Terrorists on the run; to be eliminated soon; Gilani


SWAT, Aug 10 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday said that the terrorists were on the run, the differences between them are widening and they will soon be eliminated. Addressing a large gathering of elders here, the prime minister said that government had to ensure its writ and resorted to the use of military to counter the miscreants.

“No one will any longer be allowed to dishonour our women, deny education to them, make their lives miserable, create lawlessness,” Gilani said in his first visit since the return of the displaced people.

He asked the people of Swat and Malakand to be wary of “blacksheep” who mislead them and create problems for them and the country.

Governor NWFP Owais Ghani, Chief minister NWFP Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif attended the public meeting.

The prime minister who made an unannounced visit to the scenic Swat valley, that was forcefully vacated from groups of militants, said the valley as more beautiful than Switzerland and vowed to revive its main tourism industry.

He urged the locals to come up with suggestions so as to revive the business activities that grounded to a halt and assured full government support.

The Prime Minister said the government would soon introduce a special package for Swat that includes its reconstruction, rehabilitation of affected people besides initiating new development projects for the areas’ uplift.

He said the federal government would provide as much financial assistance for Swat and the rehabilitation of locals.

“Money does not matter before your safety and development,” he said while addressing to the Swat locals.

He said the government had already allocated Rs 50 billion for rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), so as to continue the development projects.

Gilani announced setting up of Navtec in Swat besides relaxing the age limit to 28 and lowering the qualification to Bachelors so as to enable the local youth get skilled training with a stipend of Rs 10,000.

The prime minister also announced construction of Dargai-Mingora dual carriageway and said funds for the project will be sought through the Friends of Democratic Pakistan.

Terrorists have neither any religion nor any conscience and the people are witness that they turned their guns towards their own people.

He said the of people of Swat and Malakand have sacrificed their today for a bright and prosperous future of the country.

“I salute you all on behalf of the nation,” Gilani said.

He asked all the four chief ministers to nominate a minister each to represent at the flag hoisting ceremony on 14th August in Swat.

He also paid rich tributes to all those who participated in this operation to rid the country of the elements who were bent upon creating chaos.

The prime minister said the people who hosted hundreds of thousands of displaced families deserve rich tributes as they exhibited the spirit of Ansaar-e-Madinah.

He assured the people of Swat, Malakand and adjoining areas that the government will extend full support to the people and take all necessary measures to provide best possible facilities to these people.

He hoped peace and tranquility will soon return to the affected areas as the government gears up its machinery to rebuild the devastated areas.

The prime minister said it was vital that the new generation be enlightened enough to differentiate between what is right and wrong and the real message of Islam, that is against violence and preaches tolerance.

Earlier the Prime Minister and the Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvaiz Kayani were also briefed about the measures taken for return of the Internally Displaced Persons and reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts.

Terrorists kidnap, torture boy to bully Iraqi policeman


FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) — Like many young boys, Khidir loves playing with toy cars and wants to be a policeman like his father when he grows up. But it was his father’s very job that caused the tiny child to suffer the unimaginable.Khidir was just 6 years old when he was savagely ripped away from his family, kidnapped by al Qaeda operatives in Iraq.

“They beat me with a shovel, they pulled my teeth out with pliers, they would go like this and pull it,” said Khidir, now 8, demonstrating with his hands. “And they would make me work on the farm gathering carrots.”

What followed was even more horrific, an ordeal that would last for two years in captivity. Khidir and his father spoke to CNN recently, more than half a year after his rescue by Iraqi police. Video Watch boy describe torture »

“This is where they hammered a nail into my leg and then they pulled it out,” he says, lifting up his pant leg to show a tiny wound.

He says his captors also pulled out each of his tiny fingernails, broke both his arms, and beat him repeatedly on the side of the head with a shovel. He still suffers chronic headaches. He remembers them laughing as they inflicted the pain.

“I would think about my mommy and daddy,” he replies, when asked how he managed to get through the agony.

His father, Abdul Qader, struggles for words. “When he tells me about how they would torture him, I can’t tolerate it. I start crying,” he says. “What hurts me the most is when they hammered a nail into his leg.”

The father, a police officer, was sleeping at the police station in Falluja when his son was kidnapped. It was too dangerous to go home regularly. Although Falluja was no longer controlled by insurgents, assassinations against police were common.

“I woke up to the sound of a huge explosion … and then I heard my name on the radio. I ran outside and they came to me saying your house was blown up,” he says.”When the police patrol came back, they all started kissing and comforting me,” he continues. “I was asking, ‘What’s going on? Where is my family?’ They told me that they took my son. This was a disaster. I went mad that day, I wasn’t normal, I was hysterical.”

Khidir’s grandmother was at home with the family at the time.

“The kidnappers climbed the fence and kicked in the door,” she says.”They were screaming for Abdul Qader. I told them he’s not here. They called me a liar and said we want his son. His son was hiding behind me, clutching my clothes. I said this is not his son. They hit me on the back with a rifle and ripped him out of my arms.”

The last thing she remembers were his screams of “Granny, Granny!”

The attackers rigged the house with explosives and demolished it before taking off with the 6-year-old. The boy’s grandmother and seven other family members rushed out of the home before it exploded.

“The kidnappers called me on the phone and demanded that some prisoners that we had be released or they would slit his throat,” Khidir’s father says. “But I said no to the release. I would not put killers back out on the street that would hurt other Muslims. So I thought to myself, ‘Let my son be a martyr.’ ”

He even held a secret funeral for his little boy. He didn’t want to tell the rest of the family that he had refused the kidnappers’ ultimatum, allowing them to hope that he was still alive.

Last December, nearly two years later, police in Taji, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) away, received a tip that terrorists were holding kidnapped children.

“We thought that it was just a tip to ambush us, but we considered the mission as a sacrifice,” said Iraqi police Capt. Khalib Ali. “Either we find the children and free them or face the danger and take the risk.”

The tip led the Iraqi police to a rundown farm and a series of mud huts. Khidir’s tiny body was twisted abnormally. And in another hut, they found another child. Two children are still believed to be with the kidnappers.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has historically kidnapped children for money, to pressure officials, and even to use in terrorist attacks.

For Khidir’s father, it was as if his son had come back from the dead.

“He didn’t recognize his mother or his grandmother,” Abdul Qader says. “But then he saw me in uniform and ran to me. I went flying toward him to hug him. People said be careful; both his arms are broken. So I held him from his waist, and he hugged me, kissed me, smelled me, and then broke into a smile.”

Israel bombs Gaza tunnel in retaliatory strike


GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli warplanes bombed a tunnel under the Gaza Strip border with Egypt on Monday, the first such attack in almost two months, the Israeli military said.

Witnesses and officials of the Islamist group Hamas which rules the enclave confirmed the pre-dawn strike. There were no reports of casualties.

Gaza’s smuggling tunnels, which still number in the hundreds despite air attacks and an Egyptian crackdown in which some have been blown up or flooded, are a frequent target for Israeli retaliation for attacks by Gaza’s armed Palestinian groups.

Monday’s raid was launched in response to recent mortar and rocket attacks, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. It was the first aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip since June 18.

The aircraft had targeted a tunnel under the border at Rafah which was suspected of being used to smuggle explosives into Gaza from Egypt, she added.

On Sunday, two mortar rounds were fired near Israel’s fortified Erez border crossing as a number of medical patients going for treatment in Israel were being ferried out by ambulance.

The rounds exploded about 300 meters from the Erez wall in Palestinian territory and no one was hurt.

On the day before, a rocket fired from Gaza exploded in open ground on the Israeli side of the border.

Some smaller Gaza militant groups say Hamas has been trying to stop them firing rockets and mortars at Israel, which has control of the delivery of fuel and food aid to the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the enclave.

Hamas wants Israel to lift its blockade and open the border crossings. Israel says Hamas must first release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whom it has held for three years.

Israel launched a ground and air offensive in Gaza in December, in which some 1,400 Palestinians were killed. Israel said it was a response to daily rocket fire by Gaza militants directed at southern Israeli towns.

Thirteen Israelis were killed in the 22-day conflict.

Israel has frequently attacked tunnels it says are used to bring in weapons or materials to build weapons, though such raids have been fewer in the past couple of months.

The spokeswoman said some 240 rockets had been fired by Gaza fighters since the end of the offensive on January 18.

String of bombings kill 40 in Iraq


BAGHDAD: A double truck bombing tore through a Shiite community near the northern city of Mosul, while a series of blasts struck Baghdad Monday in a wave of predawn violence that killed at least 40 people, according to Iraqi officials.
The deadliest blast on Monday was a double truck bombing in Khazna village, just east of Mosul, as the members of a Shiite minority ethnic group called the Shabak, who live there, were still sleeping.

