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.

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.

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea is counting down to its first space launch on Wednesday that will likely open the door to its nascent rocket program and rile neighbor North Korea, hit by U.N. sanctions after its own rocket launch in April.

South Korea, which has relied on other countries to launch its satellites, plans to send a domestically built satellite into orbit on its rocket Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, also known as Naro-1, from its space center in the south of country.

The Naro-1 is 33 meters (108 ft) long and the two-stage rocket was built at a cost of 502.5 billion won ($400 million), according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.

It is supposed to launch a 100-kg (220.5-lb) satellite into orbit that will monitor the Earth’s radiant energy. Lift-off is planned for 0740 GMT Wednesday at a site about 350 km (220 miles) south of Seoul.

South Korea has relied on Russia’s help with the Naro-1, with its Khrunichev space production center building the first stage, providing technical assistance and conducting tests.

“If we complete the development of the first-stage engine, we will then have the power to launch on our own. This is a tedious task though,” said Yoon Young-bin, an aerospace specialist at Seoul National University.

South Korea wants to build a rocket on its own by 2018 and send a probe to monitor the moon by 2025. It also wants to develop a commercial service to launch satellites.

But it lags far behind Japan, China, India, and to some extent North Korea, and is betting that after its first successful launch it can use its technical prowess to catch up quickly with its rivals.

South Korea’s space agency tried to play down expectations for the launch, saying in a report that only about 30 percent of countries’ first attempts to put a satellite into orbit succeed.

NORTH KOREA IS WATCHING

The South’s satellite launch serves as a point of pride and irritation for North Korea, which in April shot off a long-range rocket and was hit by U.N. punishment because the move was widely seen as a disguised missile test that violated U.N. resolutions.

North Korea, whose economy is about 2 percent the size of the South’s, has boasted about sending a satellite into orbit, circling the globe playing revolutionary songs, ahead of its richer southern neighbor.

U.S. and South Korean officials have said nothing was put into orbit.

North Korea chastised the United Nations for punishing it for the April launch and a Foreign Ministry spokesman said this month the state will be closely watching how the world body reacts to the South’s.

Apart from North Korea, few doubt the South’s launch will be anything but for its civilian space program. But the launch does raise questions about implications for regional security.

An outstanding Egyptian Shia announced four groups and organizations are active against Egyptian Shia Muslims.

Dr. “Ahmad Rasem al-Nafis” an Egyptian Shia Scholar mentioned that Saudi information organizations and Mossad in assistant with Al-Qaeda and Ba’ath Party are striving against Shia religion in Egypt.
He said main origin of religious differences inside and outside of Egypt originates from Iraq.

In continuation, he stressed religious differences are created by Israel occupiers and only Zionists profited from these disputes.

He mentioned that religious disputes were the leaven for the fall of Fatemian government.

Once again, Saudi authorities started a new phase of religious harassment against Shia citizens in Khobar city by preventing Jama’a prayers in any place after the recent closure of five Shia mosques.

Sources informed Rasid that State authorities is looking for Sayed Hashim Al-Sharaf for opening his house for Jama’a prayers in Thuqba neighborhood as a replacement to the closed Shia mosques in the same neighborhood.

The 30 year old man is wanted by the authorities to sign an undertaking to stop opening his house for Shia prayers otherwise he will be sent to prison.

Authorities had already closed five Shia mosques in Khobar city where about 20,000 Shia citizens live there according to unofficial sources.

In the same context, Saudi Intelligence Department forces Hajj Hussain Al-Rashed to sign an undertaking to stop opening his house for Jama’a prayers in the same city.

All closed mosques are Shia and one of which belongs to Ismaili Shia and the other four belong to Ethna Ashrya Shia who are the majority in the oil rich Eastern Province.

Saudi authorities do not allow their Shia citizens to build their own mosques nor have their own cemeteries in areas outside Qatif, Al-Hasa and Najran where they are majority.

The official bodies in Eastern Province Governance and the Ministry of Religious Affairs do not provide reasons for the ban on Shia.

As a reaction to the above events, Shaikh Hassan Al-Saffar condemned during Friday prayers suppression of religious practices in Saudi and warned of inverse consequences to creed debates and the trials for “imposing and suppressing” people’s practices and rituals.

The recent developments came after of 14 months from the Authorities campaign to close Shia mosques in Khobar which included calling and detaining several Shia clerics and leaders.

