Islamic World

Riyadh, July 05: The agonizing immigration line wait at Saudi international airports for arriving or departing passengers is set to end soon with the introduction of a quick-passage electronic gate equipped with a biometric reader.

Travelers have only to swipe their biometric immigration card at the gate and walk through – if their immigration requirements for exit or entry are automatically met.

The new biometrics system is based on the verification of the eye and fingerprints of the passenger.

Riyadh, July 05 Saudi petrochemicals producers said on Saturday they would seek duties on imports from China after Beijing began a dumping probe on petrochemical products from Saudi Arabia and three other countries.

Abdulrahman Al-Zamil, leading businessman and former deputy minister of commerce, said China had no grounds to pursue the dumping investigation on imports of methanol and butanediol (BDO) it launched in late June. “We do not subsidise our exporters” of petrochemicals, he told a news conference.

Tehran, July 05: The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has agreed to allocate 91 million euros to help implement a project to carry drinking water to the central city of Qom.

The loan offered by the IDB is part of a 325-million-euro budget needed to carry out the water project, Iran’s Finance Ministry declared.

The project, which aims at building a 175-km pipeline to carry water from Kouchari Dam to the city and surrounding villages, will take an estimated five years to complete.

The loan is to be repaid to the IDB over 15 years.

—–Agencies

Tehran, July 05: Former Iranin president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani has denied that there was any power struggle in the country following the crisis triggered by alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election, ISNA news agency reported.

The election scene was a competition within the system and should not be considered by some as a power struggle or crack in the system,” Rafsanjani was quoted by ISNA as saying in his first reaction to the post-election turmoil Saturday.

Gardez, July 05: Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped 16 Afghans working for a United Nations-sponsored demining agency in eastern Afghanistan, U.N. officials and police said on Sunday.

The Afghan deminers work for the Mine Detection and Dog Center (MDDC), part of the overall U.N. mine clearing agency in Afghanistan known as UNMACA. They were seized while traveling between Khost and Paktia provinces late on Saturday, Paktia’s police chief said.

“We do not know who kidnapped them and why. We are investigating,” Azizullah Wardak told reporters in the Paktia provincial capital Gardez.

Abu Dhabi, July 05: Heavy vehicles weighing 2.5 tones will be off Abu Dhabi roads from Sunday between 6am and 8am and from 1pm and 3pm.

Restrictions are also applied on them on entering the city from the Al Raha Beach.

This was announced by the Ministry of Interior.

Drivers caught in violation of the rule will be fined Dh1, 000 in addition of having their vehicles impounded for seven days.

Repeat violations will result in another Dh1, 000 fines and a 14-day impoundment.

Tehran, July 05: A senior Iranian commander says much of the groundwork has been laid to retain the ownership of the Qolhak Garden in Tehran which is now ‘illegally’ under British control.

“Effective measures have been taken to materialize this legitimate right of the Iranian nation and retake the compound,” Head of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Holy Defense, Brigadier General Mir-Faisal Baqerzadeh, commented on Saturday according to the Fars news agency.

Beirut, July 05: Lebanon’s prime minister-designate Saad Hariri rules out rumors that his cabinet will be formed under foreign influence, reports say.

“The cabinet will be 100 percent Lebanese-made, anything else is not true,” Hariri said after a Saturday meeting with President Michel Suleiman in the presidential palace on the outskirts of Beirut, stressing that ‘things are moving on the right track’, local Elnashra website reported.

Last week Suleiman tasked Hariri with forming a new cabinet, after his party won a majority of seats in the June 7 parliamentary elections.

Washington, July 05: US President Barack Obama says Washington will remain a strong partner to Baghdad in the face of the ‘difficult days’ awaiting Iraq.

Obama, who was speaking to military families at the White House on Saturday, hailed Iraq’s independence adding that “Iraq’s future now rests in the hands of its own people.”

He made the remarks days after US combat troops pulled out of Iraqi cities as part of an interim security pact, which also calls for a full withdrawal by the end of 2011.

Tehran, July 05: Iran has urged Pakistan to speed up its efforts for the release of its kidnapped commercial attaché Heshmatollah Attarzadeh Niyaki.

During a meeting with Interior Ministry Chief Rehman Malik, the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan Mashaallah Shakeri expressed concerns over the slow progress made by Pakistani security agencies for the release of the missing Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped some seven and a half months ago from the provincial capital Peshawar of troubled north western Pakistan.

Khartoum, July 05: Sudanese authorities are trying to establish contact with kidnappers who snatched two foreign aid workers from their offices in the Darfur region.

Gunmen kidnapped an Irish and a Ugandan woman from the office of the Irish aid group Goal in the North Darfur city of Kutum on Friday night. A Sudanese watchman was also seized before being released later.

“We have not established contact yet,” said Ali Yusef, Director of Protocol at the Foreign Ministry. “Normally in this situation they move away from the scene before making contact.”

Tehran, July 05: An Iranian newspaper has called for opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi to face trial for inciting the wave of protests after last month’s presidential election.

