Islamic World

Abu Dhabi, July 04: The Ministry of Labour (MoL) will immediately approve transfer of sponsorship of retrenched employees whose employers haggle over payment of end-of-service benefits and delayed salaries.

Speaking at the ministry’s open day on Monday, a senior MoL official said the ministry will suspend the establishment’s licence if a sacked employee lodges a complaint with the ministry, and if a court has issued a verdict in favour of the employee protecting his/her right to transfer of visa.

Dubai, July 04: Private international schools in the country will reopen for the new academic year according to their respective schedules. The school principals have conveyed this to the students’ parents, putting at rest a flurry of speculations.

Cairo, July 04: As the presidential vote draws nearer in the world’s most populous Muslim state, Indonesian religious leaders are joining hands in urging candidates to avoid using religion as an election card, reported the Jakarta Post on Friday, July 3.
“In many campaign presentations, religions are used as a political commodity,” Amidhan Sheberah, Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council, said.

Meeting in Jakarta Thursday, leaders of different faiths urged candidates to refrain from using religion for election purposes.

Tehran, July 04: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

A powerful cleric said Friday that Iran will put British Embassy staffers on trial for fomenting postelection turmoil, a step that would likely increase Iran’s isolation and alienate Western nations that have been trying to keep options open with Tehran despite its crackdown on protesters.

Syria, July 03: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has issued an informal invitation to President Barack Obama to visit Damascus for talks, in a sign that relations between the two countries may gradually be thawing.
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We would like to welcome him to Syria, definitely,” Assad told Sky News in an interview broadcast today. “I am very clear about this.”

Asked whether a meeting could take place any time soon, Assad replied: “That depends on him.” Smiling, he added: “I will ask you to convey the invitation to him.”

Tehran, July 03: A senior Iranian cleric said Friday that the country’s opposition led by Mir-Hossein Moussavi was acting like dissidents because of its fraud accusations after the June 12 presidential election.

“They (the opposition) neither acknowledge the laws nor those in charge of implementing the laws, so what are they after? Isn’t this approach confronting the whole governing system?” Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said at Friday prayers in Tehran.

Cairo, July 03: The European Union is considering imposing political sanctions on Iran by placing travel bans on certain Iranian officials after Tehran arrested local British Embassy staff in post-election events.

The Financial Times Deutschland, citing European diplomats meeting in Sweden, reported that the decision could be taken as soon as next week but depended on the situation.

According to earlier reports, the 27-nation bloc was also thinking over ‘temporary recall’ of its ambassadors as a ‘sign of protest’ to Iran’s action.

Baghda, July 03: French Prime Minister Francois Fillon arrived in Baghdad yesterday with a delegation of officials and business leaders seeking to raise France’s profile in Iraq.

“Iraqis were keen to remove themselves from American guardianship, and that is because they want to do business with other investors that they know well, among them the French,” a Fillon aide told journalists.

Meanwhile, in a surprise trip, US Vice President Joe Biden also arrived in Baghdad yesterday.

Jerusalem, July 03: An Israeli news website says Israel is considering a partial lifting of the embargo on Gaza in hopes of aiding talks to free a long-held captive soldier.

Friday’s report in YNet said Israel would increase supplies of coffee, tea, soups, meat, fish and canned goods into Gaza ahead of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which starts in August.
Israel is also to renew shipments of fuel, clothing, kitchenware and egg-laying chickens.

Israel imposed a near-total embargo of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after Hamas took control.

Riyadh, July 03: Saudi Arabia will be a partner of a major European initiative called Green Public Diplomacy, which calls for intensified efforts to create green environment, control pollution on a global level, adopt environmental-friendly technology and encourage journalists to write more on environmental issues, according to Swedish Ambassador Jan Thesleff.

Thesleff said Sweden has teamed up with the King Saud University and Saudi Research and Publication Company to hold a major seminar on climate change and the environment later this year as part of the initiative.

Ramallah, July 03: Members of a Hamas cell arrested in the West Bank last month had been tracking the movements of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with the “clear” intention to assassinate him, senior officials in Abbas’ Fatah party were quoted Friday as saying.

Palestinian Authority (PA) Secretary-General Tayeb Abdel Rahim had announced the arrest of some 10 Hamas members in a news conference Monday, saying the cell had been preparing to assassinate leading officials in Abbas’ West Bank-based administration.

Gaza, July 03: A Palestinian woman who was carrying a toy gun has been injured after being shot by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers near a Nablus-area checkpoint.

The Israeli soldiers claimed that they shot the woman at the Bekaot checkpoint on Friday morning because she ignored their request to stop.

According to the soldiers, they discovered that she was carrying a toy gun after shooting her.

The Palestinian woman was rushed to hospital for treatment as she sustained wounds to her legs.

