Jeddah, July 06: Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier, Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Supreme Haj Committee, has called on agencies participating in Haj works this year to make the Haj easier with security and peace of mind for the pilgrims.
This is a strategic goal, Prince Naif said adding that there should be no laxity or negligence in implementing the Haj plan.
Riyadh, July 06: Seven persons from a single family died and 12 others were injured in a 25-vehicle pile up near the town of Al-Azama on the Jizan to Bish highway Sunday.
The accident, reportedly a result of poor visibility due to high winds and dust, was said by eye witnesses to have begun when a fuel truck collided with a car transporting the family.
Rescue services were rushed to the site and the injured were taken to Bish Hospital, only a few kilometers from the scene of the accident.
–Agencies–
Kabul, July 06: Two roadside bombs killed six American troops in Afghanistan on Monday, as a suicide bomber attacked the gate of the main NATO base in the south, officials said.
The attacks come as thousands of U.S. Marines continued with their massive anti-Taliban offensive in the south, the biggest U.S. military operation since the ouster of the Taliban from power in 2001.
American troops recently received new guidelines limiting use of airstrikes in order to minimize Afghan civilian casualties that threaten local support of foreign forces’ presence.
Abu Dhabi, July 06: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has signed an agreement with the UN to support humanitarian operations in Pakistan, WAM news agency reported Monday.
Under the agreement, UAE will provide basic relief items such as tents, blankets, sleeping mats, plastic sheeting and mosquito nets for the internally displaced people in Pakistan.
Tehran, July 06: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Western countries on Monday against interfering in Iranian affairs after its disputed presidential election, state television reported.
Iranian authorities accuse the West, particularly the United States and Britain, of inciting unrest in the Islamic Republic following the June 12 vote in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected.
“We strongly warn leaders of some Western countries not to interfere in Iran’s internal matters … The Iranian nation will react,” Khamenei said.
Dubai, July 06: A UAE newspaper linked to the ruler of Dubai was off the stands today after a court ruling over a 2006 story alleging doping of racing horses.
Arabic daily newspaper Emarat Al Youm and its website will be suspended as of today for 20 days for a story that alleged that the Warsan Stables, owned by the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, gave steroids to horses during a race.
The ruling was issued by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal and upheld by the Supreme Federal Court in a defamation case against the Arabic daily.
Makkah, July 06: Police have questioned security guards at King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Al-Zahir district of Makkah for failing to confront a gunman who killed a male nurse on duty three days ago.
The guards said they ran off when the gunman — later identified as Fahd Al-Ruhaily — haphazardly opened fire soon after entering the hospital. They said they lacked the means to stop an armed intruder.
Riyadh, July 06: Minister of Islamic Affairs Saleh Al-Asheikh said during the second session of the Certified Trainers Forum for Promoting Dialogue that the mosque is just a place and that human element in this place is what counts.
Al-Asheikh said during Sunday’s session entitled “The Importance of Mosques in Promoting Dialogue” that training programs are available for preachers to equip them with necessary knowledge and tools. For example, one program urges one monthly Friday sermon on the evils of domestic violence.
Abu Dhabi, July 06: Paleontologists on Sunday announced that they had discovered the 8-million-year-old fossilized remains of an elephant, a hippo and a giant ostrich in western Abu Dhabi.
Archaeologists from Yale University and Abu Dhabi’s Authority on Culture and Heritage (AUCH) have been studying fossilized remains from the Miocene Era, some 6-8 million years ago, the AUCH said in a statement.
Gaza, July 06: The de-facto prime minister of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, alleged Monday that his security forces had unveiled a spy network in the Gaza Strip that served Israel through the Ramallah- based administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“In recent arrests, the security services were able to dismantle several security cells that chanelled dangerous but false information to Ramallah and then to the Israeli occupation,” Haniya told reporters in Gaza.
New Delhi, July 06: Afghanistan National Army chief General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi arrived on a four day official visit to India on Monday. He will be meeting senior military and defence officials and is likely to discuss issues like training of Afghan Army officers.
Mohammadi, who took over the Afghanistan Army in 2002, was given a guard of honour at South Block lawns on his arrival. He will be visiting military installations in Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Gaza, July 06: A UN human rights mission investigating possible war crimes in the Gaza Strip has resumed its public hearings with the victims of Israel’s deadly offensive.
The two-day session at the UN’s human rights headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, which follows a first set of hearings in Gaza nearly 10 days ago, aims at giving a chance to those who were not able to travel to Gaza to present their testimony.
In Gaza, Palestinians who were trapped in the three-week onslaught detailed the gory killing of their relatives to the fact-finding mission one after another.
Kabul, July 06: Sixteen Afghan nationals working for the UN-sponsored demining agency, who were kidnapped over the weekend, have been freed unharmed.
