Deputy Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem reiterated that Hezbollah would avenge Imad Mughniyeh’s assassination.
“Hezbollah has kept its promise. The decision to avenge Imad Mughniyeh’s murder has been taken. The place and time would be known during execution (of the plan),” Qassem said on the assassination of Hezbollah commander Mughniyeh in a Damascus car bombing last year.
He reiterated that Israel was behind the Hezbollah commander’s killing.
UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, addressing a ceremony to mark the World Humanitarian Day, condemned on Wednesday today’s terrorist bomb blasts that ripped through Baghdad, leaving some 95 Iraqis killed and more than 563 wounded. According to AFP, Ban Ki-moon expressed regret over the continuation of violence in Iraq that has led to killing of a number of innocent people.
The United Nations on Wednesday marked the first World Humanitarian Day to pay tribute to humanitarian workers killed in missions, including the 22 UN staffers who died in a Baghdad attack six years ago.
In related news, the rotating EU Presidency, the Sweden, issued a statement to censure the bomb blasts, expressing sympathy with the government and people of Iraq.
The terrorist blast is believed to be the work of US agents operating in tandem with certain reactionary Arab regimes in order to destabilize Iraq and provide a pretext to the American troops to re-enter urban areas.
KABUL (Reuters) – Two Taliban insurgents were killed in a gunbattle in the Afghan capital on Thursday as millions voted in an anxiously awaited presidential election marked by sporadic violence across the country.
The Kabul attack, coming after the Talibansaid 20 of their fighters had infiltrated the capital, was the worst of several on polling stations and voters, mainly in the south and east.
Despite the violence, the United Nations said there were encouraging signs of high turnout.
“The vast majority of polling stations have been able to open and have received voting materials,” said Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Kabul.
“…we are seeing queues forming at polling stations in the north, also in the capital, as well as, encouragingly, in the east.”
President Hamid Karzai cast his ballot under tight security at a high school in Kabul, telling reporters he hoped for an outright majority in a single round.
He faces an unexpectedly strong challenge from former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, and polls suggest he may not get enough votes to avoid a second round run-off, likely in October. Preliminary results are not expected for at least two weeks.
The election is also a test for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has ordered a massive troop build-up this year as part of a strategy to reverseTaliban gains.
Obama’s envoy for the region, Richard Holbrooke, toured polling stations in Kabul, and said what he’d seen was “open and honest,” adding:” So far every prediction of disaster turned out to be wrong.”
KABUL SHOOTOUT
As he spoke, two Taliban fighters were engaged in a shootout with Afghan forces in the capital. Abdullah Uruzgani, a police battalion commander, told Reuters the two were later killed, while unconfirmed reports said one had blown himself up with a bomb-laden suicide vest and the other had been shot dead.
Attacks have increased in the weeks leading to the poll, with fighters mounting two big suicide car-bomb strikes and a building siege inside the normally secure capital.
Security in most of the country is still better than it was in Iraq when several successful elections were held there, but the Taliban may be able to damage the vote even without big attacks if their threats keep people from the ballot box.
But many Afghans said attacks would not keep them from voting.
“The Afghan people are used to living under the worst circumstances of insecurity and fighting, why should they be afraid to come out and vote?” said Sayed Mustafa, a Kabul student, showing off his ink-stained finger that proved he had voted.
Friday will mark the 40th anniversary of the burning of the Al-Aqsa mosque by Australian Zionist Denis Michael Rohan.
On August 21, 1969, Rohan entered the mosque and set the Nurrudin Zingi Mihrab on fire. According to Ekrima Sabri, Mufti of Al-Quds, the minute news of the fire spread in the Old City of Al-Quds, men, women and children began bringing cans of water and sand to try to put the fire out.
“Israeli authorities banned Civil Defense vehicles in Al-Quds from taking part in putting out the fire, and delayed other vehicles from Al-Khalil, Beitlahm, Ramallah and El-Birehfrom reaching the site,” Sabri said.