Two explosives-laden trucks went off nearly simultaneously and less than 500 yards (meters) apart, killing at least 23 people and wounding 138, according to police and hospital officials.
Those killed were all civilians because the trucks were parked in an alley and not near such targets as a police station.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents who remain active in Mosul and surrounding areas.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene where rescuers searched through rubble of at least 15 houses that were destroyed. Many of the dead and wounded were sleeping on their roofs because lack of electricity and the heat made it to hot to sleep inside.
The first bomb Monday was hidden in a pile of trash when it exploded about 5:50 a.m. near a group of construction workers drinking tea and looking for day jobs in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Amil, killing at least seven people and wounding 46, officials said.
About 10 minutes later a car bomb targeting construction workers elsewhere in western Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 35, according to police.
Three bombs also exploded in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah shortly before 7 a.m., wounding a member of a government-backed paramilitary group, an army official said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

1 million evacuated as typhoon hits China


BEIJING: A powerful typhoon toppled houses, flooded villages and forced nearly 1 million people to flee to safety on China’s eastern coast before weakening into a tropical storm Monday.
Named Morakot, the storm struck after triggering the worst flooding in Taiwan in 50 years, leaving dozens missing and bringing down a six-story hotel. It earlier lashed the Philippines, killing at least 22 people.
Morakot, or emerald in Thai, slammed into China’s Fujian province Sunday afternoon as a typhoon carrying heavy rain and winds of 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour, according the China Meteorological Administration. At least one child died after a house collapsed in Zhejiang province.
By early Monday, the storm packed winds of 52 miles per hour (83 kilometers per hour) and churned at about 6 mph (10 kph), it said.
Hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000 houses collapsed, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
People stumbled with flashlights as the storm enveloped the town of Beibi in Fujian in darkness, Xinhua said. Strong winds uprooted trees or snapped them apart, while farmers used buckets to catch fish swept out of fish farms by high waves.
Village officials in Zhejiang rode bicycles to hand out drinking water and instant noodles to residents stranded by deep floods, while rescuers tried to reach eight sailors on a cargo ship blown onto a reef off Fujian, Xinhua reported.
About 1 million people were evacuated from China’s eastern coastal provinces.

Morakot hit Taiwan late Friday and crossed the island Saturday causing the worst flooding in half a century.
Authorities used helicopters to drop food Monday at a mountainous village in southern Kaohsiung county, which was hit by a massive landslide. Official Yang Chiu-hsing said rescuers failed to reach the 1,300 villagers because bridges and roads were damaged by floods.
Taiwan’s Disaster Relief Center said Morakot killed 12 people and another 52 were missing, including 14 people whose makeshift home was swept away. Two policemen were washed away while helping to evacuate villagers in southeastern Taitung county.
The government set up a task force to coordinate relief work in the worst-hit counties in the south, where many towns and villages remained inundated by floodwaters, officials said.
In Japan, meanwhile, Typhoon Etau slammed into the western coast Monday. Nine people were killed in raging floodwaters and landslides and nine others were missing, police said.
In the northern Philippines, the death toll from Morakot rose to 22 Monday with 18 injured and four missing, including three European tourists who were swept away.

Renovation of 100 religious sites in Najaf


According to Ahlul Bayt News Agency – ABNA.IR – “In recent year more than 100 religious sites which it was impossible in Saddam era to work on them have renovated” the engineer “Kamal alFazli” in a news section in Najaf said.

He pointed out: “These centers and religious sites are of the cultural heritages of the city.”

AlFazli furthered that: “Imam Ali (AS) Holy Shrine, Howza Elmiya, Mosques and Husainiyas are some of the renovated places of the city.”

In recent years Iraqi government authorities in cooperation with Najaf Governor General designed plans for renovation of the city which Iran, Kuwait and Lebanon have participated in it.

In these plans Najaf will has more facilities for the pilgrims and has some town in modern style around the city.

IRGC dismisses reports commander commented on defeated candidates


TEHRAN, Aug. 10 (MNA) — The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has dismissed reports disseminated by certain foreign media outlets claiming that IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari has commented about putting certain defeated presidential candidates on trial.

“What certain foreign media outlets have quoted the IRGC commander as saying… is totally baseless,” the IRGC Public Relations Department said in a statement issued on Sunday.

In the Islamic Republic system, there are legal channels for dealing with wrongdoers and the Judiciary will fulfill its responsibility, the statement added.

The statement was issued shortly after certain foreign media outlets quoted senior IRGC commander Yadollah Javani, who is also the director of the IRGC Political Office, on Sunday as saying, “If Mousavi, (defeated candidate Mahdi) Karoubi, and (former president Mohammad) Khatami are main suspects behind the soft revolution in Iran, which they are, we expect the Judiciary… to go after them, arrest them, put them on trial, and punish them.”

Saudi authorities arrest three more Shias in al-Ahsa


Saudi extremist authorities have arrested three Shias on Saturday in Al-Ahsa in pretext of participation in religious activities during the month of Ashura on last January.

According to informed sources in Al-Ahsa, Saudi forces arrested Sayyed Bassam Ali Al-Ali (19 years), Hussein Yusuf al-Harbi (22 years) and Sayyed Mohamed Hussain Salman (27 years).

The family of the three young Shias, all from the village of Rumaila, said that their children accused because of sticking signs of Ashoura and to participating in religious ceremony in the month of Muharram on last January.

The governor of al-Ahsa, Badr bin Gallwy, ordered to detain the three youths for a week.

The total of Shias in custody is 19 prisoners.

It is near five years that Saudi security authorities put Shias under the pressure to restrict their activities. They arrest and harass hundred of Shias. Saudi forces under the Wahhabian influence shut down dozens of mosques and religious schools.

“Daily Telegraph”:A fifth of European Union will be Muslim by 2050


LONDON, Aug 9 (APP)- By 2050 Muslims could be 20 per cent of the European population due to rising level of immigration and low birth rates among Europe’s indigenous population.Britain, Spain and Holland will have an even higher proportion of Muslims in a shorter amount of time, says a report in “Daily Telegraph”.    Last year, five per cent of the total population of the 27 EU countries was Muslim but  this will now increase significantly over the next four decades as more and more Muslims migrate to Europe for better life while the population of indigenous Europeans declines.Data gathered by the newspaper from various sources indicate that Britain, Spain and Holland will have an even higher proportion of Muslims in a shorter amount of time.The UK, which currently has 20 million fewer people than Germany, is also projected to be the EU’s most populous country by 2060, with 77 million people.The findings have led to allegations that policy-makers are failing to confront the widespread challenges of the “demographic time bomb”.Experts say that there has been a lack of debate on how the population changes will affect areas of life from education and housing to foreign policy and pensions.Although some polls have pointed to a lack of radicalisation in the Muslim community, little attention is being given to the integration of migrants, it is claimed, with fears of social unrest in years to come.

Lebanon:Jumblatt Tells Al-Manar He Misses Damascus!


The head of the Democratic Gathering MP Walid Jumblatt, tired of the horizon narrowness in Lebanon, openly says he misses Damascus…
Believe it or not… The Druze leader, who launched one week ago his famous “coup” against his so-called “allies” in the March 14 bloc, went too far in his newest “inclination” until declaring publicly that he misses Syria and wants to rectify his relation with the Syrian leaders, after four years in which Jumblatt didn’t hesitate to “insult” them…
Speaking during an exclusive interview with Al-Manar, Jumblatt found strange the reaction of his “ally” and “friend,” MP Saad Hariri, to his latest statements. “What could I do more to satisfy Hariri?” Jumblatt wondered, revealing that he has directly explained to the PM-Designate his latest statements. He recalled that he has sent Minister Ghazi Aridi as an envoy to tell Hariri that he didn’t intend at all to obstruct Hariri’s mission.
Jumblatt said that he was waiting for Hariri’s return to Beirut to meet him and clarify matters, saying that he wants the cabinet formation process to start again in order to see a new cabinet very soon. “The process shouldn’t last too long,” Jumblatt emphasized, adding that there were no conflicts over the cabinet’s policy statement that won’t be very different from the current one.
Asked about his current positioning in the political scene, Jumblatt said he was centrist. He pointed out that he would adopt consensus as a mandatory condition in all major decisions in the country. He also praised the dialogue roundtable that organized the conflicts during the earlier phase.
Concerning the relation with Syria, the Progressive Socialist Party leader said that he was missing the Syrian capital. “I’m tired of the horizon narrowness in Lebanese during the few previous years,” Jumblatt said. However, Jumblatt expressed belief that he has to pass by some preliminary steps before going too far in his new rhetoric. “What I said against President Bachar Assad and the Syrian people was very painful,” he admitted. “Therefore, I should find a way to handle the whole issue,” Jumblatt said, recalling at the same time that he wouldn’t visit the Syrian capital before Hariri does.
Jumblatt said he agrees with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on the importance of the Saudi-Syrian consensus, stressing that the good relations between Riyadh and Damascus would reflect positively on Lebanon.
The PSP leader also said he was satisfied with reconciliations taking place, saying that he hopes to expand them to include the Sunni and Shiite fronts. He pointed out that “extremist slogans” were not useful at all, finding strange the comments made by the March 14 Christians following his latest statements.
Jumblatt concluded his interview with Al-Manar by stressing that his relationship with President Michel Sleiman was solid, based on mutual trust. He said that President Sleiman was right for calling to reconsider the President’s authorities “since it’s illogical that the President of the Republic has authorities less than any minister.” But he added: “Expanding the authorities to include the possibility of dissolving the Parliament is hard, and might provoke the Christians.”

