Mecca

Muslim pilgrims travel to the Namira mosque in Arafat near Mecca

Mecca

Unexpected downpours could worsen the perennial dangers of the gathering, particularly deadly stampedes. In 2006, a dropped piece of luggage amid a moving crowd tripped people, causing a pile-up that killed over 360 people at one of the holy sites

Saudi employer hammers 23 nails into Lankan maid's body

RIYADH: A maid from Sri Lanka was being treated in hospital after her employer in Saudi Arabia allegedly hammered 23 nails into her body, Arab News daily reported Wednesday. 
"I had to work continuously since I had to do the chores of all the occupants and when I wanted to take rest due to tiredness, they inserted the nail in my body as a punishment," the 50-year-old woman told a Sri Lankan television station. 
The woman, who has returned to Colombo, said she was overworked, threatened with death, and beaten.
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Hezbollah chief calls on Lebanon to build nuclear reactor

BEIRUT: Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah (photo), leader of the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, called on Lebanon's government to follow Tehran's footsteps and build a nuclear facility to generate electricity like the reactor in Bushehr, Iran. 
"The cost of building the Bushehr reactor was less than Lebanon's investment in the electricity network. I call on the government to build a nuclear reactor to generate electricity, and then we can also sell energy to Syria, Cyprus and other countries in the region," he said....  story

US freezes assets of Osama's son-in-law

WASHINGTON: In a continuing campaign to target al-Qaida's sources of funds, the United States has frozen the assets of Muhammad Abdallah Hasan Abu-al-Khayr, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden. 
The assets of al-Khayr, who is considered a possible replacement for the terror group's chief financial officer, would be frozen in US jurisdictions under new sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department Tuesday. Mustafa al-Yazid, the former No. 3 al-Qaida leader and financier, was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan earlier this year....  story

Pak Floods: Hollywood Star donates more than Pak President

ISLAMABAD: Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has contributed $100,000 (about Pakistani Rs.8.5 million) for flood ravaged Pakistan, a move that surpasses President Asif Ali Zardari's Rs.5 million donation and the help extended by most other politicians. 
Some leaders have refused to disclose their contribution to the relief effort and claimed that their donation had gone directly to their party's fund....  story


No Relief Work Visas for Indians & Israelis

ISLAMABAD: India and Israel are the only two countries whose aid workers will not be granted special visas by Pakistan to join relief efforts for the millions of people affected by country's worst floods. 

Following a suggestion from foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for easing visa regulations for foreign aid workers, the interior ministry decided to issue three-month "relief work" visas for those coming to Pakistan to join relief operations. 

A letter sent by the interior ministry to the foreign office made it clear that this special facility will not be available to Indian and Israeli nationals. The foreign ministry was also asked to circulate the letter to all Pakistani missions abroad. 

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Rogue Afghan Policeman Kills Three Spaniards

HERAT, Afghanistan  - Two Spanish police and an interpreter were killed when an Afghan policeman they were training turned on them before he was shot dead, officials said, as protests against the killing turned violent on Wednesday.
The incident appeared to be the latest in a string of recent attacks by "rogue" police and soldiers, underlining the pressure as NATO-led troops try to train Afghan forces rapidly to allow the handover of security responsibility to begin from mid-2011.
"The incident took place during a police training course and two Spanish policemen and an interpreter of Spanish nationality lost their lives," said Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish radio.
"The security forces responded to the attack and shot and killed the assassin," he said.....  story

Jimmy Carter Arrives In North Korea

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11 killed in suicide bomb attack on Iraqi police station

Baghdad, Iraq  -- At least 11 people were killed and 34 others wounded when a suicide car bomber hit a police station in northeast Baghdad Wednesday morning, the interior ministry said.....  story



UPDATE:

At Least 22 Dead in Attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD  -- A string of more than a dozen attacks targeting Iraqi security forces stretching from one end of the country to the other killed 22 people and left scores wounded on Wednesday, police and hospital officials said.
There were no claims of responsibility, but the scale and reach of the violence, which comes a day after the number of U.S. troops fell below 50,000, underscored insurgent efforts to show their might as the American military presence in Iraq shrinks.... story

Burqa can't be forced, says Bangladesh court

DHAKA: A court in Bangladesh, an Islamic republic, has directed the government to ensure no woman is forced to wear burqa or religious attires in the educational institutions and offices across the country. 
A bench of the Dhaka high court also ordered the government to ensure that the cultural activities and sports in the educational institutions were not restricted in any manner. Judges took notice of a news report that the students of Rani Bhabani Women's College who don't wear burqa were barred from entering the college by principal Mozammel Haque. He had also stopped any cultural activities and sports at the college. 
The court directed the government to take action against the principal for imposing restrictions on the students about wearing the burqa. 
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Pakistan

Protests erupt as Hindus are served beef in flood camps

36 dead as 3 blasts rip through northwest Pakistan

PARACHINAR: Three bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan — two in tribal regions near the Afghan border and a third near the region’s main city of Peshawar — killed at least 36 people on Monday, officials and a witness said. 
The attack on the outskirts of Peshawar killed the leader of an anti-Taliban militia, Israr Khan, and two aides as he passed through a market in the village of Matni, said police official Khurshid Khan. Three more people were injured. 
The government supplies a string of militias with arms and money to fight the Taliban militants. 
The deadliest blast was a suicide attack at a mosque inside a religious school in South Waziristan that killed 26 people and injured 40 more, said an intelligence official in the region. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the orders set down by his agency. 
He said Maulana Noor Mohammad, a former lawmaker who ran the school, was among the dead.....  story

