antique shops in the Iraqi capital boast treasures of museum quality. Like Baghdad, a city of mosques with turquoise tiled domes and streets divided by barbed war and blast walls, the shops’ contents speak of both Iraq’s recent dark days and its more gloried past.

Madina, July 19: A ministerial panel has decided to close down seven historic mosques frequented by Haj and Umrah pilgrims at Mount Sala’ in Madina.

The sites, according to Abdul Aziz Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Huseyyin, Mayor of Madina province, will be taken on by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs for renovation ahead of becoming historic sites.

The decision was made at a meeting between representatives from the ministries of Interior, Islamic Affairs, and Municipal Affairs; the tourism authority was also represented at the meeting.

Kabul, July 19: An Australian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, bringing the number of casualties of the country in the war to 11.

The 22-year old soldier died when a bomb exploded in southern province of Uruzgan where Australian troops were preparing to search a suspected Taliban base.

Another soldier was also seriously injured during the mission, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston told reporters.

The explosion left three Afghan civilians wounded including a child, he added.

Gaza, July 19: The Palestinian Authority’s caretaker Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad calls on the US to devise a new plan and set a timetable for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I call anew on the United States to come up with a plan and a timetable for its application that will contribute to put an end to Jewish settlements and Israeli offensives, and lead to serious negotiations,” AFP quoted Fayyad as saying on Saturday.

Riyadh, July 19: Saudi Arabia’s only film festival has been cancelled, dealing a blow to hopes of an easing of clerical control over culture in a country where cinemas had been banned for almost three decades. Mamdouh Salem, one of the organisers of the Jeddah Film Festival, said yesterday:

“Late last night, the governorate of Jeddah notified us of the festival’s cancellation, after it received instructions from official parties. We were not told why.”
–Agencies

Tehran, July 18: Iran’s Intelligence Minister provides his views on the post-election events, and seeks to explain the role of both domestic and foreign elements in creating the unrest.

In Friday comments, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i claimed that close aides to the defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi knew that he would lose the presidential race so they tampered with the election polls prior to the June 12 vote.

Tehran, July 18: Iran’s newly appointed atomic energy chief said Saturday he hoped for a settlement to the dispute over the country’s nuclear programmes.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed the former envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali-Akbar Salehi, as the new head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

Salehi succeeded Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh whose resignation was reported on Thursday.

Cairo, July 18: A senior Islamic Hamas movement delegation is in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo to hold reconciliation talks with rival Fatah movement.

The delegation, led by senior leader Khalil al-Hayya, left the blockaded Gaza Strip to Cairo on Friday, Xinhua reported.

Hamas leader Mohamed Nasser said in a press statement that Saturday’s meeting will evaluate the previous rounds of dialogue between the two sides, adding “they will discuss issues related to political arrests in the West Bank and prepare for the upcoming round of dialogue due on July 25.”

Islamabad, July 18: Taliban fighters have resurfaced and begun conducting armed patrols in Buner district near the restive Swat valley, months after the Pakistani army claimed that the region had been cleared of militants, a media report said today. Taliban cadres have been carrying out armed patrols on roads in Buner district and established a check post at Pacha Killay over the past few days, local residents were quoted as saying by The News daily.

Baghdad, July 18: Iraqi officials outraged by the abuse of prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison are trying to contain a scandal of their own as allegations continue to surface of mistreatment inside Iraqi jails.

Accounts of Iraqis being beaten with clubs, blindfolded and coerced into signing false confessions are attracting increased attention partly because the United States is getting out of the prison business in Iraq. Since a security agreement took effect on Januray 1, the US has transferred 841 detainees into Iraq’s crowded prison system and more are on the way.

Tehran, July 18: An Iranian minister, who recently criticized a top decision-making council led by Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, has denied making the controversial comments.

“I never said the Expediency Council ruling is unconstitutional,” Minister of Justice Gholam-Hossein Elham told reporters on July 17, rejecting previous reports to the contrary.

Sana’a, July 18: A Yemeni Jewish woman wed an Israeli citizen the same day her older sister embraced Islam and married a Muslim without the consent of her parents, sources close to the family said.

Saeed Bin Saeed Al Naeti married off his 18-year old daughter Barakha to Mousa Shaghdari, a Yemeni Jew who left Yemen for Israel in 1994.

The father’s condition was that Shaghdari should leave Yemen with his bride as soon as possible, the sources said.

The couple is expected to leave Yemen for Israel this week, the sources said.