More than 20 Shia citizens were arrested for taking part in religious activities during Ashura on last January.

Shaikh Hassan Al-Saffar condemned during Friday prayers suppression of religious practices in Saudi and warned of inverse consequences to creed debates and the trials for “imposing and suppressing” people’s practices and rituals.

During Friday prayers in Qatif, Al-Saffar affirmed people’s freedom to practice their rituals and that societies experiences proved their ability to regained their freedom due to inverse consequences of suppression.

Amid the increasingly suppression rate against Saudi Shia, Al-Saffar condemned any trials to suppress religious practices of any sect.

Recently, Saudi authorities have increased their religious harassment by closing five Shia mosques in Khobar city and the return of arbitrary arrests campaign in Al-Hasa.

Most of the arbitrary arrests were made in Al-Hasa with about 20 detainees for taking part in religious activities during Ashura on last January.

In an  implicit warning to Saudi authorities, Al-Saffar said: “Many governments have tried suppressing people’s practices and rituals but the outcomes were inverse and people regained their freedom.”

He called for practices rationalization of religious festivals of Ahal Al-Bayet (Prophet Mohammad Clan) and not limiting them to trivial practices as “these practices carry deep meanings, goals and great purposes” Al-Saffar said.

Last weekend, about 2 million Saudi Shia celebrated the birth of Imam Al-Mahd (the twelfth Imam as per Shia Imamia sect) in a wide spread religious festivals.

Al-Saffar called the world and humanity attention to Imam Al-Mahdi and said “Imam Al-Mahdi is not an Imam (leader) of one guild, sect, country or nation, rather he comes to spread peace and justice all over the globe.”

He emphasized on ” the necessity to openly direct our attention to humanity away from retarded reality which we have imprisoned ourselves within.”

It should be noted here that all Saudi Shia citizens’ celebrations and festivals are not covered by any official or public media. In addition, official human rights committees are sightless when it comes to Shia suppression or harassment.

Hezbollah’s leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has warned Tel Aviv against waging a new war against Lebanon, asserting that the resistance will strike back.

“We tell the Israelis today that if they bombard Beirut or the southern suburbs we will strike Tel Aviv,” Nasrallah made the speech to mark the end of the third anniversary of Israel’s 33-day war on Lebanon in 2006.

He added that Lebanon’s victory in the war proved that the Israeli army was no longer undefeatable.

“Lebanon must have a deterrent armed force. When we have such a force, we can tell the Israelis that they will not be able to achieve their goals,” he said about Hezbollah retaining its capability to serve as a deterrent against any Israeli aggression.

Nasrallah said Netanyahu’s ongoing threats against Lebanon were ‘psychological warfare’ and served to sow discord among Lebanese parties to hinder the formation of a new cabinet.

Tel Aviv “is (rather) seeking to pressure the Lebanese government against Hezbollah’s participation in the new Cabinet,” he said.

Hezbollah has a thirteen-member bloc in the Lebanese Parliament and is entitled to one or two ministers in the expected national unity cabinet. Premier Saad Hariri has been struggling to form the new cabinet since July.

TEHRAN (ISNA)-Quds is in need of a real movement by Palestinians and freedom-seekers of the world to stop Israel’s brutal insults, said Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Addressing the “First International Big Prize Festival of Islamic Resistance” in Tehran through videoconference, he said Palestine is facing an American-Israeli plan that seeks to destroy bases of resistance and freedom.

He also warned over Israel’s policies seeking Semitism and change of Quds demography.

Haniyeh added “we abide by Palestinians’ rights including their rights for freedom of their country, establishment of Palestinian state with capital Quds and return of all displaced.”

He also called for the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Zionist regime’s jails.

“We adhere to Palestine’s national unity, we took part in different talks and we regard it as a principle,” he said adding “but, some of our partners are influenced by certain powers and their guidance is favorable to occupiers, they want us to disregard our wishes.”

“We adhere to unity and talks, but we will not disregard the rights of our nation.”

“We want to break the siege and start reconstruction of our country, Palestinians are suffering the siege, he said as calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to try to lift siege.

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.

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.”

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

Lebanon’s army has put its forces on high alert after Israeli forces made advances toward the area of Shaba farms amid heightened tensions with the Hezbollah movement.
Lebanese army sources said Sunday that three armored Israeli vehicles, accompanied by a civilian car, advanced toward Shaba farms, along southeast borders with Lebanon on Monday,
The Lebanese army, stationed on its side of the border, has also been deploying tanks and positioning soldiers inside fortifications.
Tensions follow an escalating war of words between Israel and Lebanon amid threatening remarks by officials in Tel Aviv about the likelihood of Hezbollah’s inclusion in the new Lebanese government.