At Least 33 People Killed in Attack on Somali Hotel

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali insurgents disguised as police officers stormed a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday morning and opened fire, killing at least 33 people, including 6 lawmakers, in one of the deadliest attacks in months, Somali officials said. A fierce room-by-room battle then broke out between the attackers and government forces, who rushed to the three-story hotel and surrounded it by noon, pushing the gunmen to the upper floor. According to witnesses, several lawmakers tried to lock themselves in their rooms, but they were methodically hunted down....  story

Mideast Passions Quiet Over NY Mosque Showdown

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  -- On the streets of lower Manhattan, there's no mistaking how the passions flow: One side saying its their patriotic duty to block a planned Islamic center and the other insisting America cannot curtail freedoms as revenge for the Sept. 11 attacks.
But in the Middle East -- where the imam spearheading the plans is now touring on a U.S.-funded outreach mission -- the proposed mosque and community center near the former World Trade Center towers is viewed in less stark tones.
Much of it circles back to what the showdown says about Islam's identity in the West, theories about the roots of Islamophobia or even whether the plans in New York are worth the fight.
Mideast commentators argue that many in the region view the clash as a wholly American spectacle -- about political posturing and the lingering wounds of 9/11 -- that distracts from genuine troubles such as Iran's growing clout or Israel's pressure on Gaza.
''The mosque is not an issue for Muslims and they don't care about it being built,'' wrote Saudi columnist Abdel Rahman Rashed in the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
''Some Muslims would even consider building a mosque there would be a permanent reminder of the acts of terrorists, who carried out their crime in the name of Islam,'' he added.....  story

Australia

What a pair of XXXX losers!

Spain Claims 2 Victories in Relations With Africa

MADRID — Spain claimed two separate diplomatic victories in Africa on Monday with the release of two hostages held in Mauritania and an agreement with Morocco to strengthen police cooperation following a recent commercial blockade of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco.
The two aid workers had been abducted by the North African branch of Al Qaeda while driving back to Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, in late November. They were due to fly back to Barcelona on Monday night on a Spanish military aircraft after initially making their way to Burkina Faso, which helped negotiate their release....  story

Proposed Restrictions on the News Media Cause Alarm in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG — The front pages of South Africa’s newspapers are regularly splashed with articles about politicians living it up at public expense in a country blighted by poverty.
Reporters recently pounced on news that a black empowerment deal meant to benefit “previously disadvantaged” South Africans under government guidelines was enriching a company led by President Jacob Zuma’s 28-year-old son, Duduzane, among others, giving them a lucrative stake in the South African arm of a steel giant, ArcelorMittal.
It was “the most nauseating business deal in recent memory,” a columnist, Mondli Makhanya, wrote recently in The Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Normally, this kind of story would inspire rolled eyes and disgusted chuckles from readers. But the adversarial dealings of politicians and the press have taken a particularly nasty turn recently, as an infuriated governing party has sought to rein in newspapers it has come to see as determined opponents.

Jacob Zuma

Business executives, civic leaders and journalists have responded with increasingly dire warnings that stringent measures being advanced by the governing African National Congress would threaten press freedom, enshroud much official activity in secrecy, potentially punish offending journalists or whistle-blowers with up to 25 years in prison and undermine the fight against corruption in the continent’s largest economy.......
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Mecca

This year's Hajj has been disrupted by the heaviest rains for years. They have brought fears of flash floods or mudslides in the desert mountains

Albino girl, 11, killed and beheaded in Swaziland ’for witchcraft’

Police believe children are targeted because of a belief by witch doctors that the blood and body parts of albinos can bring good luck and fortune when used in potions

An 11-year-old albino girl from Swaziland was shot dead in front of her friends and then beheaded in what police believe was a ritual murder.    story

Iraq

'German' Man Faces Terrorism Charges in US Plot

BERLIN  -- German prosecutors say they have charged a man with membership in a group that plotted to attack U.S. targets in the European country.
Prosecutors announced Monday the man identified only as Salih S. was charged Aug. 12 with supporting a terrorist organization and membership in a terrorist organization.
They say the German citizen is alleged to be a member of the radical Islamic Jihad Union who trained at a terrorist camp in Pakistan. He was first arrested in 2008 in Turkey and extradited in July.
Salih S. is accused of procuring GPS devices, night vision goggles and other items for Adem Yilmaz
Yilmaz was convicted with three others earlier this year of plotting a thwarted attack that a judge said could have killed large numbers of U.S. soldiers and civilians.
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Chavez

More Killings in Venezuela Than in Iraq

CARACAS — A debate on Venezuela’s soaring homicide rate was reignited after a court ordered a newspaper to stop publishing violent images. 
Venezuela is struggling with a decade-long surge in homicides, with about 118,541 since President Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a group that compiles figures based on police files.......story

Pakistan

Hajj

Muslim pilgrims begin the Hajj by circling seven times round the Kaaba inside the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca after morning prayers

Deutsch:

Rallies Over Mosque Near Ground Zero Get Heated

Watch Footage from Saturday's Opening of Iran's New Nuclear Reactor:

Iran Unveils Domestically-Built Drone

This photo released by the Iranian Defense Ministry, shows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as he speaks during a ceremony of inauguration of the Karrar, or striker in Farsi, which the Iran claims is the first domestically-built, long-range, unmanned bomber aircraft, at the Malek-e Ashtar University, 22 Aug 2010
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Happy Birthday !

Schweinestall is 4 years old today

Modern Turkey

photography: George Georgiou