17 terrorists apprehended, 3 others surrendered: ISPR


SLAMABAD, Aug 8 (APP): The security forces are continuing search and clearance operation in Swat and Malakand and apprehended 17 terror suspects while three others voluntarily surrendered. According to ISPR here on Saturday, among those arrested also included Dr Muhammad Rasul Khan a government employee at Batkhela Hospital who allegedly was playing role of a facilitator and harborer of terrorist, and an Afghan national.

As per details, three terrorists voluntarily surrendered to security forces along with weapons at Arambagh, while nine others were apprehended from Sambat near Matta, Shangwatai and Bodigram.

Security forces apprehended four suspects from Chankulai Churlak Sar and recovered two rifles from their possession.

In search operation at Sar China near Charbagh security forces recovered stolen golden ornaments from the house of terrorist commander Khatmula.

Two other terrorists were apprehended from Bodigram near Matta and Bar Bamakhela.

So far, 246,439 cash cards have been distributed amongst the IDPs of Malakand while 12 trucks of rations have been distributed amongst the IDPs of DI Khan and 8 trucks of relief items among the IDPs of Malakand.

PAKISTAN TO DEPORT US DIPLOMAT


Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman says that a US diplomat could be deported for using abusive language against Pakistan and high ranking police officials.
According to Press TV, Abdul Basit told reporters on Friday in Islamabad if the US diplomat is found guilty, he could be declared ‘Persona Non Grata.’
The name of the American diplomat has not been revealed.
Basit said that an investigative report into the incident would soon be received by the Interior Ministry and after reviewing it, a final decision would be made on what course of action should be taken — whether to summon the US ambassador or some other concerned person.
A police official named Hakim Khan lodged a complaint against the US diplomat a few days ago, saying that he took him at gunpoint and used abusive language against Pakistan and high ranking police officials.
Meanwhile, the US Embassy Spokesman Richard Snelsire claimed that the US embassy is holding talks with Pakistani authorities and he is optimistic that the matter would be settled.

Sindh Governor to inaugurate Qalandars Urs


HYDERABAD:  Sindh Governor  Dr. Ishrat-ul- Ebad will inaugurate the 757th annual Urs celebration of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar on August 10 while Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah will be the chief guest at the concluding ceremony on August 12, at Sehwan Sharif.
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Jamshoro Samihuddin Siddiqui who is also the Chairman of Mela Organising Committee announced this during a news conference held at his office on Friday.
He said that millions of devotees are expected to attend the ceremony for which in addition to hundreds of buses and other transport vehicles from Sindh and other provinces and  12 special trains would also be plied from upcountry to facilitate the devotees.
He said that  the annual Urs of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar isconsidered a big event in Sindh and added that in order to celebrate this 757th Annual Urs of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in a befitting manner, two separate but integrated contingency plans each for providing foolproof security to the devotes and to ensure safe and uninterrupted traffic flow have been finalised by District Administration Jamshoro.
The DCO said that as part of special security measures more than 3000 police personnel would be deployed with latest weapons and detection  equipments at different places of the mela.
He said that 36 closed circuit cameras  are to be installed and linked with an online system, to enable higher authorities and organisations to monitor the security measures even from their destination.

Four suicide bombers captured in Pindi


RAWALPINDI: A joint team of the security agencies and police Friday captured four suicide bombers in Rawalpindi with three suicide jackets and seven hand grenades.
The arrested persons said to be linked with Baitullah Mehsud group. The targets of the attackers include government installations and distinguished persons, officials said.
The accused have been transferred to undisclosed place for interrogation, sources said.

Car bomb kills over 40 outside Shiite mosque in Iraq


At least 40 people were killed and 61 others were injured when a car bomb exploded as the faithful were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers,” a police official told AFP, requesting anonymity. The mosque targeted is a Shiite one used by members of the Turkmen minority in the mainly Sunni Muslim city, the police official said. He said worshippers were walking to an annexe of the mosque to offer condolences when the bombers detonated the explosives which had been hidden in a car parked nearby. Dr Hikmat Sobhi of Mosul’s Medical City hospital said the emergency room had received the bodies of 20 dead and was treating 61 wounded, some of them for serious injuries. The attack follows a bombing in Mosul late on Thursday in which two Christian women were wounded. The city — Iraq’s second largest — has remained the scene of frequent attacks despite a marked decline in violence elsewhere in the country. US commanders have said that it is the last urban bastion in Iraq of loyalists of Al-Qaeda. The Mosul bombing came as a string of attacks in the capital targeted Shiites returning from the central shrine city of Karbala after marking a key religious ceremony, an interior ministry official said. A roadside bomb at the entrance to the sprawling Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City ripped through a bus, killing three pilgrims and wounding eight as they returned from the shrine city of Karbala in central Iraq, the official said. The bombers struck at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP. “I was inside my house when we heard an explosion, and all the windows of my house shattered,” local trader Abu Mohammed said. “The inside of the bus was covered in blood. The police took the wounded to Sadr City’s hospital for treatment,” he added. Local resident Abbas Jumaa, 27, said: “I saw women and old men, I don’t know why they attacked them. “They are only pilgrims and they don’t carry guns. So why would anyone attack them?” A second bombing at the edge of Sadr City an hour later wounded another five people, also travelling in a minibus from Karbala, 100 kilometres (60 miles), south of the capital. One person was killed and five wounded in a separate roadside bombing at around the same time on a minibus carrying pilgrims in the Zayune neighbourhood of central Baghdad, the official said. Roads to and from Karbala have been crowded with pilgrims in vehicles or on foot this week as Shiites commemorate the birth of the Twelfth Imam, a disappeared ninth century Muslim leader revered as a coming messiah. Pilgrims in the holy city held candle-lighting ceremonies from midnight to dawn at a mosque built on a site said to be the last place visited by the Mahdi before his disappearance. Streets in the city cleared out in the early hours of the morning with no reports of any violence. Violence in Iraq has dropped off markedly in recent months, but attacks against security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kirkuk. The number of violent deaths in Iraq fell by a third from the June figure of 437 to 275 in July, the first month local forces have been in charge of security in urban areas since the US-led invasion of 2003. The figure in May was 155, the lowest of any month since the invasion.

Million Shia Muslims celebrate auspicious anniversary birthday of Imam Mahdi (a.s) in holy KARBALA


HOLY CITY OF KARBALA, Iraq: Atmosphere in the holy city of Karbala is overflowing with further spirituality, bliss and happiness as festivals and a’maal marking fifteenth Sha’ban (night between 14-15 Sha’ban Thursday-Friday) began at the holy Shrine of Al-Imam Ab Abdellah Al-Hussein (pbuh) on Thursday, August 6, eve of Sha’ban 15.

Statistics show that millions of devotees have reached this beautifully bedecked holy city to observe Zyarah Ash-Sha’baniyah, which is the best amal (deed) of this blessed night of Sha’ban 15.

From the advent of the month of Sha’ban, devotees from across the country and other parts of the world – young and old, men and women, mostly on foot, some individually, some in caravans -, carrying white, green and red banners and standards were heading to the holy city to achieve the honor of visiting Imam Al-Hussein (pbuh) marking 15 Sha’ban.

Zyarah Ash-Sha`baniyah, or the mid Sha`ban visit to Al-Imam Al-Hussein (pbuh), is one of the most important zyaraat, according to narrations.

As various narrations urge this visit, flocks of believers had been in practice of heading to this holy city for the visit of Al-Imam Al-Hussein (AS) shrine every year despite strict measures taken by the ousted despot Saddam regime which was used to commit atrocities against the pilgrims preventing them from going to holy Karbala this day. The devotees were used to defy tyrannical rule and persevered in performance of rituals of this visit sacrificing for this expensive and precious things subjecting themselves for security pursuit and detention many times.

In 1991 on this occasion, large number of pilgrims was martyred, went missing and detained at the hands of Baathist regime as a punishment for heading to Holy Karbala for visit of the holy Husseini Shrine.

Narrations from A’immah Ahlul Bayt (pbut) say that fifteenth night of Sha’ban is the best after the night of Qadr.

It has been narrated from holy Prophet (pbuh&hp)’s fifth infallible descendant Al-Imam Al-Baqer (pbuh) that: “This is the best night after the Night of Qadr. In this night, Allah grants the servants His favor and forgives them with His blessing, so spare no effort in nearing Allah therein. This is a night wherein Allah has made obligatory for Him He would not send one, who asks him, empty handed… and this is the night which Allah has made for Us – the Prophet’s progeny (Ahlul Bayt) – as He made the Night of Qadr for our Prophet …”

The birth of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh&hp)’s last descendant Savior of Humanity Al-Imam Al-Hojjah bin Al-Hassan Al-Mehdi Al-Montazar (pbuh) in Sorra Mann Ra’a (Samarra), Iraq in 255 AH increased the honor and excellence of this night.