Washington — A delegation of European imams and rabbis spent five days in Washington and New York in July to promote interfaith understanding.

The group included some of the most influential Jewish and Muslim spiritual leaders from Britain, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Norway and Russia. The trip was cosponsored by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU).

It is believed to be the first visit of its kind to involve foreign Muslim and Jewish leaders coming to America, where interreligious ties have a much longer history and record of success.

ISNA and FFEU sought to facilitate a dialogue between the visiting European imams and rabbis and their counterparts in the United States, who have been active in the field of Muslim-Jewish relations.

“Our strength as Muslim Americans [is that] we are able to build relations with other faiths, Christian, Jewish and the others,” said Sayyid Mohammad Syeed, national director of interfaith and community alliances for ISNA. “America has been able to build a society built on diversity. It did not happen all of a sudden; it took America years and years to do it. … Our success in America has given us the faith and confidence to reach out to Europe.”

Rizwan Jaka, one of the event’s organizers and a board member of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS)  and ISNA, said, “The goal was to bring imams and rabbis together for interfaith understanding to stand against anti-Semitism and against Islamophobia.”

Jaka added, “The interfaith dialogue helps all of us to understand one another. We all have to live in this world together; we have to live together in peace and harmony, as our faiths ask us to do. … By knowing one another, [we] will stop fearing one another, will stop the ignorance that creates a gap. By knowing one another, by eating together, by talking together, there can be respect and understanding that can help truly create peace around the world.”

The visiting rabbis and imams viewed a short film at the ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia. The film showed the cooperation and peaceful co-existence between Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans in nearby Ashburn, Virginia.

Sayyed Alam, chairperson of ADAMS’ Ashburn Committee, said that “five years ago we were looking for a place to rent for the al-Jumaa prayer and we got a place that is next to the synagogue, where they agreed to rent us the place for the prayer.”

Members of the local Muslim-American community gathered with the delegation of imams and rabbis for a dinner, catered halal and kosher, hosted by the ADAMS Center. “It is a good opportunity for our generation to engage in such events,” said Ibrahim Moiz, a Muslim-American attorney who represented the youth of the ADAMS Center in the event.

ISNA also mounted an outreach to American Christians and Jews in July at its annual conference in Washington, sponsoring an interfaith reception for 400 leaders from various religions.

“The great challenge of the 21st century in interreligious dialogue is to find the path to narrow the gap between Muslims and Jews worldwide,” said Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

The conference fostered mutual respect among participants and underscored shared goals, including fighting Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, said Geneva Chief Rabbi Izhak Dayan. “Together with the Muslim community, we can preserve our religious rights.”

The Weekend of Twinning has the endorsement of the Islamic Society of North America, as well as other organizations including the World Jewish Congress, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims.

A 23-year-old woman of Ethiopian descent said that the driver of an Egged No. 5 bus in Tel Aviv refused to allow her to board his bus because of the color of her skin.

Speaking to Ynet, Yedno Verka recounted last Wednesday’s incident: “As I prepared board the bus, the driver suddenly shut the door. I banged on the glass, but he ignored me. Then a young woman came running towards the bus, and he opened the door for her. I stayed close to her and boarded the bus. When the driver saw me he said, ‘what, don’t you understand that I don’t allow Kushim (derogatory term for black people) on board? Are you trying to smash my door in? Were there buses in Ethiopia? Why don’t you walk? In Ethiopia you didn’t even have shoes and here you do, so why don’t you walk?’ I was shaking all over; I couldn’t even speak,” she said.
At this point Verka handed the driver the bus fair, but, according to her, he refused to accept. Verka said she responded by saying, “You can’t treat me this way. Treat your mother this way.”
At this point, she said, “He grabbed my skirt and yelled: ‘You don’t talk like that about my mother. A Kushit will not talk about my mother like that.’ I was afraid he was going to hit me, and explained that I did not curse his mother. But he continued: ‘Go back to Ethiopia! You are not even Jews; who brought you all here anyway? You’re ruining our country; you are a stupid people.’
Only then did the other passengers intervene and call the driver out for his racist behavior, said the woman, adding that the driver continued his tirade even after she made her way to the back of the bus.
Knesset Member Shlomo Molla (Kadima) turned to Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), who in turn instructed his office to demand that the Egged bus company investigate the incident and see to it that the driver is punished if it is found that he acted inappropriately.

