shameen

Baghdad, August 30: An Iraqi journalist imprisoned for hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behavior, his lawyer said Saturday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi’s act of protest during Bush’s last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, as his case became a rallying point for critics who resented the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation.

Baghdad, August 30: Two truck bombs struck separate communities north of Iraq’s capital on Saturday, killing at least 16 people in the latest attacks to indicate that insurgents are targeting relatively unprotected areas.

Iraqi security forces have focused on defending cities after the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban areas nearly two months ago. But a recent series of high-profile bombings has killed hundreds in remote areas as well as cities and has raised concerns Iraqi forces are not up to the task of protecting the population.

Baghdad, August 30: The Iranian foreign minister on Saturday called for Iraq’s neighbours to hold a meeting to discuss Iraqi security after Baghdad accused Syria of harbouring the planners of two massive bomb attacks.

Separately, Turkey’s foreign minister is to visit Iraq and Syria on Monday to try to soothe relations between the two.

Since 2003, tensions — prone to flare-ups since around the time Saddam came to power in 1979 — have centred on charges from Iraq’s U.S.-backed government that Syria, estranged from Washington, has allowed insurgents to stream into Iraq.

Tikrit, August 30: A spate of attacks across Iraq on Saturday killed 19 people, including a local politician and a child, and injured dozens, making it the country’s deadliest day since Ramadan began.

In the worst incident, five policemen and three civilians, including a 10-year-old child, died when a suicide car bomber targeted a police base in Al-Sharqat, north of Tikrit, officials said.

At least 20 people, 13 police among them, were wounded in the morning attack, the local police chief said.

Tehran, August 30: Iran’s new judiciary chief has sacked hardline Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, who hunted down scores of journalists and dissidents in his term.

Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani appointed Abbas Jafari Dolat-Abadi as Tehran prosecutor of public and revolutionary courts, the officials IRNA news agency reported.

Jafari Dolat-Abadi was the justice chief in western Khuzestan province.

Mortazavi, 42, served as Tehran prosecutor since 2003. “He shut down 120 publications at his time,” Sarmayeh newspaper said.

Ras Al Khaimah, August 30: Although many consumers in Ras Al Khaimah and other emirates have experienced some relief due to government’s efforts to curb any rise in prices of food products and basic commodities during Ramadan, scores of families in the remote areas of Sham in northern Ras Al Khaimah have complained of an increase in prices since the beginning of Ramadan.

Abu Dhabi, August 30: Nominations for the 5th Abu Dhabi Awards will open today and the recipients’ names will be announced at the Emirates Palace in December.

The deadline for nominations is September 27.

According to Abu Dhabi Awards Organising Committee member, Maryam Amiri, “By nominating we get the opportunity to give thanks to those among us whose work may otherwise go unnoticed. And through the act of expressing our appreciation, we can also inspire others to share their goodwill.”

Sharjah, August 30: The Ministry of Health will commission a new lab for conducting tests to confirm H1N1. The new lab, to be opened within two months, will be at the Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah.

Minister of Health, Dr. Hanif Hassan, announced this after signing an agreement for establishing a reference virology laboratory with Abdul Aziz Al Madfa, director of Citomed, a company specialised in medical equipment 
and laboratories.

Dubai, August 30: The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo of North Korean weapons being shipped in breach of a UN embargo on arms exports from the communist state, according to Western diplomats.

The weapons, seized on the basis of the country’s own intelligence reports, included rocket launchers, detonators, munitions and ammunition for rocket-propelled grenades, they said. The Australian-operated ship, ANL-Australia, was flying a Bahamas flag.

Dubai, August 30: An anthology of selected poems written by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has been brought out in German by the Munich-based publishing house Carl H. Verlag.

The poems were published at the initiative of the well-known German poet and the chairman of Berlin Literary Festivals, Joachim Sartorius, as part of a series of poems from around the world, Wam said in a statement.

Dubai, August 30: Beggars cashing in on others’ charity during Ramadan have made tens and even hundreds of thousands of dirhams, a senior Dubai Police officer said.

Brigadier Mohammed Rashid Al Muhairi, Director of the Tourist Security Department at Dubai Police, called on residents not to be duped by beggars even as the department intensifies a campaign to target them, arresting 57 during the first five days of Ramadan.

Dubai, August 30: The UAE will commission new labs to test for swine flu, even as the World Health Organisation warns of a severe form of the virus that goes straight to the lungs.

The Ministry of Health announced that it would commission a lab, to be opened within two months, at the
Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah as part of a move to provide more testing centres because of the increasing number of H1N1 influenza cases in the country, including locally transmitted ones. Another is planned for Fujairah.

Dubai, August 30: With only 10 days to go for the Dubai Metro to roll out, the city’s residents cannot wait to hop on board the world’s longest driverless train. Already, the trial runs have become show-stoppers for children, who cannot but resist asking their parents, when they will be taken for a ride.

For children, the Dubai Metro could be yet or just another new attraction of the city, like the Dubai Fountain or Zabeel Park. But for thousands of others, the opening of the metro on 090909 also marks the beginning of a new lifestyle.

Kabul, August 30: President Hamid Karzai widened his lead over his main challenger in election returns released Saturday, creeping toward the 50 percent mark that would enable him to avoid a run-off in the divisive presidential contest.

Karzai’s top challenger Abdullah Abdullah stepped up his fraud charges, raising doubts whether the former foreign minister’s followers would accept the incumbent if he wins in the first round.