Month: March 2010

Marjah, March 01: More than 2,000 U.S. Marines and about 1,000 Afghan troops who stormed the Taliban town of Marjah as part of a major NATO offensive against a resurgent Taliban will stay several months to ensure insurgents don’t return, Marine commanders said Sunday.

Meanwhile, insurgents are striking back by attacking resupply convoys moving in and out of Marjah with roadside bombs, Marines said Sunday. Four convoys have been hit in the last two days, Marines said on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information. There was no word on casualties.

Tehran, February 28: Israel has lost its “raison d’etre” and its presence in the region causes instability, Iranian media quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Sunday at a conference attended by top Palestinian militant leaders.

“With God’s grace and thanks to the Palestinian resistance the occupying Zionist regime has lost its raison d’être,” Ahmadinejad said at a Tehran conference in support of the Palestinians.

“Their presence (Israel’s) even in one inch of the region’s soil causes threat, crisis and war,” the state-run television’s website quoted him as saying.

Jerusalem, February 28: Fourteen people including two Israeli policemen were wounded in clashes at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sunday, after police entered to arrest Palestinians who had hurled rocks at visitors they believed were Jewish extremists.

Dozens of Palestinians pelted stones at Israeli police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, Palestinian sources said.

Mogadishu, February 28: The hardline Islamist Shebab militia announced Sunday that it had “banned” World Food Programme operations in Somalia, one of the countries in Africa most affected by famine.

The Shebab movement, which controls most of central and southern Somalia, charged that aid distributed by the UN agency had disadvantaged local farmers and accused it of political motivation.

Baghdad, February 28: Evidence that led to candidates being barred from Iraq’s March 7 election for suspected links to Saddam Hussein will be released in the coming days, the head of the committee that disqualified them said on Saturday.

Ali al-Lami said the evidence was being organised by the Justice and Accountability Committee (JAC) so that it could be presented to the media before the parliamentary election takes place next Sunday.

Muscat, February 28: Book fairs are hot events these days in the Gulf region. For all book lovers, the 15th edition of the Muscat International Book Fair was opened on 23rd of February under the auspices of the Minister of Heritage and Culture Sayyid Haitham Ibn Tariq Al Said, a senior member of the Omani royal family who was accompanied by other prominent ministers and a high-ranking officials.

Hamad Al- Rashdi, the Minister of Information, and Abdul Aziz Al Rowas, the Sultan’s Advisor for Cultural Affairs were also present in another sign of the weight given to the book fair.