62nd Independence Day of Pak being celebrated

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ISLAMABAD: The nation is celebrating its 62nd Independence Day today with great zeal, enthusiasm and renewed commitment to make Pakistan strong, progressive and prosperous.
The day will dawn with special prayers in mosques for the progress and prosperity of the country.
Celebrations will begin with a 31-gun salute in the Federal Capital and 21-gun salute in all the four provincial capitals. At 7.58 am, all vehicular traffic will stop for two minutes with the sounding of sirens and national anthem will be played at 8:00 am.

A change of the guard ceremony at the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founder, in Karachi would also take place.
A number of events have been chalked out to celebrate the Independence Day in a befitting manner and pay homage to those, who laid down their lives to create an independent motherland for the coming generations.
The main event of the day will be a flag-hoisting ceremony in the Capital.
Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani will unfurl the national flag.
Keeping alive previous traditions, all the government and private buildings have been illuminated. People, all over the country have decorated their houses, shopping centers and offices with national flags, banners, lightings, paintings and balloons.
The ruling Pakistan People’s Party as well as other major political parties are all set to celebrate the historic day in a dignified manner by hoisting national and party flags.
To mark the occasion in a befitting manner, the electronic and print media have planned comprehensive programmes. The electronic media would present various programmes including national songs, talk shows, dramas and children programmes.
The print media would carry out special supplements, features and articles, highlighting the importance of the day and sacrifices rendered by heroes and nation’s forefathers for it.
Rallies, processions and colorful functions under the aegis of various public and private sector, social and political organizations in all small and major towns and cities of the country will be the hallmark of the day.

U.S. healthcare town halls: Anger, fear and lunacy

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sound and fury at U.S. “town hall” meetings on healthcare reform have revealed as much about conservative fears of PresidentBarack Obama as about health issues — and in the end might have little significance in the broader debate.

The angry crowds that disrupted recent public information sessions on the healthcare overhaul have voiced a range of concerns, from an expanding federal deficit to emotional warnings about Obama’s “socialist” policies.

The shouting captured media attention and overshadowed debate on the complex details of Obama’s top domestic priority, but the furor could limit the influence of the town hall meetings when lawmakers take up the issue again in September.

“A lot of this is the base of the two parties screaming at each other and I don’t know if it’s changing a lot of minds one way or the other,” Republican consultant Dan Schnur said.

“It just turns people off,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at the moderate think tank Third Way. He said extreme elements on each side are battling and “for everyone else this is a revolting spectacle.”

At times, the meetings have been a pretext for an emotional and often extreme debate about a changing America and Obama, a Democrat who in his seven months in office has won a costly auto industry bailout and a rescue package for the economy.

“This is about the systematic dismantling of this country,” a woman told Democratic Senator Arlen Specter on Tuesday at one of two raucous meetings in Pennsylvania, where shouting crowds said the United States was heading the way of Russia and “Maoist China.”

A man told Specter to “tell Obama to represent us as an American.” When Specter said the president was, the crowd roared in disagreement.

“I think there is a mood in America of anger,” Specter, a longtime Republican who switched to the Democrats earlier this year, told CBS’s “Early Show” on Wednesday.

“With so many people unemployed and so much bickering in Washington, people are disgusted with the partisanship and with the fear of losing their healthcare. It all boils over,” Specter said.

UN: Ban didn't congratulate Ahmadinejad

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ILNA: The United Nations said on Wednesday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did not congratulate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his contested re-election, reversing a previous statement.Asked on Tuesday if Ban had sent a congratulatory letter to Ahmadinejad, UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said “yes.” But when reporters asked her for details on Wednesday, she said it could not be construed in any way as congratulating Ahmadinejad.

“It is not accurate to refer to this as a congratulatory letter,” she said, adding the United Nations would not release the contents of the letter; Reuters reported.
Okabe said Ban’s letter “takes advantage of the occasion of the inauguration to express the hope that Iran and the United Nations will continue to cooperate closely in addressing regional and global issues.”
A spokesman for Iran’s U.N. mission could not be reached for comment.
The secretary-general routinely congratulates leaders after elections but UN officials say this does not mean he endorses them or the electoral processes that put them in their posts.
The results of Iran’s June 12 election plunged into protests and unrests

Hezbollah: Israeli no longer decision maker

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Hezbollah says that in the event of an Israeli attack on Lebanon over its presence in the Lebanese cabinet, Tel Aviv would suffer a stronger response from the movement.
Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened on Monday that Beirut would be responsible for any confrontation should Hezbollah join the new government.
Hezbollah’s International Relations officer Ammar Moussawi responded to the threats saying that Israel is attempting to hamper Lebanon’s unity
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army reported that armored Israeli vehicles were advancing toward the Shaba farms, along the southeast borders with Lebanon.
The official said that if Israel ventures upon another military strike on Lebanon, the magnitude of Lebanon’s response would be far greater than that of the 33-day war.
However, Hezbollah said that Israel’s latest buildup is solely aimed at tipping the political balance in Lebanon.
“There is no doubt that it is aimed at affecting the internal Lebanese political “We believe that the Lebanese will send a strong and unanimous message that they are unified in facing these threats.”
Moussawi added that “we believe these Israeli threats cannot be translated into action. You know that any decision about going to war in the region is made by the United States with the presence of over 200,000 US troops in the region, Israel can no longer make decision on its own.”