According to the sayings of holy Prophet (pbuh&hp), Imam Mehdi (pbuh) will return to deliver humanity from darkness and strife, and he will fill the earth with justice and equity as it would have been filled with oppression and injustice.

Thursday’s A’maal will culminate with the floating of hundreds of candles and letters to Imam Al-Mehdi – Imam of the Era (may Allah hasten his reappearance) – on a river in Holy Karbala at Friday pre-dawn (Sha’ban 15, August 7).

On the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima


HIROSHIMA, Aug. 7 (MNA) — On the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, solemn ceremonies were held on Thursday in Hiroshima and other cities in memory of the victims of the tragedy and to encourage people to work for world peace and nuclear disarmament.

Thousands of people, including elderly hibakusha (atomic bombing survivors), attended the ceremony at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park.

Following is the complete text of Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba’s Hiroshima Peace Declaration 2009:

That weapon of human extinction, the atomic bomb, was dropped on the people ofHiroshima sixty-four years ago. Yet the hibakusha’s suffering, a hell no words can convey, continues. Radiation absorbed 64 years earlier continues to eat at their bodies, and memories of 64 years ago flash back as if they had happened yesterday.

Fortunately, the grave implications of the hibakusha experience are granted legal support. A good example of this support is the courageous court decision humbly accepting the fact that the effects of radiation on the human body have yet to be fully elucidated. The Japanese national government should make its assistance measures fully appropriate to the situations of the aging hibakusha, including those exposed in “black rain areas” and those living overseas. Then, tearing down the walls between its ministries and agencies, it should lead the world as standard-bearer for the movement to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020 to actualize the fervent desire of hibakusha that “No one else should ever suffer as we did.”

In April this year, U.S. President Obama, speaking in Prague, said, “…as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act” and “…take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons.” Nuclear weapons abolition is the will not only of the hibakusha but also of the vast majority of people and nations on this planet. The fact that President Obama is listening to those voices has solidified our conviction that “the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished.”

In response, we support President Obama and have a moral responsibility to act to abolish nuclear weapons. To emphasize this point, we refer to ourselves, the great global majority, as the “Obamajority,” and we call on the rest of the world to join forces with us to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020. The essence of this idea is embodied in the Japanese Constitution, which is ever more highly esteemed around the world.

Now, with more than 3,000 member cities worldwide, Mayors for Peace has given concrete substance to our “2020 Vision” through the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, and we are doing everything in our power to promote its adoption at the NPT Review Conference next year. Once the Protocol is adopted, our scenario calls for an immediate halt to all efforts to acquire or deploy nuclear weapons by all countries, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which has so recently conducted defiant nuclear tests; visits by leaders of nuclear-weapon states and suspect states to the A-bombed cities; early convening of a UN Special Session devoted to Disarmament; an immediate start to negotiations with the goal of concluding a nuclear weapons convention by 2015; and finally, to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020. We will adopt a more detailed plan at the Mayors for Peace General Conference that begins tomorrow in Nagasaki.

The year 2020 is important because we wish to enter a world without nuclear weapons with as many hibakusha as possible. Furthermore, if our generation fails to eliminate nuclear weapons, we will have failed to fulfill our minimum responsibility to those that follow.

Global Zero, the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament and others of influence throughout the world have initiated positive programs that seek the abolition of nuclear weapons. We sincerely hope that they will all join the circle of those pressing for 2020.

As seen in the anti-personnel landmine ban, liberation from poverty through the Grameen Bank, the prevention of global warming and other such movements, global democracy that respects the majority will of the world and solves problems through the power of the people has truly begun to grow. To nurture this growth and go on to solve other major problems, we must create a mechanism by which the voices of the people can be delivered directly into the UN. One idea would be to create a “Lower House” of the United Nations made up of 100 cities that have suffered major tragedies due to war and other disasters, plus another 100 cities with large populations, totaling 200 cities. The current UN General Assembly would then become the “Upper House.”

On the occasion of the Peace Memorial Ceremony commemorating the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing, we offer our solemn, heartfelt condolence to the souls of the A-bomb victims, and, together with the city of Nagasaki and the majority of Earth’s people and nations, we pledge to strive with all our strength for a world free from nuclear weapons.

We have the power. We have the responsibility. And we are the Obamajority. Together, we can abolish nuclear weapons. Yes, we can.

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Jashan-e-millad-e-Imam Zamana (a.s)celebrated by JAP ladies division.


Karachi/Jafaria news:JAP (jafaria allaince pakistan)held wiladat -e-Imam-e-Zamana (a.s) at fatima community centre  today 7-8-2009,15 of shaban .The event was successfully,there were Manqabat khuwan ,naat khuan,zakira and qasida khuan who recited and presented the gifts to our last Imam -e-mehdi (a.s).Milad was started with the recitation of hadees-e-kisa by masooma bintul hussain,sheherbano khatoon recited surah-e-rehman and then the milad countinued with different munqabats and qaseeda’s sajida shakir adressed the crowd with her ideas on the topic of “Zahoor-e-Imam -e- Zamana (a.s)and your behviour and role in character development “.There were more zakirah like nighat naqvi and tabasum zehra and munqabat khuan recited munqabats,there were ghazal,naheed muhammad,kinza naqvi ,masooma bintul hussain,marzia bintul hussain and tarhnumzehra.

50 militants surrender to police


BUNER: At least 50 extremists including a would be suicide bomber, Siddiqullah have surrendered themselves to police, Buner District Police Officer (DPO) Rasheed Khan said Friday.
Talking to the media, he said the surrendering terrorists belong to various areas of Buner  including Dheri, Cheena and Chinar.
DPO Buner confirmed the presence of a suicide bomber among the terrorists that laid down arms.

Shab-e-Baraat to be observed today


ISLAMABAD : Shab-e-Baraat, the night of reverence and fervour would be observed today withspecial prayers for the solidarity of the country.
To mark the holy night, Muslims across the country illuminate mosques and houses and prayAllah Almighty to remove their worries and shower His blessings on Muslim Ummah.Muslims stayawake on the night of Shab-e-Barat and ask for forgiveness for the past year mistakes and prayfor good fortune the entire night.
Some people also go to mosques for prayers and meditation while other fast during the day andoffer ‘nawafil’, at night.
According to the religious teachings ,”It is night of accountability for all the Muslims and theirperformance of last one year in the light of the teachings of Holy Quran and Sunnah isreviewed”.
The prayers during this night carry great importance and value for the Muslims to renew theirpledge to lead lives in accordance with the Holy teachings of Quran and Sunnah.
The government has issued directives for fool proof security arrangements on the occasion.

15 SHABAN BRITHDAY OF IMAM MAHDI(Ajjallaho faraja)


Imam Mahdi(a.s) was born in 15 shaban 255H=869 AD .His kunniat is Abu’l Qasim and his name is Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn ‘Alī. His mother, Her Greatness  Narjir(a.s) (Melika), was a Byzantine princess who pretended to be a slave so that she might travel from her kingdom to Arabia.His father,Imam Hassan al askari(a.s) the eleventh imam .his birth was kept a secret due to the persecution that the  shia were facing during this time at the hands of  Almuatamad  abbasi.After mrtyrd of Imam hassan askari (a.s)his son imam Mahdi(a.s)to be the Imam, appointed by God, to lead the believers of the era. To support Imam Mahdi’s claim,  quote the following Hadith: “I and `Ali are the fathers of this nation; whoever knows us very well also knows Allah, and whoever denies us also denies Allah, the Unique, the Mighty. And from `Ali’s descendants are my grandsons al -Hasan and al- Husayn, who are the masters of the youths of Paradise, and from al- Husayn’s descendants shall be nine: whoever obeys them obeys me, and whoever disobeys them also disobeys me; the ninth among them is their Qa’im and Mahdi. This quote is supported by most Sunnis.

Israeli forces injure 8 Palestinians while delivering demolition orders in East Jerusalem


Eight Palestinians were injured from attacks by Israeli forces who were delivering house demolition orders in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in East Jerusalem on Wednesday.

A Palestinian resident of Al-Bustan with the demolition order hours after the Israeli police destroyed his house – Photo by Katherine Orwell

The Israeli police had come to the area to hand out five new demolition orders, on top of the 90 already existing demolition orders.

Residents that wanted to confront the Israeli police were dispersed with the use of tear gas.The police also seized the ID card of a member of the Al-Bustan Committee, a popular organization that aims to peacefully oppose the house demolitions in the area.

The Al-Bustan neighborhood is part of the Silwan area, close to the Old City of Jerusalem. The Israeli authorities want to demolish the neighborhood to make way for a controversial park. Israel has been doing archeological excavations in the area to prove that the ancient city of David once stood there. Palestinians feel that the motivations behind this are political and that it is part of the covert strategy to transfer all Palestinians out of Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities state the houses were built without building permits. Building permits are rarely issued to Palestinians and some of the structures were built before Israel came to occupy and annex East-Jerusalem in 1967.

