Month: December 2014

Newly elected Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi took the constitutional oath of office Wednesday during an exceptional plenary session at parliament.

The ceremony was held in the presence of Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa, Tunisian ministers, leaders of political parties, prominent national civil society figures and international diplomats, Xinhua reported.

Essebsi has resigned from his political party Nidaa Tounes after winning the runoff of the presidential elections Dec 21. He will take office at the Presidential Palace of Carthage later Wednesday.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group damaged an ancient citadel and destroyed two shrines in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, an official from the provincial government said Wednesday.

The militants planted bombs in the northern and western parts of the ancient Tal Afar citadel, which is located in the militant-seized town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of provincial capital Mosul, and blew them up before noon, destroying large parts of the ancient walls of the fortress, Mohammed Ibrahim al-Baiyati, head of the provincial security committee, told Xinhua.

A suspected Al Qaeda suicide bomber blew himself up Wednesday in Yemen’s central province of Ibb, killing at least 33 people, security sources and medics told Xinhua.

“A suspected Al Qaeda bomber blew himself up among about 40 Houthi followers at a celebration ceremony at the Ibb cultural centre when he was waiting for security check,” a security officer at the scene told Xinhua by phone.

“Governor of Ibb province, Yahya Mohammed al-Eryani, who attended the ceremony, survived the attack,” he added.

A former Air Force junior technician, convicted in the assassination attempt case of former Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf has been executed at Pakistan’s Peshawar Central Prison.

Niaz Mohammad was sentenced to death over an attempt to kill Musharraf in Rawalpindi in 2003, reported Dawn News.

Niaz Mohammad lived in Swabi district and was kept at the Haripur Central Prison until Tuesday, from where he was shifted to the Peshawar Central Prison in a helicopter.

The reopening of the embassies of Iran and the US is not on the agenda of talks between the two countries as part of the Tehran’s negotiations with six world powers over its nuclear programme, a media report said Wednesday.

“The bilateral talks are solely about the nuclear issue and the issue (reopening of embassies) is not on the agenda of the two countries’ talks,” Press TV quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham as saying Tuesday.

Turkey Tuesday dismissed a UN report which claimed arms were reaching militants affiliated to the Al Qaeda in Syria via Turkey.

“(The) claims are baseless,” Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson, Tanju Bilgic said, adding that Turkey has conveyed its reaction to the UN, Xinhua reported.

The UN report penned by the analytical support and sanctions monitoring team, to be presented to the UN Security Council (UNSC) claimed that most of the arms smuggled for the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Nusra Front (ANF) militants were transferred through the Turkish territory.

Iran and Iraq as two neighbours should stay in the same front and cooperate in fighting terrorism, the visiting Iraqi Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said here Tuesday.

Terrorism is “the common enemy of Iraq and its neighbours”, Obeidi said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan, adding that the threats by terrorism necessitated the cooperation between two neighbours.