The fire lasted for four hours and burned 1500 square meters of the 4400 square meters that comprise the compound of the mosque.
The fired gutted the southeastern wing of the mosque, known as Haram Al Sharif (Noble sanctuary).
The fire also destroyed one-thousand year old wood, and ivory pulpit. After the fire, Jordan fixed the mosque at a cost of nearly 9 million US dollars.
This attack was one in a long list of threats to Islamic holy sites and Muslim presence in Al-Quds before and since. Under Israeli military occupation, Al-Quds’ native Palestinians, Muslims and Christians live under siege.
Zionist authorities routinely subject Palestinians in Al-Quds to forced expulsions, home demolitions, land confiscation, ethnic segregation and seizure of identity cards.
Since March 1993, when Zionist regime imposed a closure on Al-Quds, it has prevented Palestinian Muslims and Christians from entering the holy city without special permits that are nearly impossible to obtain.
These policies are intended to create conditions of psychological and economic pressure such that non-Jews are forced to move out of the city altogether.
Zionist regime is digging 20 tunnels under the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Al-Quds some of which are already open for tourists while others are still under construction, the executive director of Quds Institution, Ziad Al-Hassan, said.
Dr. Talib Abu Sha’ar the minister of endowments and religious affairs said that the city of Al-Quds and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are facing the most treacherous scheme since the Zionist occupation in 1948.
He said, in a statement, that the demolition orders continue to be handed to ‘Jerusalem’ (Qods) citizens on a daily basis, the latest of which was a batch of eight demolition orders handed to eight Palestinian residents of the Selwan neighbourhood to the south of the Aqsa Mosque.
Egyptian demonstrators have gathered in front of the German Embassy in Cairo to protest what they say are intentions to acquit Sherbini’s murderer.
In a silent protest, the crowd condemned “the media silence in Germany over the killing of Marwa el-Sherbini,” who was stabbed 18 times by a German man of Russian decent in a Dresden courtroom back in July.
The demonstrators demanded justice and punishment for the man responsible for the young woman’s death, amid speculations that his lawyers may try to portray him as mentally impaired.
Sherbini’s lawyer Khaled Abubakr, however, has vowed to take all possible measures to prevent such a scenario from unfolding.
Protesters believe that the German media’s reluctance to dedicate adequate coverage to Sherbini’s death point to efforts within the German government to free him.
“This rally, which is being held in protest against the German media’s silence 40 days after Sherbini’s death, shows that national concern over this issue will not fade away with time,” said Nadiya Ata, head of the human rights group organizing the event.
She also called on Egyptian officials to make sure that justice is served and that people are informed about future legal proceedings of the case.
The three-month pregnant Marwa el-Sherbini was killed in early July while giving testimony against Axel W. in an appeal court, when the assailant attacked her in front of German police who failed to protect her against the assailant.
El-Sherbini’s husband, Elvi Ali Okaz, tried to save his wife but was stopped short by the police who shot him the leg after apparently mistaking him for the attacker.
Alex W. had been found guilty and ordered to pay a fine at an earlier hearing for insulting and abusing Sherbini in November after calling her a “terrorist.”
He was at court on that day because the prosecutors had appealed against the earlier punishment believing it to be insufficient in view of his verbal insults against the Egyptian.
El-Sherbini’s death created outrage in Egypt and other parts of the Muslim world where protests have been held in condemnation of the hate crime.
| TEHRAN, Aug. 19 (MNA) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’ remarks about Iran are “far from realities” in the region, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qahqavi said on Wednesday. | |
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President Mubarak who had traveled to Washington told U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday that Iran interferes in Arab countries’ internal affairs. Iran has always been well-intentioned in its relations with Egypt but it is not clear why such remarks are made against Iran, Qashqavi lamented. These remarks will benefit no country in the region, he added.