238 North American Jews Immigrate to zionist regime(Israel)


Hundreds of Jews from North America are immigrating to Israel this summer, arriving on special charter flights. They are getting a warm welcome.
A group of 238 Jews from the United States and Canada left the comforts of home for a new life in the State of Israel.
While about a million Jews have immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union, only a few have been willing to leave behind the affluence of America and Europe. But an organization called Nefesh to Nefesh or Soul to Soul is trying to change that. The organization, which is funded by Jews and Evangelical Christians, plans to bring nearly 4,000 Jews from the U.S., Canada and Britain by the end of the year.
In this group, some 55 young men and women will soon be serving in the Israeli army.
Israel also sees “aliyah” or immigration as a way to counter the demographic threat posed by a higher birthrate among Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Netanyahu noted that for the first time in 2,000 years, there will soon be more Jews in Israel than in the Diaspora.

Saudi police raids Sha'ban festival in al-Ahsa


Saudi security authorities raided Shia centers on Tuesday evening, ready to celeberate the largest festival in al-Ahsa on auspicious birthday anniversary of Imam Mahdi (a.s) and ordered to demolish all decorations.
The received reports confirm that police forces raided the village of Bani Ma’an and threatened Shias to prison unless they dismantle all equipments prepared for the festival. Saudi extremist forces seize identity cards of who set up the festival and asked them to refer to police station. Witnesses said that security agents ordered the removal of five sites which were prepared for celebrating the birthday of Imam Mahdi (a.s) on Wednesday evening. The preparations for the festival was began about a month ago, according to participants. It is not the first time that Saudi security authorities raided and destructed ornamental aspects of Shia festivals. Furthermore they arrest participants and directors who set up festivals. Sectarian harassment in recent years is oversee by the Wahhabi governor of Al-Ahsa, Badr bin Jalwi. He arrested hundreds of people and shut down dozens of Shia mosques and religious schools. Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, issued a command to extend the remains of Badr bin Jalwi in al-Ahsa for a period of four years.

Indian Troops martyr 9 more innocent Kashmiris


SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh acts of state terrorism, martyred nine more innocent Kashmiri youth at different places, a Kashmir-based news agency reports.
Seven of those martyred were shot dead in Tangdhar and Trihgam areas of Kupwara while one each at Marmat in Doda and Mandi in Poonch.
Eight persons including APHC leader, Mohammad Abdullah Tari were arrested, today, when Indian police personnel subjected a demonstration to brute force at Press Enclave in Srinagar. The protest was held against continued detention of Hurriyet leaders and activists including Syed Ali Gilani, Shabbir Ahmad Shah and Nayeem Ahmad Khan.
Shabbir Ahmad Shah was shifted to a hospital in Jammu after he complained of severe pain in his kidney in Udhampur jail. Earlier, his detention orders under draconian Public Safety Act were quashed by the High Court of the occupied territory.
Illegally detained Dukhtarani Millat Chief, Syeda Aasiya Andrabi while talking to media men in a court premises in Srinagar said that she was being kept with criminals in Jammu jail and was not allowed to worship and recite holy Quran.
Leader of JKLF R, Farooq Ahmad Dar addressing a function in Srinagar emphasised that the mission of Kashmiri martyrs would be taken into its logical end, come what may.

Afghan election may go to second round: UK


LONDON: Afghanistan’s August 20 presidential election could go to a second round after a campaign that has been more competitive than expected, Britain’s ambassador in Kabul said on Wednesday.
President Hamid Karzai is viewed as favourite to win re-election, but Ambassador Mark Sedwill made clear he had doubts over whether any candidate could achieve the 50 percent of the vote needed to win in the first round.
“I think it’s genuinely in the balance as to whether there will be a second round,” Sedwill said in a news conference by video link from Kabul.
A shortage of polling or canvassing data made it hard to tell how candidates were doing, he said.
Karzai faces 36 challengers with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-finance minister Ashraf Ghani among few serious contenders. If a second round is needed, it will be held in early October.
Sedwill said several of the candidates had run very energetic campaigns.
“The competitiveness of the campaign has taken many of us here by surprise,” he said, noting there had been televised debates between candidates and huge election rallies.
Between 15 and 17 million Afghans are registered to vote, British officials say.
Election experts believed the Afghan poll was being held in “probably the most challenging circumstances for elections that they have ever encountered”, Sedwill said.
Taliban insurgents have vowed to disrupt the election and have called on Afghans to boycott the ballot.
Violence across Afghanistan this year has reached its worst levels since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 and escalated further after U.S. and British troops launched offensives in southern Helmand over the past two months.
The south is Karzai’s traditional powerbase and if turnout there is depressed by violence it could hurt his vote.
An Afghan government map obtained by Reuters on Wednesday showed almost half the country at high risk of attack by insurgents or under “enemy control”.
Apart from security problems, Afghanistan is among the poorest countries in the world and two thirds of the population are illiterate, Sedwill said.
“We have to recognise … that these elections are therefore going to be pretty rough and ready in places. They won’t be perfect,” he said.
The test of success would be whether they were credible, secure and inclusive enough, said Sedwill.
On polling day, community defence groups and Afghan security forces will provide security at polling stations, with international forces taking a relatively low profile, he said.

Iraqi police chief denies 11 Shia pilgrims kidnapped


Iraq – An Iraqi provincial police chief denied reports on Wednesday that 11 pilgrims travelling to the holy Shia city of Karbala for a religious festival were kidnapped.

‘No such incident was registered, no accident like this happened and nothing like this was reported since the start of the security operation (four days ago),’ Babylon police chief Major General Fadl Raddad Al Sultani said.

‘We have deployed 18,000 security officers, and today, 2,000 more people arrived to protect pilgrims.’

Tens of thousand of Shias are expected to converge on Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, for Friday’s ceremonies commemorating the birth of Imam Mahdi (a.s)

Hilla police Lieutenant Kadhim Al Salami earlier said 11 pilgrims and their minibus driver were kidnapped by gunmen in Babylon province on the way to Karbala.

34 killed in Skardu bus accident


ISLAMABAD, Aug 6 (APP): At least 34 people killed or went missing when a speedy coach skidded off the road and plunged into Indus River here on Thursday morning.

According to ARY NEWS the bus having 35 to 40 passengers on board was on its way from Skardu to Rawalpindi when it veered off the road near Malopi Rindu area and fell into the river as its driver lost control over the steering.

Locals and area police reached at the site soon after the accident and started relief activities.

BBC:Women unprecedented protests in Saudi Arabia


Hundreds of female student in Saudi Arabia yesterday protested against low-action policies of admission in Tayef university.

Corruption in the universities admission system were protesting.
Protests was held  this Sunday, in 2August led to clashes between woman security forces of Tayf University and students protesters.      The conflict occurred in the day was the day of new students admission to the University .  University Tayf is located in the south of Mecca.

News of this gathering to protest released  by two newspapers  a Kaz  and Arabia Gazt .

This eyewitness newspaper Red Crescent officials have said that a woman by the security forces beating was located, have treatment.
Saudi Arabia completely bans the establishment protests and protest rally since the report has not been heard from women.
These students in university admissions policies, students and low-qualified for admission at the time application for the interdict are protesting.
University officials have rejected the charge.

Odwan: Privatizing 1948 lands reveals usurping nature of Israel


GAZA, (PIC)– Hamas MP Dr. Atef Odwan has charged that the Israeli parliament’s decision allowing the privatization of Palestinian lands occupied in 1948 indicated the usurping nature of that “entity”.

Odwan, in a statement on Tuesday, said that Israel has displayed itself as a “colonialist, expansionist, racist entity that does not believe in human rights or international norms”.

The MP underscored that lands of the 1948 Palestine are owned by the Palestinian people, which they had inherited from their fathers and forefathers.

He said that the international community should assume its responsibility and adopt strong positions against the “Zionist policies that violate the Palestinians’ rights” amidst world silence.

Odwan appealed to the Arab countries to shoulder their responsibilities towards those repeated crimes.

He asked Fatah faction, which is currently holding its sixth general conference in Bethlehem, to re-consider its policy and to return to resistance.

The Israeli parliament (Knesset) on Monday endorsed a draft law allowing the private ownership of “state lands”, which would allow the transfer of ownership of almost 94% of Palestinian lands occupied in 1948 to Jewish settlers.falastin

First swine flu fatality occurs in Iran


BANDAR ABBAS, Iran (MNA) – The first swine flu death was reported in Iran as a pregnant woman succumbed to the disease on Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf, a local health official said on Wednesday.

The pregnant woman died of A flu, Dr. Ebrahim Khaje told the Mehr News Agency.

So far at least 150 cases of swine flu have been reported in Iran.

Iraqi Al-Qaeda to hunt Shia pilgrims


Millions of Iraqi Shias are these days in holy Karbala to celebrate the birthday of Imam Mahdi (pbuh), which accounts for this year on August 7, which is 110 kilometers far from south of Baghdad.

