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Tehran, July 15: A Tupolev passenger aircraft crashed in northwestern Iran on Wednesday on its way to neighbouring Armenia and all 168 people on board were “On board the plane there were 151 adults, 2 children and 15 crew members,” Caspian Airline’s representative in Yerevan Arlen Davudyan told Reuters at Yerevan Airport.

“15 or 16 minutes after take-off the plane fell near the Iranian city Qazvin about 150 kilometers north of Tehran,” he said, adding it was a Tu-154aircraft and that the cause of the crash was not clear and the black box had not yet been found.

New Delhi, July 15: India is preparing to issue biometric identification cards to every one of its 1.2 billion citizens in what is being called “the biggest Big Brother project yet conceived,” according to a published report.

This fresh piece of reporting just in from the Times Online:

It is surely the biggest Big Brother project yet conceived. India is to issue each of its 1.2 billion citizens, millions of whom live in remote villages and possess no documentary proof of existence, with cyber-age biometric identity cards.

As if we needed any more proof that the international media deliberately avoids exposing anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian injustices, its suspect behavior during recent days has sealed the case.

Even as we were being force-fed minute details of Michael Jackson’s colorful life along with endless speculation as to the true parentage of his children, a former U.S. Congresswomen and presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney, was languishing in an Israeli jail.

New Delhi, July 13: BJP has said the party was “not at all apologetic” about the demolition of the “disputed structure” in Ayodhya in 1992

“The party is not at all apologetic about the incident of demolition of a disputed structure as it had not committed any mistake,” BJP president Rajnath Singh said in an interview with RSS mouthpiece Organiser.

Reiterating BJP’s commitment towards building Ram Temple in Ayodhya, he said, “Whatever happened in Ayodhya was the outburst of sentiments of the masses. It is not apt to hurt the sentiments of the masses.”

Mumbai, July 13: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan pitched for greater harmony among South Asian people as he accepted an honorary doctorate from a British university, saying governments were best left to their own “agendas”.

“We belong to I know it’s a bit of a cliche but one world. Specifically I think, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka all of us, we’re the same. I really believe we are the same,” Khan told journalists after being made honorary Doctor of Arts by Bedfordshire University.

Tehran, July 12: The new US administration has deluded Arabs and Muslims into believing it would chart a course away from the policies of the Bush era, one of the leading religious authorities in Shia Islam said.

Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who spoke earlier this year of the “sincerity” of U.S. President Barack Obama’s message to the Muslim world, criticised U.S. policies across the Middle East and in Afghanistan and urged Arabs and Muslims to forget the U.S. president’s “foggy” words.

France, July 11: So the French president has gone and done it. In the first presidential address in the French Parliament since 1848, the esteemed President talked about… the Burqa! By declaring, quite theatrically in the parliament that there was no place for the burqa in France, Mr. Sarkozy has undone the goodwill that President Obama so painstakingly earned for the West in Cairo last month.

Cairo, July 10: Doaa Kassem, like most Egyptian women, is used to being catcalled and grabbed at by men in the crowded streets of Cairo. The 24-year-old executive secretary is well versed in women’s rights, having studied the subject in Sweden, and she is bolder than most when it comes to dealing with her harassers. “I’m brave enough to stop them and tell them [what they’re doing is wrong],” she says. Sometimes she even chases them down.

Hyderabad, July 09: Another man, this time from Uttar Pradesh, has found himself behind bars for creating a nuisance at tennis star Sania Mirza’s house on the eve of her engagement.

Hyderabad police Thursday picked up 24-year-old Arvind Singh Yadav when he reached Sania Mirza’s house in Banjara Hills to express his desire to marry India’s top woman tennis player.

A day after a man from Kerala was arrested for creating a scene at Sania’s house, the man from Uttar Pradesh allegedly tried to barge into her house. Claiming that he was in love with the tennis star, he wanted to meet her.

Hyderabad, July 08: A youth was arrested for allegedly making threatening calls to tennis star Sania Mirza and creating nuisance at her residence here demanding to cancel her engagement, police said on Wednesday.

Mohammed Ashraf, (28) a civil engineering student, who claimed to be in love with Sania, was allegedly sending messages and making threatening calls to Sania’s mobile phone asking her to stop her engagement, Banjara Hills police said quoting a complaint lodged by Sania’s father Imran Mirza.

Islamabad, July 07: Indian prisoner on death row Sarabjit Singh has made an emotional appeal to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari pleading amnesty, so that he could live his “remaining life with his wife and children.”

Tehran, July 07: Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Monday said that the need of the hour in the Muslim world, especially in Iran, is unity and vigilance of the people against the enemies trying to sow discord.

He warned the leaders of western governments about their blatant interference in the recent unrest in the country and recalled that the June 12 presidential elections showed that after 30 years the Islamic Revolution is still capable of mobilizing large numbers of people.