Baghdad, July 03: There is no place outside Iran that has closer links to Tehran’s ruling establishment than Iraq’s holy Shiite city of Najaf, where the silence during Iran’s post-election crisis says much about the deep complexities of their cross-border bonds.

“Simply put, the whole affair does not concern Najaf,” said Sheik Ali al-Najafi, son of and spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Bashir al-Najafi, one of the city’s four top Shiite clerics. “We will not interfere in the internal affairs of a dear, next door neighbour.”

Gaza City, July 03: A Palestinian teenage girl was killed by a shell that exploded in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and which hospital workers and Hamas officials said was fired by an Israeli tank.

Israeli military officials said an initial investigation showed the girl was probably killed by a misfiring mortar round fired by Palestinian militants during clashes with soldiers near a border crossing in the area.

The Palestinian hospital workers said three other people were wounded when the shell struck near a house in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing the girl.

Amman, July 03: Jordan’s King Abdullah II issued a decree naming his eldest son, Hussein, as crown prince, according to a royal court statement.

The 15-year-old Hussein, whose mother, Queen Rania, descends from Palestinian origins, will be “vested with all rights and privileges pertaining to this decree”, the statement said.

The post of heir apparent in Jordan had been vacant since 2004, when King Abdullah stripped his half brother, Hamzeh, of the title of crown prince.

King Abdullah succeeded his father, late King Hussein, to the throne in 1999.

-Agencies

Abu Dhabi, July 03: 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.

Baghdad, July 03: After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein stayed in Baghdad until he saw “the city was about to fall.” Months later, he was caught hiding at the same farm where he had fled in 1959 after taking part in an attempt to kill the country’s prime minister.

Unclassified FBI interviews conducted during his incarceration at a U.S. detention center offered new details Thursday about the late Iraqi dictator’s life on the run both before and after he was ousted.

Brussels, July 03: The political unrest in Iran over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election marks a key point in the ideological struggle between ultra-conservatives and reformers, according to analysts.

Thirty years after the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the two factions are finding co-habitation increasingly difficult and the show of force in the wake of the disputed elections has unleashed a chain reaction.

The final effect on the nature and orientation of the regime in Iran remains unpredictable with some influential figures yet to take sides.

Cairo, July 03: The chief Palestinian Muslim cleric is urging Muslims to visit Occupied Jerusalem, breaking a decades-long taboo against visiting the holy city because it would be considered support for Israel.

Shaikh Tayseer Al Timimi said that Muslims should travel to Occupied Jerusalem and perform pilgrimage to Muslim holy places in the city.

“I withdraw my fatwa (edict) and now ask all Muslims and [Arab] Christians to creep into [Occupied] Jerusalem for a visit, satisfaction and shopping,” Al Timimi said at a press conference in Cairo.

Jerusalem, July 02: Amnesty International accused Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes Thursday in the most comprehensive report on the recent Gaza war. Both sides rejected the findings.

Israel used excessive force in violation of international laws of war, killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians and destroying thousands of Gaza homes, the human rights group claimed. And Palestinian militants committed war crimes each time they fired a rocket at Israeli civilians, it said.

Tehran, July 02: A correspondent for the US weekly magazine Newsweek who was arrested by Iran for allegedly writing articles slanted against the Tehran vernment has confessed to the allegation, the CNN network reported Thursday, citing Iranian media.

CNN cited the semi-official agency Fars as saying that the journalist, Maziar Bahari, had admitted at a press conference to having written articles slanted against Tehran prior to the June 12 presidential election with the aim of toppling the government.

Kabul, July 02: The US military Thursday began a large-scale offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan as a local militant commander said the Taliban had captured a US soldier.

The US military said the Taliban was believed to have captured the soldier, who has been missing since Tuesday, in the southeastern Afghan province of Paktika.

Mullah Sangon, a local Taliban commander, said that besides the US soldier, the militants had also captured three Afghan soldiers.

Dubai, July 02: FlyDubai, Dubai’s low-budget carrier, announced yesterday that it has secured a deal to finance four Boeing 737-800 aircraft worth $320 million with GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS).

The sale and leaseback agreement covers the aircraft due to be delivered this year, with two expected in July, one in October and one in December.

Madinah, July 02: Two people were killed and four others injured yesterday when a GMC van carrying a group of women teachers rammed into a truck, a Civil Defense source said.

He said the accident occurred around 9 a.m. and the fatalities were a woman teacher and the van’s driver.

“Civil Defense officers rushed to the accident site and rescued the women teachers trapped inside the mangled vehicle,” the spokesman said.

—Agencies

Jeddah, July 02: European aerospace and defense contractor EADS has signed a contract with Saudi Arabia to build a high-tech security fence on 9,000 km of the country’s border, the company said yesterday.

In a long-awaited deal, EADS Defense and Security, a subsidiary of the French-German conglomerate, is expected to create a system of security posts and surface and aerial monitoring of the Kingdom’s land and sea borders over the next five years, the company announced.