According to Russian Newspaper, Shia population set out to holy Karbala to celebrate birthday of Imam Mahdi (a.s), so that the other cities of Iraq are empty of Shia inhabitants. Shops and workshops are closed and their owners have gone to holy Karbala.

Shias widely celebrate the anniversary birthday of 12th Imam (a.s), who is hidden from our looks and in an unknown day he will appear to vivify justice, to annihilate oppression and to lead mankind from darkness and ignorance to light and God.

Meanwhile, millions of pilgrims go to Karbala on foot, despite the heat, fatigue and surfing their danger.

In holy Karbala, 55 thousand Iraqi police officers and army soldiers protect pilgrims, in order to prevent possible terrorist attacks, regularly in the days of the festival.

The Iraqi Al-Qaeda has warned that they planned a major terrorist attacks against Shia pilgrims during the festivities. The local police said that some al-Qaida activists recently detained and during interrogation they confessed that the terrorists intend to hold a series of terrorist attacks. They said that their aim will be tens of thousands of Shia pilgrims traveling to Karbala.

Saudis arrest 5 Shias for celebrating Imam birthday


Saudi security forces have arrested five members of the country’s Shia minority for commemorating the birth of a revered Shia Imam.
The five identified as Abdullah, Hossein and Jafar Nasser al-Ali along with Hossein al-Hemad and Yousef Mohammad al-Shela were detained in the eastern Al-Ahsa region of the country, Shia online reported on Tuesday.
The men all in their twenties were detained upon the orders of the governor’s office for celebrating the birth of Imam Mahdi.
The 12th and last successor of the Prophet of Islam is believed to be the prophesied redeemer, who will bring peace and justice to the world.

Wahhabism, the hard-line interpretation of Islam that has ruled hand in hand with the al-Saud family since the kingdom was founded some eight decades ago, considers the country’s Shia minority as infidels.

Shias regularly complain they have been banned from working as officers of the religious police, teaching classes on religion, and a number of other jobs. Outspoken Shia critics have even been jailed.
The kingdom is particularly critical of the minority’s practice of celebrating the birthday’s of Shia figures and their mourning rituals.
Last year, the country’s top cleric Abdul-Aziz al-Shaikh deemed celebrating anniversaries, birthdays or mother’s day as against Muslim ‘righteousness.’
The Grand Mufti said celebrating such events would make Muslims like followers of other faiths including Jews and Christians.

Sargodha:Active member of Imamia Student Organization assassinates


According to Fars News Agency, last night unknown terrorists attacked “Own Abbas”, active member of Imamia Student Organization, and martyred him.

Spokesman of Imamia Student Organization expressed his regret and said: an unknown terrorist near Sargodha district, when Own Abbas was returning to his home, started to shoot Abbas from ambush and martyred him.

White House Spokesman Gibbs: Ahmadinejad is Iran president


ILNA: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is “the elected leader” of the Islamic republic.

Gibbs was asked Tuesday if the White House recognized Ahmadinejad as the country’s legitimate president ; AP reported.
“He’s the elected leader,” Gibbs responded however he added that Washington had no plans to congratulate the leader on his inauguration.
President Barack Obama has been cautious in responding to the turmoil of post election unrest because he’s trying to open a dialogue with Iran about its nuclear program. 

Iran:Ahmadinejad’s 2nd presidential inauguration held in Parliament


TEHRAN (ISNA)-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iran’s 10th President at Parliament Wednesday morning two days after being endorsed by the Islamic Revolution Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

After the Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi addressed the attendees, the President was sworn in according to 121 article of Iran’s constitution.

Political, military and cultural figures including members of the Assembly of Experts, Guardian Council and Expediency Council attend the ceremony.

Ahmadinejad gained victory in June 12 presidential election receiving two thirds of the votes.

Saudi authorities to demolish "Seven Mosques" in holy Medinah


Saudi Human Rights activist, Abdul- Aziz Khamis, has warned demolition of historical monuments as well as “Seven Mosques” in Saudi Arabia under the pretext of development and expansion and said it is not unjustified, and called international organizations to protect these historical sites that are not owned by the governments but to the Islamic world.

Abdul- Aziz, Chairman of the Saudi Center for Human Rights based in London, in an exclusive interview to Al-Alam TV, said that it is unjustifiable that Saudi authorities are attempting to demolish historical places, especially “Seven Mosques” under the pretext of expansion and establishment bigger mosques and Islamic centers, replacing with old.

He emphasized that any development or expansion must not drawn to removing the effects of Islamic history in the holy Medina and Mecca.

Abdul- Aziz rejects viewpoints of Wahhabis about religious and Islamic sites as some of the places of worship and warned that the removal of historical sites in holy Mecca and Medina is a very dangerous action and demanded Saudi authorities to prevent it.

He criticized Saudi government and affirmed that Saudi authorities want to manufacture a new Islamic history of their own, while the population of holy Medina and Mecca expressed distress and protested because of removing a lot of Islamic historical sites, particularly in holy Mecca.

He stressed that the intention of the Saudi authorities to demolishing the “seven mosques”, deeply troubled citizens, especially Saudis.

“Saudi officials, including the chief of tourism and other Islamist intellectuals called international organizations to act seriously to protect these historical Islamic sites that are not owned by the governments but to the Islamic world” he added.

Iraq governor says detained 36 Iranian exiles


BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Iraqi police have arrested 36 Iranian exiles on rioting charges after clashes with Iraqi forces at their camp killed at least seven exiles, but an Iraqi official said on Monday they would not be repatriated to Iran.
Iraqi forces on Tuesday took control of Camp Ashraf on the Iranian border,
Residents said 13 people died in the clashes, many of them shot dead by police, and many others wounded. Iraq’s government said seven died, most of them because they threw themselves under police vehicles.
Abdul Nassir al-Mehdawi, governor of Diyala province, which has jurisdiction over Ashraf, confirmed 36 had been arrested the day after the clashes.
“Their cases are being investigated now. They are being charged with inciting trouble,” Mehdawi said. “We will deal with them according to Iraqi law; we won’t send them back to Iran.”
Iraq formally took charge of Camp Ashraf in January.
Some human rights groups and PMOI sympathisers in the West, who have been highly critical of the way Iraq has handled Ashraf, say closing the camp and driving residents out against their will would violate international human rights law.
“The arrested people didn’t commit any crime against anyone,” Ashraf spokesman Shahriar Kia said from the camp. “They just picked up some random people. It is just an excuse for their measures against Camp Ashraf. It’s a conspiracy.”

Iraq indicts 4 officers over terror attack


Four Iraqi police officers who were responsible for ensuring security of a group of Iranian pilgrims to Iraq and were blamed for failure to prevent a recent terrorist attack against Iranian pilgrims have been indicted by court. Head of the Police in Iraqi Dialah province, Abdulhossein Shemri, said after investigation over the terrorist attack on the Iranian pilgrims two weeks ago, the special investigation committee has identified the four Iraqi police officers as responsible for ensuring security of Iranian pilgrims. Five Iranian pilgrims were killed and 37 were injured in the terrorist attack.

Parliament sovereignty established for not validating Musharraf’s action: PM


ISLAMABAD, Aug 3 (APP)- Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday said the sovereignty of the parliament has been established for not validating the November 3, 2007 action of Pervez Musharraf which was appreciated by the Supreme Court. Addressing the National Assembly, he said the government did not support the unconstitutional acts of a General who under the garb of emergency virtually suspended the Constitution and sacked 60 judges of the superior courts and put them under house arrest. The apex court in its landmark judgment accredited the general elections, the government headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the oath of office administered to the democratically elected President of Pakistan, as well as, all the four Provincial Assemblies and their governments. “The judgment of the Supreme Court would go a long way in strengthening the democratic institutions and block the way of any unconstitutional usurpation of the people’s rights of governance,” he said. The Supreme Court’s judgment, he added, declared 103 judges as no more judges of the superior courts, however, affirmed the judgement and other day to day working of the judges and courts on the defacto doctrine being in public interest and to avoid chaos and confusion. He said 37 Ordinances promulgated prior to November 3, 2007 are, however, required to be placed before the Parliament for confirmation. He said these Ordinances had been given permanency through the PCO by insertion of 270 AAA in the Constitution. “Thus the judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld the supremacy of the Parliament and has given full credit to the stance of the present democratic government taken up before the apex court.” He said it was sequel to the stance of the federal government that the chauvinistic designs of adventurers have been blocked by revisiting the judgments validating the acts of usurpers. The code of conduct for judges has been amended notifying that any judge validating the unconstitutional acts of usurpers would also be liable for misconduct, he added. “It is heartening that facilitators would also be collaborators and disrupting the constitutional rule/ democratic dispensation in future would be punishable.”

He said the implementation of Supreme Court judgment has already started.