HRW: Israeli soldiers killed civilians waving white flags

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NEW YORK, (PIC)– A report issued by human rights watch (HRW) revealed that IOF troops killed 11 Palestinian civilians as they were waving white flags during the barbaric military aggression on the Gaza Strip.

The report entitled “White flag deaths” documented seven incidents in which Israeli soldiers fired on civilians during Israel’s major military operations in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.

It said that the soldiers deliberately killed 11 civilians including five women and four children and wounded at least eight others despite they were carrying white flags to avoid being targeted.

The report explained that those civilians were in groups and waved white headscarves or shirts, adding that Palestinian fighters were not hiding among the civilians who were shot.

In the killings documented in this report, HRW found no evidence that the civilian victims were used by Palestinian fighters as human shields or were shot in the crossfire between warring parties.

According to the report, Israeli soldiers, in each of the incidents, appeared in control over the areas they invaded, and Palestinian fighters had already withdrawn from those areas in question, while the civilian victims were in plain view and posed no apparent security threat

Iran calls for ban on striking nuke facilities

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ILNA: Iran proposed that a 150-nation conference convening in the fall ban on striking nuke facilities.Iran says the proposal is not linked to veiled threats by Israel of an attack as a last resort if the international community fails to persuade Tehran to freeze its nuclear activities.

“We are not worried about Israel,” said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief envoy to the IAEA. “Nobody dares to do anything against Iran.”
He said an Iranian resolution will seek a worldwide ban on such attacks as “a matter of principle.”
“I think this is an urgent concern for all of the international community,” he said. “All member states will support the idea.”
He said his country submitted a proposal that a resolution specifying such a ban be put forward for a vote at the meeting, which begins Sept. 14.
The IAEA’s general conference already passed a resolution in September 1990 entitled “Prohibition of All Armed Attacks Against Nuclear Installations Devoted to Peaceful Purposes Whether Under Construction or in Operation.”
But Soltanieh said a fresh resolution was called for because “nuclear installations all over the world are increasing and any sort of threatening attacks will have radiological consequences all over the world.”
Tehran insists its enrichment program is geared only toward generating the fuel to produce nuclear energy.

Six Pakistanis killed in Somalia attack

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MOGADISHU: Six foreigners, said to be from Pakistan, were killed by unidentified gunmen on Wednesday in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, witnesses said.
Two other people were injured in the attack at a mosque in Galkayo, residents said, adding that the foreigners came from Pakistan on Tuesday dressed as Islamist preachers.
“Masked gunmen opened fire in the mosque, killing six foreigners and injured two others,” resident Sheikh Abdiqadir Ali told foreign news agency.

Canadian Shia purchase a mosque

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The first Iranian mosque purchased in Vancouver – the largest city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia (BC), Canada – on the birthday of the last Shia Imam Mahdi (AS), after years of unremitting attempt.
The importance of the matter is attentive when you know that some educational-cultural centers in Persian exist in Vancouver and the need of providing the Islamic safe atmosphere for them is more obvious.
The first steps of buying the mosque took on the 10th night of Moharram 1429 (Ashura); when there was no place for rituals the Moharram ritual held in a church instead of mosque.
At that night with the ambitious of Iranian Muslim and with the favor of Imam Hessian (AS) during 30 minutes about 600.000 $ gathered and with the help of Allah after 7 month, in the honored month of Shaban and in the Birthday of the last Imam Mahdi (AS) the building purchased and became their mosque.
The purchased building, al-Ghadir mosque, in the North area of Vancouver is a two stairs building. The first floor is for the collective prayer, the Friday prayer and for especial programs and rituals. The second floor has some rooms which use for “Al-Ghadir Islamic school” classes.
Al-Ghadir Islamic school has founded two years ago and has about 60 students in primary and secondary school in the Persian, religious and the Holy Qoran fields. The center website is accessible here: http://www.ghadir.ca
The Muslims population of the BC province is about 76 thousand that the Iranian population of Vancouver is about 15 thousand.