ISLAMABAD: A historic 17th century Catholic Church in India’s Western coastal state of Goa was desecrated, fuelling concern for Christians; prompting State Assembly Speaker to say “desecration is meant to create communal tension.
According to Christian Post, media reported that St Anthony Church at Cabo de Rama in Southern part of Goa, a coastal tiny state between Maharashtra and Karnataka was seen ransacked by unknown men most probably hindu extremists.
A case has been registered against unknown persons under Sections 295, 295 (A) and 153 (A) IPC. A Special Investigation Team has been set up to probe the incident.
The incident was taken seriously by the Goa State Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. The Speaker Pratapsing Rane Tuesday said increasing instances of religious structures being desecrated reflect a conscious effort by some forces to foment communal tension.
Goa was ruled by the Portuguese since 1510 unlike the rest of India colonised by the British; many of its subjects embraced Christianity making the Christians a formidable force in the state. It became part of India only in 1961 though India got its independence from the British in 1947.
Currently, Christians make up about 27 percent of Goa’s population of 1.3 million people, according to 2001 census of the government of India. Hindus form the largest religious group with 66 percent; Muslims make up about 7 percent in one of the states where Christians influence is felt in all spheres of lives.
Various sources said nearly 30 reported incidents of desecration have rocked Goa in the last couple of years, forcing Goa Police to form a special investigation team (SIT) to probe these. Unable to crack the mystery, the Police have now set up a force in the more remote regions of the state to prevent further incidents of desecration.

Last year, nearly 140,000 people died in Myanmar’s devastating Cyclone Nargis, while over 5 million homes collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake in China.  The Secretary-General underscored the importance of building risk reduction capacities as well as raising public awareness.

“People, poverty and disaster risk are increasingly concentrated in cities,” he said, noting that urban centres that were well-planned 25 years ago are now the scenes of annual flooding. More than half of the world’s 10 most populous cities are in Asia, and most of them are threatened by earthquakes and devastating tsunami waves, Ban said in his remarks to International Conference on Building a Local Government Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction, also in Incheon.

Rising sea temperatures triggered by climate change, he said, are raising the spectre of ever-more destructive hurricane and cyclones. “And yet,” he said, “we also know the possibility. With concerted action, we can reduce by half the loss of lives from disasters by 2015,” calling for an end to business as usual.

The Secretary-General appealed for a ‘collective effort,’ urging local authorities to speed up their efforts to make their cities safer by conducting risk assessments and encouraging private sector investment.  “By joining forces, we can protect livelihoods, make our schools and hospitals and other buildings safe, and promote a greener, cleaner future.”

TOKYO: Powerful earthquakes just over 10 minutes apart rattled Japan and India Tuesday, triggering panic on fears of a tsunami in the Andaman Islands and injuring dozens of people southwest of Tokyo.
The unrelated quakes struck in the early hours, shutting down bullet train services in the affected region of Japan and provoking a landslide with the nation already braced for more damage from Typhoon Etau.
At least 43 people were injured, mostly by falling objects, with two in a serious condition, said a Shizuoka prefecture official. A nuclear power plant went into automatic shutdown but no incidents were registered.
In an address on Japanese public broadcaster NHK, Shizuoka governor Heita Kawakatsu urged the public to “remain level-headed and gather correct information we provide through TV programmes.”
The Japanese tremor registered a strong 6.4 while the quake off the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean was a huge 7.6, according to the US Geological Survey.
Panic-stricken islanders fled their homes, fearing a repeat of the enormous Asian tsunami that devastated the Andamans in 2004 and killed around 220,000 people in the region as a whole.
But a tsunami alert issued for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh was later cancelled by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of the US National Weather Service.
“Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated,” it said.
The police control centre in Port Blair, the main town of the Andamans, said there were no immediate reports of any major damage or casualties.
The quake hit at 1:55 am (1955 GMT Monday) around 263 kilometres north of Port Blair, and was around 33 kilometres deep. Mild tremors were felt 1,190 kilometres away in the eastern Indian port city of Chennai.
The Japanese quake struck at 5:07 am (2007 GMT Monday) in the Pacific Ocean about 170 kilometres southwest of Tokyo at a depth of 26.8 kilometres.
It shook buildings and jolted people from their sleep in Tokyo and areas southwest of the capital.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency, which measured the quake at a revised 6.5, said there was no risk of a tsunami after initial waves raised the ocean surface by about 40 centimetres (16 inches) at Omaezaki, Shizuoka.
A large landslide triggered by the quake damaged a highway in the prefecture at Makinohara, causing long traffic jams, television footage showed.
The Meteorological Agency warned that Typhoon Etau — whose torrential rains have caused at least 13 deaths from flooding and landslides in Japan — could trigger further landslides as it moved northeast along the coast.
“Please be vigilant,” an agency official urged the public.
The typhoon was not forecast to make a direct landfall, but it was predicted to lash the Tokyo region with strong winds and heavy rains.
The quake caused power failures in 9,500 households, utility officials said, while Central Japan Railway Co. suspended Shinkansen bullet trains in the quake-hit region before resuming the services several hours later.
Prime Minister Taro Aso’s office set up an emergency centre shortly after the quake, which was followed by 13 noticeable aftershocks.
Around 20 percent of the world’s most powerful earthquakes strike Japan.
The Andaman Sea area witnesses frequent tremors caused by the meeting of the Indian tectonic plate with the Burmese microplate.

