Chavez to arrive in Iran on Saturday

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ILNA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has scheduled a visit to Iran Saturday.

A number of bilateral agreements will be signed during the two-day visit by Chavez.
Venezuelan President would hold a news conference in Tehran after discussions with Iranian officials.
Chavez attended the special summit, held to celebrate 40 years of Moammar Gadhafi’s rule over Libya.
Chavez arrives in Iran to discuss bilateral relations between two countries,
Prior to his 11-day foreign trip chavez said that ”Iran is for us a strategic partner, with whom we have recently concluded a range of deals in the spheres of defense, energy, industry and technology,” adding that Venezuela was ready to “strengthen” its ties with the slamic Republic.

Iraq PM asks for U.N. inquiry into Baghdad bombings

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UNITED NATIONS : Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has formally asked the U.N. Security Council to launch an inquiry into a series of explosions that killed 95 people in Baghdad last month.
More than 1,000 people were also wounded on Aug. 19, Iraq’s bloodiest day this year, when at least six blasts struck near government ministries and other targets, weeks after U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi urban centers in June.
In an Aug. 30 letter forwarded to the Security Council on Thursday by the office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Maliki asked for an independent international commission of inquiry to be set up.
“The scope and nature of these crimes calls for an investigation beyond Iraqi legal jurisdiction and prosecution of the perpetrators before a special international criminal tribunal,” said the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
“The magnitude of these crimes demands that they be addressed immediately by the international community.”
The explosions caused anger among ordinary Iraqis at the country’s security forces, with many blaming
political infighting as parliamentary elections near.
Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government has blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party, and Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, for recent attacks, and says Baath leaders plotted the bombings from neighboring Syria.
Baghdad last week demanded that Damascus hand over two alleged masterminds of the bombing. Both countries recalled their ambassadors for consultations.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called Iraq’s accusations “immoral” and demanded Baghdad provide proof to back them up.
Maliki’s letter to the United Nations did not specifically name Syria, but said, “We believe that organized attacks of such size and complexity could not have been planned, funded and executed without the support of outside forces and parties.”
The attacks “rise to the level of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity punishable under international law,” the Iraqi leader said.
The United States, this month’s president of the Security Council, confirmed receiving the letter which a U.S. official said would be circulated to the body’s 14 other members. The official declined to say what action the council might take.
The Iraqi request appeared similar to one that Lebanon put to the Security Council following the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The council launched an investigation and set up a tribunal in the Netherlands, but no one has so far been indicted and inquiries continue.

Arab group in the dock for 'belying Holocaust'

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An Arab cultural group faces trial for circulating a ‘Holocaust-denying’ cartoon as a reaction to leniency towards a far-right Dutch Islamophobe.

Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday that they would take the Arab European League (AEL) to court for republishing a cartoon which, they said, suggested Holocaust victims were not Jews, the Associated Press reported.

The group first published the picture in 2006 in response to far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders’ screening of a 17-minute defamatory anti-Islam film which linked Islam to terrorism, called for a ban on the holy Qur’an and included caricature of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH(.

The film, titled ‘Fitna,’ sent shockwaves through secular and faith-based communities and was subsequently denounced by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as ‘offensively anti-Islamic.’

The lawmaker was prevented from screening the inflammatory movie in Britain’s House of Lords in February, with the British officials calling him a “genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society.”

The AEL recently republished the cartoon after Wilders was cleared on the claim that his insults were aimed at the Prophet of Islam and not the Muslims in general.

“Freedom of expression is only a pretext to make life bitter for Muslims …,”AEL chairman Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda said in a statement.

Spokeswoman for the public prosecutor in Utrecht in the Central Netherlands said a conviction could result in a one-year prison term, but a fine of up to euro 4,700 (USD 6,700) is more likely.

Iraq Death Toll in August Highest in 13 Months

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Official figures showed on Tuesday that the month of August witnessed the highest number of deaths from violence in Iraq for 13 months, with 456 people killed across the conflict-torn nation.
Statistics compiled by the defense, interior and health ministries showed that 393 civilians, 48 police and 15 soldiers were killed. The figures marked the highest monthly death toll since July 2008, when a total of 465 people were killed.

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August saw two massive truck bombings at the ministries of finance and foreign affairs in Baghdad that killed at least 95 people. There were also 1,592 civilians, 129 police and 20 soldiers wounded in August, according to the figures.