He said Mr. Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani, who was one of the members of fourteen members bench rendering the judgment, has been sent back to the High Court of Sindh upon the advice of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and appointed its Chief Justice.  Mr. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, he said, has been appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and administered oath today. He said 76 judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts have ceased to hold their offices sequel to the approval of the summary sent to the President of Pakistan in compliance of the judgment. The cases of such judges who were working on November 3, 2007 and had taken oath under PCO, are being sent to the Supreme Judicial Council under Article, 209 of the Constitution. He also mentioned that this is the first time the national exchequer has not been burdened with a single penny as is the case in high profile cases. He said during all the previous governments millions of rupees have been spent on engaging the private counsels with hefty fees. The Attorney General of Pakistan Sardar Latif Ahmad Khosa alone appeared on behalf of the Federation of Pakistan in these cases before the fourteen member bench of the Supreme Court without extra burden on the state. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani also took the house into confidence on his visit to Sharm El-Sheikh where he attended the NAM summit and on the sidelines also met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “The summit outcome must not be viewed in a zero-sum perspective. This is a win-win for both sides, as the cause of peace in South Asia, has been advanced,” he added. He said he conveyed Pakistan’s desire to Dr. Manmohan Singh, for forward movement in Pakistan-India relations and emphasized that the only way forward was dialogue. “Pakistan had, from the outset, indicated to India, that we would have an open mind, and a constructive approach. We had made clear, our desire to discuss all issues, including terrorism, and to seek a resumption of the Composite Dialogue process,” he said. He said Pakistan’s approach on relations with India, is clear and consistent, supported by all stakeholders. “We want to have a friendly, cooperative and good-neighbourly relationship, based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and mutual interest,” he added. Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan is cognizant of the need, for effectively addressing the issue of terrorism, which is a regional and global issue. “Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism. These matters were taken up firmly and squarely in our meeting in Sharm El Sheikh. We believe that no country—Pakistan, India, or Afghanistan—should allow their territory, to be used for terrorist purposes against any other.” He also stressed the importance to strictly adhere to the principles, of non-intervention and non-interference. He said it is important to resume the Composite Dialogue process, which made some progress in several areas in the past, and offers the promise of measured steps towards resolution of all outstanding issues, notably the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and also the waters issues. “It is our conviction that durable peace and stability in South Asia, can only be established, by making meaningful progress toward resolving the outstanding issues,” the Prime Minister said. He said he apprised Dr Manmohan of the national consensus in Pakistan, on moving toward normalization of relations with India, by settling all disputes and issues, particularly the Kashmir dispute and water issues. He said the Joint Statement issued after their meeting re-affirms Pakistan’s commitment, to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to justice. He said it also acknowledges, that terrorism is the main threat to both countries; and affirms the resolve to cooperate with each other to fight terrorism. The two countries, he said, also agreed to share real-time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats. “I also expressed our serious concerns over Indian interference in Balochistan, and other areas of Pakistan,” he said. He said the Joint Statement underlines that action on terrorism should not be linked to the Composite Dialogue process, and these two matters should not be bracketed. He said they agreed that the real challenges are development and elimination of poverty and the two countries should work to eliminate these factors.

Israel and Nazi Germany, Tweedldee and Tweedldum


Avigdor Lieberman, the brashly-racist foreign minister of the apartheid Israeli state, reportedly recently ordered Zionist embassies around the world to circulate a 1941 photo showing the former Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin Husseini meeting with German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Lieberman hopes that the picture would help  counter growing international pressure on the Zionist regime to stop ethnic-cleansing measures against the Palestinians, especially in occupied Jerusalem .

The release of the picture is widely viewed as a desperate feat by the widely-reviled Lieberman to make a difference as a foreign minister.

Lieberman has been largely boycotted by the international community, mainly due to his radical and expressly racist views.

Given his pariah status around the world, the Israeli government went as far as asking other Israeli officials, such as Defence Minister Ehud Barak, to carry out the Foreign Minister’s functions, especially in talks with American and European officials.

Lieberman’s desperate act is likely to raise many eyebrows since it comes from a man whose mindset and ideological convictions differ little from those of Adolf Hitler.

Indeed, Lieberman’s infatuation with Jewish nationalism (the correct term is Jewish fascism) can be viewed as a virtual carbon copy of Hitler’s obsession with German nationalism.

Moreover, Lieberman’s brazenly racist discourse against non-Jews in general and Israel’s Palestinian  population is nothing short of  a later-day echo of the Aryan Nazi ideology.

Furthermore, Liberman’s strident bellicosity and pugnacity resemble to a large extent the Nazi rhetoric against Germany’s neighbours which later found expression in the invasion of Poland and occupation of large parts of Europe .

For example, Lieberman has called for dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, blanket-bombing Palestinian streets, shopping centres, banks, and neighbourhoods for the purpose of forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee their homeland in order to make a “lebensraum” available for Jewish settlers.

He also called for drowning Palestinian political prisoners in the Dead Sea, bombing Tehran and the Aswan Dam in Egypt.

In fact, this thuggish petty criminal is the last person on earth who is morally qualified to criticize Amin Husseini for having a brief encounter with the leader of the Third Reich.

Well, does Lieberman dare to tell us how many Jewish Zionist leaders allied themselves with Hitler? Does he dare to tell us how many Jewish soldiers and officers served in the Wehrmacht, Gestapo and SS? And then  what about the close relationship between the Third Reich and Jewish terrorist groups operating in Palestine , such as the Stern Gang? And what about the tacit understandings between the Zionist and Nazi leaderships according to which the Zionists accepted  that hundreds of thousands of European Jews be annihilated rather than allowed to immigrate to North America?

According to the late Israeli writer and intellectual Israel Shahak, Jewish soldiers serving in the Nazi security apparatus were most feared by the local Jewish population. Shahak, a holocaust survivor himself, related that when a Jewish mother sent her son to do an errand, she taught him that he might pass through a German checkpoint but never through a Jewish-manned checkpoint.

Besides, Husseini was a man who saw his country, his ancestral homeland, being devoured by the British-backed Zionist movement, and thought, rightly or wrongly, that enlisting the support of a contemporary world power like Germany might help his people save their country and regain their freedom and independence.

Hence, one might really ask why it was perfectly acceptable for Zionists to collaborate with the Nazis in order to save Jewish lives whereas it was totally wrong for the leadership of a people facing near extermination at the hands of Zionism to behave similarly for the purpose of saving their people.

True, Hitler was a mass murderer, par excellence.  But how about Jewish mass murderers, before and after Hitler?

Today, in Israel, school students complete their high school education without ever hearing the name “Genrikh Yagoda” (Genrich Grigorivc Yagoda), who is one of the greatest murderers of all time.

Yagoda diligently carried out Stalin’s collectivization orders and was responsible for the death of at least 10 million people. His Jewish deputies established and managed the genocidal Gulag system.  And after Stalin no longer viewed him favourably, Yagoda was demoted and subsequently executed, and was replaced as Chief Hangman in 1936 by Yezhov, the ‘bloodthirsty dwarf’ who had a Jewish wife.

Another Russian Jew named Lazar Kaganovitch, also an aide to Stalin, was responsible for the extermination of  millions of  Ukrainians. During the harsh winter of 1932-33, mass starvation created by Kaganovitch reached critical levels and Ukrainians were forced to eat their pets, boots and belts, plus bark and roots. Some parents even ate infant children.

More to the point, it is really ironic in a certain sense that Zionism projects itself as an antithesis of Nazism when nearly all Nazi characters have been nearly literally copied by the Zionist leadership.

Zionism, for example,  has declared all Jews a distinct ethnicity, just as the Nazis had declared all Germans a distinct ethnicity.

Both Zionism and Nazism strove to build a ‘state’ that would be ‘redeemed’ through violent purification (in the case of Nazi Germany) and ‘an Iron wall’ (in the case of Zionist Israel).

In both instances, ethnic cleansing was the main tool used to obliterate the ‘inferiors,’ the ‘water carriers and wood hewers’ in order to create ‘German-only’ settlements in Europe and ‘Jewish-only’ settlements in Palestine .

In all honesty, there are no fundamental differences between Jewish national socialism (Zionism) and German national socialism (Nazism). The Nazis preached the  ‘Master Race’ to justify Nazism while Zionists adopted the ancient myth of the ‘Chosen People’ to justify Zionism.

Moreover, we can’t really ignore the absolute similarity between the Zionist ethnic conquest of Palestine and the implanting therein of ‘Jewish settlers’ at the expense of the native Palestinian Muslims and Christians, and the Nazi drive for ‘Lebensraum’ in Poland and the importation of  ‘Aryans’ at the expense of the indigenous population.

Yes, there in Europe, the Nazis sought to steal the Sudetenland and here in Palestine , the Zionists are stealing the West Bank . The arguments are the same, the lies are the same and the means are nearly identical.

We need to highlight these similarities and the ‘common ground’ between Zionism and Nazism, irrespective of how many people will be upset by these comparisons. The truth is always a paramount value in itself.

The Nazi-like occupation of Palestine by Israel is not the act of a few Israeli Jews. It is not even the act of the military establishment alone.  It is the collective act of a morally desensitized society that has nearly lost its humanity and succumbed to a collective psychosis that is not unlike the moral blindness that struck the German people more than sixty years ago.