WASHINGTON: The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Washington was trying ‘behind the scenes’ to empower protesters disputing Iran’s presidential election.
In an interview with a UN news TV, Clinton said the US did not openly support the demonstrators since it did not want to act in a way that would allow the Iranian leadership to use the US support to unify the Iranian nation against the protesters.
“Now, behind the scenes, we were doing a lot,” Clinton said. “We were doing a lot to really empower the protesters without getting in the way.”
“We knew that if we stepped in too soon, too hard … the leadership would try to use us to unify the country against the protesters.”
The former first lady added that the US would not stop supporting those contesting the election results.
Iran became the scene of rallies after the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for another four-year term.
Protests were held mainly in the capital, Tehran, with some of them turning violent and resulting in the deaths of at least 30 people.
Iran accuses Western countries in particular the US and Britain for instigating the post-election protests in the country, calling on them to adopt a policy of non-interference toward the country.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank: Polling officials say the Palestinian Fatah movement has elected a slate of younger leaders to its highest body at its first conference in 20 years.
The results of the vote will show whether Fatah — the West’s best hope for eventually delivering a peace deal with Israel — has succeeded in reinvigorating the movement by bringing in new faces.
Early results show that at least 13 of the 18 elected members of Fatah’s Central Committee are from the movement’s younger generation. Four other members will be appointed by the Palestinian president, also a Central Committee member.
The officials declined to be named before official results are announced.

Hezbollah’s Executive Council Chief Sayyed Hashem Safiyyeddine warned Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that he will discover that the 2006 war on Lebanon was nothing but a bit of fun if the Israeli occupation army made the stupid mistake of attacking Lebanon again.
“If Barak’s threats are serious — and I don’t think they are — he should be aware that if he commits an error or stupid act against Lebanon… he will discover that the months of July and August 2006 were just a bit of fun,” his eminence said.
Speaking a ceremony in south Lebanon, Sayyed Safiyyeddine said: “We have never, and we will never seek war. However the rule that we’ve adopted to keep the war away from our country is that we have to be strong.”
Barak said on Thursday that the Jewish state would use “all necessary force” if there was a fresh conflict on its northern border with Lebanon. He charged that Hezbollah has stockpiled 40,000 rockets.
Lieutenant General Gaby Ashkenazi, head of Israel’s armed forces, warned last month against a military conflict with Lebanon, saying Hezbollah’s weapons stockpile poses a “serious” threat to Israel.
“Based on the fact that we are strong today and we have been living on the formula and the victory of the 2006 war, we believe that all of the Israeli threats are hollow and meaningless. On the other hand, what is happening in the region and in Lebanon in particular, pertaining to the attempts to target the resistance and its position, it has been proven that of those schemes have fallen down…All of the United States’ political projects to curb the resistance and take vengeance on it have also fallen down and therefore, there is no need to be worried…For some political players in Lebanon who do not want to perceive this fat, this is their problem not the problem of most of the Lebanese who have reached a political agreement that can be founded on in order to pull Lebanon out of its problems and crises. The Lebanese must differentiate between their friend and their enemy and they have to know how to set their political priorities,” Sayyed Safiyyeddine said.