Washington, July 06: The day U.S. President Barack Obama reached out to Muslims around the world through his speech at the Turkish Parliament, saying the United States “is not and will never be at war with Islam,” Muslim Americans described what looked like a war on their community in the U.S. The American Muslim Taskforce (AMT) on Civil Rights and Elections, a coalition of major national Islamic organizations, discussed their concerns at a briefing at the National Press Club on April 6.

Tel Aviv, July 06: has denied reports that suggest Israeli bombers have been allowed to use Saudi airspace for an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.

The denial came after unnamed Israeli diplomatic sources told The Sunday Times that Saudi officials have secretly agreed to allow Israeli fighter jets to fly over the kingdom to strike Iran’s nuclear sites.

Panaji, July 06: Navy presses even its bruised boats into action; cops fan out on coast after strong intelligence alert.

Pakistan-based Jihadi terror groups including the LeT are making concerted efforts to organise terror attacks in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa.

LeT is likely to target iconic institutions, tourist locations and industrial locations along the coast.

They want to create panic and project India as an unsafe location for tourists and foreign investors.

Excerpts from an intelligence report sent to the Navy, Coast Guard, Maharashtra and Goa police.

Wimbledon, July 06: Federer claimed outright record of 15 grand slam titles with victory at Wimbledon here as Pete Sampras watched on from stands.

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Sampras watches Federer in finalBut the Swiss second seed was given a huge fright by the American sixth seed who led by a set, had four set points in the second and didn’t drop serve until the final, heartbreaking game of the match.

In an extraordinary conclusion, the last set was the longest ever played in a men’s Wimbledon final.

Bucharest, July 05: Reaping the fruits of telecommunication revolution, Romanian Muslims are using television to introduce the message of Islam to the southeastern European country.
“Television is the fastest way to reach out to different sectors of the society,” Abu El-Alaa El-Gheithy, director of the Taiba Foundation, told on Saturday, July 4.

“Through it, you can have an easy access to every home.”The foundation is broadcasting a two-hour weekly show; Islam Today, on DDTV private channel to introduce Islam to Romanian society.

Hyderabad, July 05: The murder and rape case against a legislator of Andhra Pradesh’s main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) took a new turn when another student of a nursing college run by him complained to the state’s home minister that he raped her.

The student along with four others and their parents, all hailing from Kerala, met Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy to complain against TDP legislator from Kovvur assembly constituency T.V. Rama Rao.

Astana, July 04: Tensions exist between India’s Muslims and Hindus because the two communities do not know enough about each other, an Indian delegate at the global faith conference here contended.

“Yes, tensions do exist but they exist because Muslims and Hindus don’t know about each other,” Zafar Yunus Sareshwala, the CEO of Mumbai Stock Exchange-listed financial services provider Parsoli Corporation, maintained during the plenary on “Solidarity specially in the period of crisis”, on the concluding day of the third Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions here.

London, July 04: Countries on the front line in the “war on terror” are using the battle against extremists as a smokescreen to crack down on minority groups, an international human rights group said on Thursday.

For the fourth straight year, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan topped an annual index compiled by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) of countries where minorities are most at risk of genocide, mass killings or violent repression.

Srinagar, July 03: The police killing of three young Muslim protestors this week is fueling an already volatile situation in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir triggered by the rape and murder of two Muslim girls, blamed on immune security forces.

“They were protesting peacefully against the misbehavior of policemen and the killing and rape of two girls when police resorted to unprovoked firing,” Ahsan, one of the protesters in Baramulla district, told. Saleem an employee of private mobile company, died on the spot while Tariq Ahmad Malik succumbed to his injuries later.

Pyongyang, July 02: North Korea has reportedly fired two short-range missiles amid high tensions and threats of war following Pyongyang’s nuclear test in May.

The communist state launched the missiles on Thursday off its eastern port of Wonsan, AFP quoted a South Korean defense military official as saying.

One was fired at 5:20 pm (0820 GMT) and the other at 6:00 pm, he said.

Hyderabad, July 01: A case has been booked against a Congress MP after he allegedly slapped and assaulted a government employee.

MP from Nagarkurnool in Andhra Pradesh, Manda Jagannatham reportedly slapped Ravinder Reddy, manager of a local branch of Andhra Pradesh Grameen Vikas Bank, after a heated argument.

The MP has accused the manager of deliberately delaying the loans for the SCs and STs. However, the manager says the task given to him by the MP could not have been completed in a day and that he was just following the protocol.

Dubai, June 30: Al-Qaida’s North Africa wing threatened on Tuesday to take revenge on France for its opposition to the burqa, calling on Muslims to retaliate
against the country, the US monitoring service SITE Intelligence reported.

France President Nicolas Sarkozy had said earlier this month that the burqa, which covers the whole face, was not welcome in the strictly secular country.

The urs, acommomerative celebration is held in the solemn memory of Khwaja Muin-nddin Chisti, a prighly respected sufi saint fondly revered as the benefactor of the poor, popularly known as Gareeb Nawaz. The Dargah Sharif in Ajmer, is the place where the Saints mortal remains lie burried and is the site of the largest Muslim Fair in India.