Islamic World

Kabul, July 04: Amid the worsening security situation in war-battered Afghanistan, American troops work to allay Afghan concerns over US military presence in their country.

The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban and seek out al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Nearly eight years after the US-led invasion of the country by coalition forces, Afghanistan is still in the grip of insecurity and poverty.

Kabul, July 04: Militants exploded a vehicle outside the gates of a U.S. coalition base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, sparking a two-hour gunbattle that ended when American troops called in airstrikes, officials said. Two U.S. troops were killed and four were wounded.

More than 30 insurgents were killed by the airstrikes in Zerok district of Paktika province, said Hamidullah Zawak, the provincial governor spokesman.

Abu Dhabi, July 04: The National Centre for Metrology and Seismology predicted hazy and hot-to very hot weather for Saturday. Towering clouds may appear over the eastern mountains by afternoon.

The winds will be light to moderate in general, freshening at times during afternoon causing blowing sand and dust over western and internal open land areas. This may reduce the horizontal visibility.

Relative humidity will increase during night with chances of fog over some coastal and interior areas.

Tehran, July 04: An Iranian official has denied reports that six people who had protested against the results of the June 12 presidential vote were hanged in the city of Mashhad.

“No-one has been detained or executed during the post-election turmoil in Mashhad,” the city’s Chief Prosecutor Seyyed Hassan Shariati said in an interview.

In a recent report, the Israeli Jerusalem Post daily had cited anonymous sources as claiming that six supporters of defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi had been hanged in Mashhad.

kabul, July 04: Militants exploded a vehicle outside the gates of a U.S. coalition base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, sparking a two-hour gunbattle that ended when American troops called in airstrikes, officials said. Two U.S. troops were killed and four were wounded.

More than 30 insurgents were killed by the airstrikes in Zerok district of Paktika province, said Hamidullah Zawak, the provincial governor spokesman.

Darfur, July 04: Armed men have abducted two foreign aid workers in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, UN officials say.

The two women — one Irish and one Ugandan — work for the Irish aid group Goal and were abducted from their compound in the northern town of Kutum on Friday evening along with a Sudanese guard who was later released, officials said.

John O’Shea, the chief executive of Goal, named the two women as Hilda Kawuki, 42, from Uganda and Sharon Commins, 32, from Ireland.

Tehran, July 04: Following a leak in a crude oil pipeline in central Iran, a vital river has been put in danger, but it remains unclear whether there has been serious contamination.

The leak occurred Thursday morning in a 10-inch (25.4 cm) oil pipeline along the Serkan-Makuh axis, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the town of Pol-e Dokhtar in the province of Lorestan.

Some sources have reported that thousands of liters of oil had ended up in the River Kashkan, resulting in the death of some 30,000 sea animals.

Jerusalem, July 04: Israeli army forces have injured three Palestinian demonstrators protesting against the Apartheid Wall in two separate West Bank villages.

Three people were injured and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked Palestinian villagers and international activists during the weekly non-violent protests against the wall in the villages of Bil’in near the central West Bank city of Ramallah and in Ni’lin on Friday.

Tehran, July 04: A top aide of Iran’s supreme leader has called the country’s main opposition figure a US agent and accused him of committing crimes against the nation.

Prominent hardliner Hossein Shariatmadari cited “undeniable documents” linking opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to foreign powers in a Saturday editorial in the daily Kayhan.

He called for Mousavi and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami to be tried in court for treason.

This is the first time Mousavi has been publicly called a foreign agent.

Tehran, July 04: The chief editor of Iran’s state-run newspaper Kayhan accused opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi and former president Mohammad Khatami of treason Saturday.

“The two main protagonists Moussavi and Khatami should face an open trial for their clear treason (against Iran’s Islamic establishment),” Hossein Shariatmadari wrote in his column.

Tehran, July 04: A leading Iranian cleric sharply and unexpectedly raised the temperature in the crisis over the detention of British embassy staff yesterday by announcing that the two employees still being held would be forced to stand trial for inciting post-election violence against the Islamic regime.

The threat prompted a coordinated European Union protest to Iran and a warning that all EU member states may recall their ambassadors in retaliation.

Jerusalem, July 04: A former US lawmaker and a number of other human rights activists remain imprisoned in Israel three days after their failed attempt to break Israel’s Gaza blockade.

Tel Aviv has kept most of the peace activists, seized at sea by the Israeli navy, in custody without providing information on their release.

On Tuesday, Israeli authorities seized a ship carrying relief aid for the blockaded Gaza strip. The vessel was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian international activists.

Beirut, July 04: Lebanese military intelligence sources have arrested two men, a father and his son, on charges of spying for Israel amid an anti-espionage crackdown in the country.

The National News Agency of Lebanon reported on Friday that the two men were arrested in Naqoura on the Lebanese-Israeli border south of the country.

The security forces said that they would continue to identify and arrest the people who spy for Israeli intelligence agencies.