Tehran, July 18: A probe will be launched into the assault on one of the presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi in Friday prayers on July 17, Tehran Governor General says.

Morteza Tamaddon told Fars news agency that the attack will go under investigation as it was considered “suspicious.” He also called on security forces to identify and arrest those behind the attack.

“In our opinion, this incident is not a usual one. Suspicious elements have surely had a hand in masterminding and carrying out the plan,” Tamaddon said.

Gaza, July 18: Acting Palestinian Authority Chief says Israel has failed to fulfill its obligations for international agreements but Palestinians are loyal to the Middle East peace plan.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Mahmoud Abbas said that Israel has rejected a solution based on the coexistence of two independent states and also refused to halt its settlement activities in the Palestinian territory.

Tehran, July 18: The completion of Tehran’s subway system is four years behind plans due to the government’s lack of financial support, says the head of Tehran’s Railway Company.

The Iranian Parliament passed a bill last year which allowed Tehran’s City Council to use part of the country’s foreign exchange reserves to complete and modernize the city’s subway system with which an estimated1.5 million people commute daily.

Mohsen Hashemi, however, said on Saturday that the City Council has not received any sums from the government, Mehr news agency reported.

Tehran, July 18: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is gradually filling the positions for his second term’s Cabinet with his close allies.

Ahmadinejad appointed one of his youngest confidants, Mehrdad Bazrpash, as a deputy president and the head of Iran’s National Youth Organization to replace the cleric Mohammad Javad Haj-Aliakbari.

Bazrpash, 30, will need to combine his new responsibilities running Iran’s second-biggest automaker, SAIPA, the directorship of which was given to him 2 years ago by the president.

Tehran, July 18: The political crisis over Iran’s disputed election has flared up once again as the powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon criticising the repression of protesters claiming the poll was rigged.

Police fired tear gas as tens of thousands of government opponents chanted “Freedom, freedom” and “Ahmadinejad, resign, resign” while they listened to the sermon in the prayer hall of Tehran University.

Kabul, July 18: A US air force jet conducting coalition operations in eastern Afghanistan crashed Saturday morning, the military said in a statement.

The F-15E crashed at approximately 3:15 am with two members on board, it said. Their condition was not known.

The military did not disclose the cause of the crash but said it was not due to hostile fire.

—–Agencies

Mogadishu, July 18: Three foreign aid workers have been kidnapped in a raid by unidentified gunmen in a Kenya border town near Somalia, eye witnesses say.

“The authorities in Mandera (in Kenya) told us that those aid workers had been kidnapped. We’re now going to run after them,” Sheikh Osman, an al Shabaab official in the neighboring district in Somalia, said on Saturday.

The Kenyan officials did not immediately identify the nationalities of the aid workers kidnapped on Saturday and the organization for which they were working.

Kabul, July 18: A U.S. military spokesman says an F15E fighter jet has crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing both crewmembers.

Col. Greg Julian says the incident happened early Saturday, and is not believed to be a result of enemy fire.

The U.S. Air Force says the jet was conducting coalition operations at the time of the crash.

–Agencies

Jerusalem, July 18: Hezbollah’s secretary general blasts the international community for accepting Israeli aggression towards the Palestinians and the Lebanese.

“Israel is a racist state; a state which was invented; a state which was placed at the heart of our region that is respected by the whole world and the whole world expresses its understanding of its brutality and its killing of thousands,” said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

“The G8, the Security Council, and the entire world expressed their understanding of the Israeli act,” he added in a televised speech on Friday.

Jerusalem, July 18: Israel has sent envoys to Ethiopia to examine the applications of 3,000 Ethiopians who claim to be descended from Jews as 2,000 French Jews are to emigrate to Israel this year, an agency helping to arrange the trip said Thursday.

Some 100,000 Jews from Ethiopia already live in Israel. Many arrived in airlifts in the 1980s and 1990s in times of hunger and political strife in Ethiopia.

Ankara, July 17: A new Palestinian embssy building funded by the Turkish state was opened in Ankara Friday during a visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas, who was on a two-day visit to Turkey, expressed thanks on behalf of the Palestinian people to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, with whom he had talks earlier in the day.

Abbas also met the previous day with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu

—-Agencies

Tehran, July 17: Defiant supporters of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi staged fresh demonstrations in Tehran Friday, witnesses said, after a powerful cleric called for the release of detainees held in a post-election crackdown.

Thousands of Mousavi supporters, shouting “Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein!” and “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) demonstrated at various locations around Tehran university where Friday prayers were led by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.