In some ways, Palestinians have fared far worse than Hitler’s victims; for the Palestinian tragedy is ongoing and Palestinians, unlike Jews, who still receive compensation for losses dating back sixty years, receive no reparations for lost personal property, not even an acknowledgment from their tormenters of any responsibility for their dispossession.

Sixty years ago Zionists demolished 438 Palestinian villages and poisoned or destroyed wells to ensure that their rightful owners would not return.  Today, Zionists keep on behaving more or less along the same traditions, demolishing homes, destroying farms, and narrowing people’s horizons, all with the goal of making them emigrate.

Today in every junior high school in America , students read Anne Frank, while in every high school Elie Wiesel’s ‘Night’ is requisite reading. This is the man who says brazenly that he readily identifies with Israeli crimes and that he couldn’t bring himself to say bad things about Israel.
The victims of the first Kristallnacht enjoy the world’s approbation and sympathy, while at the same time having succeeded in demonizing an entire people, for whom Kristallnacht still remains a night without end.

But, unlike the German national socialists, Jewish national socialists are falsifying history and reality to justify their crimes against humanity. The Holocaust narrative, which has been elevated to the status of a religion, allows Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, to invoke the mantra ‘Never Again’ while it sits on Arab lands stolen from Ein Karem and overlooking the unmarked graves of Palestinians massacred by Judeo-Nazi terrorists at Deir Yassin.

It is sad, really sad, that most Jews are now finding themselves in the shoes of their former oppressors, knowingly and consciously.

On August 23, 1947, nearly one year before Israel ’s birth, Harry Truman wrote the following to Eleanor Roosevelt, apparently in the wake of another Jewish atrocity in Palestine :

“I fear very much that the Jews are like all underdogs. When they get on the top they are just as intolerant and cruel as the people were to them when they were underneath.  I regret this situation very much because my sympathy has always been on their side.

In light of Israel’s Nazi-like behavior in Palestine, it is difficult to view Truman’s prophetic words with indifference.  In fact, it is a moral obligation of the first order to oppose Zionism with the same vigour and same determination the world demonstrated in the face of Nazism.

Iran cancels Ramadan umrah trips due to swine flu


TEHRAN, Aug. 3 (MNA) — Due to serious concerns over contracting swine flu Iran has decided to ban citizens to go on the umrah lesser pilgrimage during the holy month of Ramadan.

The decision was made at a joint session of the Majlis Health Committee and officials from the Health Ministry on Sunday morning.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam — and all able-bodied Muslims are required to perform it at least once in their lifetime if they can afford it. It attracts about 3 million people to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina annually. Hundreds of thousands more Muslims also perform umrah, the voluntary pilgrimage that can be completed at any other time of the year.

Nearly half a million Iranian citizens visit Mecca and Medina annually to perform umrah.

“Umrah was canceled for Iranians in the holy month of Ramadan,” the Majlis Health Committee deputy chairman Hosseinali Shahriari said on Monday, blaming the rapid spread of the H1N1 virus in Saudi Arabia for the cancelation.

Flu cases hit 105 in Iran

A number of 105 people have been diagnosed with the swine flu in Iran, an official at the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Iran”s first swine flu case was a 16-year-old Iranian-American boy, who tested positive for the virus upon his arrival in Tehran on June 22.

Health officials have announced the victims are mostly among those individuals who have returned home from the hajj pilgrimage or travels to Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Syria, Iraq, and the U.S.

The disease is spreading rapidly over the world. Latest figures have revealed that 160 out of 193 WHO member-states are struggling with the A/H1N1 flu virus, which has claimed the lives of some 800 individuals worldwide.

Pakistanis mark Independence Day; New York mayor joins festivity


NEW YORK, Aug 03 (APP): Defying periods of rains, a large number of Pakistani-Americans living in and around New York held a spectacular parade on Sunday to mark the 62nd anniversary of Pakistan, with the representatives of the country’s mainstream parties participating. In a show of bipartisanship on the occasion, Federal Minister and Chairperson of the Benazir Income Support Programme, Farzana Raja, PML (N) leader Javed Hashmi and Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly, Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, called for national unity at this critical hour in the country’s history.

They also underscored the need for translating the Quaid-E-Azam’s motto of “Unity, Faith and Discipline’ into reality and work together in raising Pakistan’s stature. Men, women and children—mostly clad in national dresses—participated in this annual event in an unwavering show of enthusiasm and liveliness in the city.

They exchanged Independence Day greetings with each other. The New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, joined the dynamic Pakistani-American community in marking the annual festivity that celebrates birth of the country on August 14, 1947 and pays tribute to the founding fathers for their epic struggle for goals of democracy and independence.

Raising “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans and waving the national flag, Pakistanis warmly cheered the parade as it moved down one of New York City’s main avenue. The route from Madison Avenue’s 41th street – the start point-  was decorated with Pakistani and American flags.

About a dozen decorated floats, with some depicting Pakistan’s progress in various fields, while others sponsored by local Pakistani businesses, also wound their way down the avenue. Bands on the floats and on the ground struck up patriotic song. In her speech, Farzana Raja congratulated the Pakistanis living here for organizing such a magnificent event.

“You are the true ambassadors of Pakistan and the nation is proud of you,” she told the cheering crowd. Ms. Raja also conveyed President Asif Ali Zardari’s message of greetings and his appreciation for the contribution the Pakistani community was making towards strengthening their homeland.

She said that she had come to New York for a series of meetings at the United Nations, including with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during which she briefed them on the progress made by BISP in providing social safety net to millions of downtrodden Pakistanis. The minister said that the government was making earnest efforts to make Pakistan a progressive state in line with the vision of Ms. Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari.

PML-N’s Javed Hashmi, who said he was also representing Imran Khan’s Tehrik-i-Insaf party, made a stirring call for making Pakistan strong and prosperous through hardwork and commitment. The country was achieved through great sacrifices, he said adding, “We’ll not let it go down … It’s flag will keep on flying eternally”.

The high point of the parade was a cultural programme. Prominent artists from Pakistan such as Arif Lohar and Shaukat Ali as well as some local artists enthralled the crowd with their hit songs. The Pakistan Day Parade Committee organized the event in which many people were involved.

Guide visitors to the start of the holy Karbala on foot to commemorate the visit of the second half of Sha'baan


Began visiting the provinces of the south to go to the holy city of Karbala on foot from Mhafezathm in order to visit the performance of the fifteenth of the month of Shaban, approved August 8 to mark the birth of Imam Mahdi (PBUH).  This was Hosseinieh processions in the province of Dhi Qar has received heading to the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the visit which is expected to reach the number of visitors to ten million visitors that visit is the millions of visits in the city, ”

The correspondent in the city of Nasiriyah, N, south of Baghdad that Hosseinieh processions that used to perform service for the visitors of Imam Hussein (p) spread along the road leading to the province of Muthanna, and special efforts were made through food, drink and accommodation for visitors to walk then continue towards the Karbala shrines.
Deployed health teams and security forces to protect the pilgrims on their way to guard against any emergency that may happen.
Over the visitors coming from different cities of the southern city of Nasiriyah on the satisfaction with the services provided by the processions of Nasiriyah, good reception and hospitality.
They still exist Pavilion and processions in place until the last guest is going through. Then starts at the other areas of the service to visitors once again.

Iran:supreme leader approves Ahmadinejad presidency


ILNA: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally approved the second term presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday.

The official ceremony was held and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved Mr. Ahmadinejad’s presidency.
Khamenei has endorsed the June 12 election result and demanded an end to protests.
Top Iranian officials including pralimentry speaker Ali Larijani, Ayatollah Hasshemi shahroudi head of judiciary , Mohsen Rezaie ex-presidency candidate, army officials and a number of foreign guests attended the ceremony in Imam Khomeini center in Tehran.
Alalam news agency reported reformist figure MirHossein Moussavi , Mehdi Karroubi and head of expediency council Hasshemi Rafsanjani and former Iran president Mohammad Khatami did not attended the ceremony.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be sworn in by parliament on Wednesday.
He then has two weeks to submit his cabinet list to the mostly conservative parliament. 

khatami: Trial damage public confidence in Iran


ILNA: Iran’s former reformist President Mohammad Khatami has criticized the country’s first trial of activists and protesters following the disputed presidential election as a sham.Referring to traial , khatami said ” what has occurred was contrary to constitution and normal laws on civil rights”.
”Depending on such confessions under particular conditions is not valid , our regime is the result of Islamic Revolution which people ‘s right and dignity has high place, those who defend regime must defend right’s and dignities of people’s vote”, he added
A report posted late Saturday on Khatami’s Web site quoted him as saying the “show” trial will further damage public confidence in the ruling Islamic establishment. He said he hopes the trial “will not lead to ignorance of the real crimes.”
The trial of more than 100 people that started Saturday includes some of the most prominent politicians in the pro-reform movement, including Khatami’s former vice president.