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In an unprecedented step seen as ‘revolutionary’ the world’s first exclusively English Islamic TV channel was launched today on BSkyB from its London headquarters. The channel which carries the name ‘Ahlulbayt’ (meaning ‘Holy Household’) is a part of the Ahlulbayt Media Group, an established corporation in the world of digital and print media. The viewer assisted channel is staffed by British professionals from many different backgrounds.
According to the channel’s official Press Kit, the channel is “dedicated to broadcasting the pristine message of the Holy Household exclusively in English”. More specifically, the new TV network aims to serve the new generation of Muslims living in the West, addressing contemporary issues through cutting edge programming and world-class shows, while also pioneering a new means of informing non-Muslims about Islam and dispelling common misconceptions through “Wisdom and gracious exhortation”.
It is noteworthy that while the initial launch caters for UK audiences through the Sky platform, the channel is a true global network covering the United States, Canada, UK, and soon, continental Europe, Middle East, and Australia.
“The choice of London as the channel’s HQ came as a natural choice” said a representative of the network. “London is a model of peaceful coexistence between Muslims and the West and one of the world’s foremost centers of academic excellence and scholarly research, where people of all faiths practice free of fear or hindrance”.
One of the objectives of the channel, according to its charter, is to “take a firm and unequivocal stance against hateful ideology.. and present the Ahlulbayt school of thought as the true spirit of this great religion and the only solution to the troubling rise of extremism and acts of terror which have plagued the world in recent years”.
To that end, Ahlulbayt TV represents a major turning point in television programming which is conceived and produced, with an emphasis on quality and presenting a balanced visual space for the true message of Islam, as imparted by the Holy Household through programmes that are meaningful and relevant as well as lively and entertaining.
The Ahlulbayt TV Network can now be seen on Sky channel 842 and, coming soon, Galaxy 19 (for North American viewers).
BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces were on high alert Thursday after twin truck bombs killed 95 people and wounded almost 600 in Baghdad’s bloodiest day in 18 months.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki late Wednesday vowed to overhaul the country’s security while Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, whose ministry compound was among the buildings targeted, said there had been “serious security breaches”.
The explosions came just minutes apart outside government ministries while a car bombing and spate of mortar attacks added to the carnage in the capital, which has been under Iraqi security control since US troops withdrew from towns and cities in the conflict-torn country at the end of June.
Maliki met with his security and intelligence officials Wednesday during which a number of “important decisions and fast measures” were agreed upon to sustain security and stability in Baghdad, his office said in a statement.
Baghdad military command announced the arrest of 10 officers from the army and police who were responsible for security in the two districts hit by the attacks. No details were given.
The international community, led by the UN security council, condemned the blasts, which came on the sixth anniversary of a bombing on the UN compound in Baghdad that killed special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.
The White House described the attacks as “senseless violence” but the Pentagon noted that they would not affect the US military’s plans to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned the twin bombings as “cowardly and pointless attacks,” vowing to help fight the scourge of terrorism.
An Iraqi interior ministry official said 563 people were wounded in the truck bombs, one of which targeted the foreign ministry just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone and the other the nearby finance ministry, across the Tigris river.
“This was a calculated, deliberate attack on the restoration of normal life,” Zebari told reporters. “My assessment is it’s an attack on the normalisation of life in Baghdad.”
He acknowledged that there had been “some serious, serious security breaches,” and said that while he couldn’t say who was behind the attack, its timing was “archetypal of Al-Qaeda.”
In an earlier statement, Maliki said the bombings were “a desperate attempt to derail the political process and affect the parliamentary elections,” planned to take place in January 2010.
Analysts said that the attacks shattered attempts by Maliki to portray himself as a guardian of security ahead of the January elections.
“Maliki is clearly the man who wanted to be the symbol of increasing security and security capabilities, and that is clearly not the case,” International Crisis Group analyst Loulouwa al-Rachid said.
“If this trend (of violence) continues, yes, definitely it’s going to weaken Maliki. Practically, it will endanger the whole process. How can you run elections if security is an issue?”