The personnel from the Mine Detection and Dog Centre (MDC) — which is part of the overall UN mine clearing agency in Afghanistan known as UNMACA — were seized by unknown gunmen in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktia province on Saturday.
The provincial tribal chiefs were able to secure the release of the men late on Sunday after making contact with the kidnappers, Sherin Agha Ahmad Shah, head of the MDC in Paktia said on Monday.
Tehran, July 06: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday warned some Western states of “negative impact” if their interference in the internal matters of Iran continues.
“The Western stance will have a negative impact in future relations,” the ayatollah said in a speech carried on state television.
Khamenei was referring to alleged Western interference in the recent unrest over alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election.
Mogadishu, July 06: Somali al-Shabaab fighters have reportedly issued a deadline for the country’s government to hand over all the weapons in its possession.
On Monday, top al-Shabaab commander Sheik Mukhtar Abu Subeyr said the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and its affiliates have five days to deliver up their armaments, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Subeyr warned his group’s gunmen against showing mercy to the government’s officials in their captivity or the ones they could capture.
Tehran, July 06: A senior Iranian official has warned that any aggression against his country would trigger a “decisive and full-scale response”.
“I think that America and Israel are fully aware what kind of result such a wrong judgment will entail,” said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, in Japan on Monday.
“That kind of erroneous judgment poses a threat to the entire Middle Eastern region and the world,” he added.
Baghdad, July 06: A car bomb wounded 10 civilians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Monday, and gunmen shot dead a traffic policeman, in further violence there after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from cities.
Grenade attacks Sunday killed a policeman and wounded many other people in what seemed like an attempt by insurgents to take advantage of the U.S. absence to ramp up violence in their last urban holdout.
Kandahar, July 06:Afghanistan’s insurgent Taliban movement said Monday they had launched a guerrilla operation to counter a major assault by US Marines on their stronghold in Helmand province.
Operation Foladi Jal, or “iron net” in Pashtu, would teach the Marines “a lesson,” Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an unknown location.
About 4,000 Marines poured into the southern province on the border with Pakistan in an operation called Khanjar (dagger) that has faced little resistance since it was launched five days ago.
Tehran, July 06: Amid growing relations between Iran and Qatar, the Emir of Qatar Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has lashed out at efforts aimed at destabilizing mutual ties.
Qatar will not allow anyone to damage relations between Tehran and Doha, al-Thani said in a meeting with the visiting Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani on Monday.
He added that Iran has always supported Arab nations and the oppressed Palestinian people in particular, Fars news agency reported.
London, July 06:A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, the Defence Ministry said, the fifth to die in five days as UK forces take part in a major U.S.-led offensive against Taliban strongholds.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the soldier from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards was killed by a blast in an operation near Gereshk in central Helmand Province. Next of kin have been informed.
Tehran, July 06: Iran is ready to take “real and decisive” action if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities, a senior Iranian parliamentary official said Monday.
The remarks by Alaeddin Broujerdi, the head of Iran’s parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, came after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden signaled that Washington would not try to prevent any such Israeli assault.
“Both the U.S. and Israel are aware of the consequence of an erroneous decision,” Broujerdi told reporters at the Iranian Embassy in Tokyo.
Gaza, July 06: In another attempt to break the crippling Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, a group of ‘Viva Palestina’ activists has arrived in Egypt on a humanitarian mission.
About 100 US activists with tons of medical supplies arrived in Egypt on Sunday on their way to Gaza, hoping to break the deadly Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the territory –home to 1.5 million Palestinians.
The activists are part of a convoy of at least 200 people – all Americans – planned to be in Gaza by July 13. The convoy will head to the border after the rest of the group and supplies arrive.
Tehran, July 06: The Iranian Navy has deployed two warships to join international efforts to preserve shipping security in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden.
Iran’s Deputy Naval Commander, Gholam-Reza Khadem, said Monday that the dispatched warships are set to replace aging vessels and protect Iranian merchant containers and oil tankers from Somali pirates in the volatile Gulf of Aden.
The dispatch comes only a week after the Iranian navy saved one if its giant oil tankers from the grips of Somali pirates.
Istanbul, July 06: Three construction workers were killed and nine other men were injured in a landmine explosion in south-east Turkey on Monday, the Andolu news agency reported.
The bomb had been planted along a road in the province of Sirnak, near the border with Iraq. A vehicle carrying workers who were building a dam and roads in the area triggered the mine.
It was not clear who had planted the mine.
Tehran, July 06: Strong winds have carried dust from the Arabian desert to Iran, forcing a number of flights to cancel after dangerous levels were reached in the country.
The dust storms add extra concentrations of elements to the air pollution problem of some Iranian cities. The winds are so strong that they have carried the haze to the Iranian capital Tehran.
Silicon dioxide, calcium, potassium, carbon, and other elements are found in the haze, which can have damaging effects on people’s respiratory system.