It has accused him of treason.

The hardline Kayhan daily is considered to have close ties to Iran’s leadership.

Its weekend edition says Mr Mousavi should be tried for acting against national security.

Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor, says Mr Mousavi had acted on the instructions of the United States in protesting against the election result.

Jeddah, July 05: Road accidents in Saudi Arabia cost an estimated SR26 billion annually, which is equal to four per cent of the Kingdom’s gross domestic product, according to Dr Ali Al Ghamdi, former chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee and professor of traffic and transport engineering at King Saud University.

During a discussion on the increasing number of accidents and high cost in Riyadh on Thursday, he said about one-thirds of government hospital beds are occupied by accident victims.

“About 45 per cent of accidents are caused by speeding,” he added.

Garmsir, July 05: Since 4,000 US Marines pushed into Taliban-controlled areas of southern Afghanistan on Thursday, one company has been in a constant firefight with the insurgents, the military said.

Troops from Echo company of the 2/8 infantry battalion flew in by helicopter to Mian Poshteh, a key canal and road junction in Helmand province, as part of President Barack Obama’s efforts to finally defeat the Islamist militants.

Tehran, July 05: Iran’s ex-president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said on Saturday that there was no power struggle in Iran following the crisis triggered by alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election, ISNA news agency reported.

“The election scene was a competition within the system and should not be considered by some as a power struggle or crack in the system,” Rafsanjani was quoted by ISNA as saying in his first reaction to the post-election turmoil.

Boston, July 05: “It’s a wonderful monument,” said Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick in his taped remarks played at the opening of a new large mosque at Roxbury Crossing here last week. “I’m so proud to stand with all of you,” said Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Riyadh, July 05: Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh said that cooperation and acceptance of other viewpoints and not forcing a singular point of view are necessary if society is to benefit.

“The ulema and Islamic scholars are willing to answer questions, listen to advice, and discuss and debate for the benefit of people. The idea is to cooperate by accepting other viewpoints and not enforcing one point of view for the sake of the unity of society,” he said at the opening of the largest Certified Trainers Forum for Promoting Dialogue.

Riyadh, July 05: Saudi petrochemicals producers said yesterday they would seek duties on imports from China after Beijing began a dumping probe on petrochemical products from Saudi Arabia and three other countries.

Abdul Rahman Al-Zamil, chairman of the executive council of Saudi Export Development Center (SEDC), said China had no grounds to pursue the dumping investigation on imports of methanol and butanediol (BDO) it launched in late June.

Jeddah, July 05: Cases of sexual harassment usually involve men as the perpetrators and women as the victims. The tables are, however, turning, as men report increasing incidence of women harassing them, usually in the workplace.

Muhammad Naif, a young Saudi who works at a store, said a woman entered his shop and asked for his number before leaving. “I gave her the shop’s card, which had a landline number on it. She then asked me to write my name on the back, which I did. She then left,” said Naif, adding that the woman began ringing him at work everyday.

Riyadh, July 05: As part of the Saudi government’s comprehensive national strategy to fight terrorism, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance has launched an awareness campaign for imams and preachers.

Nearly 300 imams and preachers in Riyadh will benefit from the Islamic jurisprudence course on ‘Development and Citizenship’ organised by the Institute for Imams and Preachers under the ministry, which got under way yesterday.

Kabul, Jalu 04: Taliban militants fired rockets and mortars at a US base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two American troops and wounding several more in a two-hour battle, officials said.

During the clash, which ended only after US forces called in airstrikes, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck toward the base’s gates. It blew up when American troops fired on it.

Tehran, July 04: Twenty convicted drug traffickers were hanged Saturday in a prison in Karaj, a suburb west of this Iranian capital, the Fars news agency reported.

Fars said that 700 kg of drugs were confiscated from these people, who were arrested between 2004 and 2008.

Murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking of quantities in excess of five kilograms are among the crimes punishable by death in Iran.

—Agencies

Baghdad, July 04: US Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday said the United States was committed to withdrawing its soldiers from Iraq by the end of 2011. Speaking from Baghdad on US Independence Day, less than a week after US soldiers withdrew from Iraqi cities, Biden said the White House would honour pledges to complete the military’s withdrawal from Iraq in two years’ time.

Tehran, July 04: Up to 35 people have been detained in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran over their role in the post-election unrest in the country, says an official.

“Twelve of the detainees are among the ringleaders of the unrest. These individuals were carrying out their activities in the guise of students at Mazandran universities,” the chief prosecutor of the provincial capital of Sari, Asadollah Jafari said on Saturday.

According to the Etemad daily, Jafari added that the 35 detainees were among 200 people who were originally arrested and later released.

Tehran, July 04: An Iranian nuclear official says the country expects Japan’s Yukiya Amano, who will soon take on as the new UN nuclear watchdog chief, to stay impartial.

“Iran expects the new director general to help countries use peaceful nuclear energy and increase their cooperation according to the guidelines of the agency’s charter, independently and without bias,” Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, said in a Friday interview.