Iraqis pointed the finger at their security forces, which in turn blamed members of executed former dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.
“The government promised us security would return, but where is the security?” asked Hamid, 46, who lives a few hundred metres (yards) from the foreign ministry compound.
Major General Qassim Atta, the spokesman for the Iraqi Army’s Baghdad operations, blamed an alliance of Baathists loyal to Saddam and religious extremists for the attacks.
He added that security forces had arrested two senior Al-Qaeda leaders in western Baghdad, and that a truck carrying one tonne of explosives had been intercepted near a hospital in the centre of the capital.
A car bomb meanwhile hit a market in western Baghdad, while two mortar bombs landed in the Green Zone — an area of foreign embassies and government offices — and one exploded outside, a security official said.
It was the bloodiest day in Iraq since February 1, 2008, when bombs at Baghdad pet markets killed 98 people.
Recent attacks in the capital have appeared to target various ethnic groups in what is seen as a bid to reignite the sectarian violence which engulfed Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
Despite a reduction in violence across Iraq in the past year, attacks on security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, the restive northern city of Mosul and in the ethnically divided oil city of Kirkuk.
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WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (APP): An American expert has praised President Asif Ali Zardari’s announcement to allow political activities in federally administered tribal areas, hoping this step, coupled with other inclusive efforts, would lead to far-reaching mainstreaming of the region, striving to get rid of extremists. “This is a potentially important and positive development in Pakistan,” defense and foreign policy analyst Max Boot writes in Commentary, an influential US magazine.
Boot touches on the historical context of the current situation in the areas along the Afghan border, including during the British Raj, when the tribesmen were left to run their affairs and left out of the national life. Subsequently, “it essentially cut off this area from all political and social development.” Stressing the importance of extending political activities in the tribal areas, Boot quotes an American newspaper, which noted that the “ban on political activities and parties had created a vacuum that was increasingly exploited by militants and religious extremists, allowing the Taliban and al-Qaeda to tighten their hold on the region.” In this background, the expert argues that Pakistan “must act to incorporate FATA into mainstream society, providing the kind of educational and political opportunities that would help to wean the inhabitants away from the extremists.” “Zardari’s announcement is a small step in the right direction. But Pakistan will have to do much more to follow up on some of the progress its troops are making on the ground.”
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NEW DELHI: Criticizing a ban imposed on his book by Gujarat government, expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Thursday said it amounted to “banning thinking” and likened the step to the one taken against noted author Salman Rushdie for his controversial work ‘Satanic Verses’.
“I am greatly saddened by it,” Singh told reporters on the Gujarat government’s decision to ban his book “Jinnah–India, Partition, Independence”.
“The day we start banning books, we are banning thinking,” said Singh, who was expelled by BJP for the book in which he has praised the Pakistan founder M A Jinnah.
He said the step taken by Gujarat government was “another example of (action taken against) Salman Rushdie and Satanic Verses” which was banned for its controversial contents on Islam.
Asked to comment on BJP’s contention that he had been expelled for his uncharitable comments in the book against Sardar Patel and that his views on Jinnah were different from those of LK Advani, he said, “Let me understand why (I was expelled). Nobody has told me”.
On his continuance as MP from Darjeeling, he said he got a telephonic call from his constituency that the people there wanted him to continue as their representative in Lok Sabha.
Gujarat government last night banned Jaswant’s book on Jinnah alleging it was an attempt to defame the image of the country’s first Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel by “questioning his patriotic spirit”.
“Jaswant Singh’s book questions role of Sardar Patel during the partition of India as well as his patriotic spirit. This is an attempt to tarnish the image of Patel who is considered the architect of modern united India,” a statement issued by the state government said.
“It is a bid to defame Patel by distorting historical facts,” it charged. “So, the state government has decided to ban the book with immediate effect for wider public interest,” it said.
“As per the ban, there cannot be sale, distribution or publication of the book in the state,” it said.
JNN News 
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