Dubai, July 04: Telecom operator Zain surged to lift the Kuwait index yesterday and Oman’s benchmark rallied as new index weightings were introduced, but trading was lackluster across the Gulf Arab region.

Dubai’s index rose 1.4 percent, Bahrain made its largest gains for two weeks with a 0.5 percent rise and Kuwait edged 0.2 percent higher after a late rally. Egypt’s benchmark climbed 2.8 percent on the final day of the Egyptian fiscal year.

Jeddha, July 04: The growing number of road accidents in the Kingdom causes heavy human and economic losses to the country. According to one official, the annual costs of treating accident victims are enough to build three refineries.

As many as 485,931 accidents took place on the Kingdom’s roads last year, killing 6,458 people and injuring 36,486. The number of accidents has been found to increase during the summer vacation.

Tehran, July 04: Iran has unveiled plans to invest around $75 billion in its two major gas fields by 2015 to exploit their huge undeveloped reserves.

Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyfollah Jashnsaz said that the country would finance a $40 billion investment in the South Pars gas field in a five-year plan to produce some 28 billion cubic meters of gas annually from the field.

Iran and Qatar share the largest gas field in the world in the Persian Gulf, where the Iranian part is divided into 24 phases.

Tehran, july 04: A top aide of Iran’s supreme leader has called the country’s main opposition figure a U.S. agent and accused him of committing crimes against the nation.

Prominent hardliner Hossein Shariatmadari cited “undeniable documents” linking opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to foreign powers in a Saturday editorial in the daily Kayhan.

He called for Mousavi and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami to be tried in court for treason.

This is the first time Mousavi has been publicly called a foreign agent.

Kabul, July 04: A blast outside a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan killed two American troops and wounded four others Saturday, a military spokesman said.

The troops were attacked outside the base in eastern Paktika province, but there were no immediate details about the nature of the blast, said Tech. Sgt. Chuck Marsh, a U.S. military spokesman.

Insurgents also attacked the base with small arms fire before U.S. troops called in airstrikes on their positions, Marsh said.

Manama, July 04: Lawmakers here heaped praise on the members of Bahrain’s women’s basketball team for refusing to remove their hijab in an international competition.

“The attitude of our national team was honourable and truly indicated the players’ deep commitment to Islamic values. They conveyed a strong and genuine message to the whole world that Muslims value their traditions and principles and are not ready to give them up for the sake of a game,” said MP Ebrahim Busanadal.

Israel deports Free Gaza activists

Jerusalem, July 04: Israel deports five Bahraini activists among the Gaza-bound humanitarian convoy it had earlier seized on charge of violating its ‘territorial waters’.

On Friday, the five, who allegedly include a reporter for the Doha-based satellite TV channel, al-Jazeera, were taken out of Israel custody to be taken back to their homeland via the Ben Gurion airport south of Tel Aviv, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

They had traveled to the blockade-stricken coastal sliver among the international Free Gaza Movement aid convoy.

Baghdad, July 04: An Iraqi official expresses gratitude to the Islamic Republic’s envoy to Baghdad for Iran’s participation in civil projects in Kurdistan.

The governor of Iraq’s Suleymaniyeh city, Dana Majeed, in a meeting with Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad, praised Iranian companies for accomplishments in completing bridges, railways and tunnels.

“Iranians have proved trustworthy to the local Iraqi officials in the area,” Majeed added, noting that Iranians were invited to take part in some other projects in the region.

Abu Dhabi, July 04: The General Authority for Islamic Affairs and Auqaf has submitted a request to Saudi Arabia to increase the UAE’s quota of pilgrims from 6,228 to 16,000 for this year’s Haj season.

Mohammed Obeid Al Mazrouie, head of the official UAE Haj Mission, told Khaleej Times that he expected the Saudi authorities to respond positively to the UAE’s request given the friendly bilateral ties.Al Mazrouie, also Executive Director of Islamic Affairs at the authority, added that Saudi Arabia increased the UAE’s quota of pilgrims from 6,000 to 10,000 last year.

Sharjah, July 05: Male attendants have six months to clear out of the women’s section in Sharjah’s malls, department stores, or even individual outlets that are women-specific.

The Sharjah Executive Council (SEC) has recently approved a Sharjah Economic Development Department (SEDD) proposal to ban male attendants from such outlets beginning January next year.

A top SEDD official told Khaleej Times that a circular in this regard will be sent out soon. That will leave about six months for necessary arrangements.

Abu Dhabi, July 04: Vehicle owners in Abu Dhabi have urged the the authorities concerned to request the malls and department stores to keep their parking lots open round the clock to resolve the parking problem.

Abdul Hamid Abdullah, a government department employee, says, “The managements of shopping centres and malls should open their car parks for the public so that the parking problem is resolved.”

Abu Dhabi, July 04: A number of humanitarian and development projects aimed at supporting children in Afghanistan have been planned by the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation (KBZF) and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). An agreement to this effect was signed by the two organisations on Thursday.