Today's Top Islamic News (DAILY)

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Saudi embassy in Stockholm comes under attack
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:52:43 GMT

This file photo shows police standing at the entrance of the Saudi Embassy in Stockholm, after a man tried to set the building aflame on May 6, 2009.
Unknown assailants have attacked the Saudi Arabian embassy in Sweden by throwing a Molotov cocktail at a window that overlooks the street.

The incident, which took place Friday night, caused no injuries among the Embassy staff, the Saudi Press Agency reported, citing an official source at the Embassy.

The unnamed source added that the building itself did not suffer any damage, except for the broken window.

According to the source, work has not stopped at the Embassy and its doors are still open to the public.

Immediately after the incident, the Embassy staff contacted Swedish authorities, asking for a full inquiry.

Swedish investigators have reportedly started looking into the matter.

MJ/JG/DT

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Reid sorry for racial remarks on Obama
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:34:14 GMT

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has made an apology to US President Barack Obama for offending him during the 2008 presidential campaign.

"I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments," Reid said in a statement on Saturday.

Reid in private had described Obama as a "light skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

The US president accepted the apology in a statement, saying "I accepted Harry's apology without question because I've known him for years."

"I've seen the passionate leadership he's shown on issues of social justice and I know what's in his heart," Obama added.

The apology comes as Reid faces a difficult re-election amid frustration from both liberals and conservatives with his leadership in the Senate and his agenda.

AGB/SC/DT

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Spy services offered millions to CIA attacker
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:19:51 GMT

A video showing the CIA base attacker depicts him as saying he had been offered millions to spy on the Taliban by Jordanian and American intelligence services.

"The Jordanian and the American intelligence services offered me millions of dollars to work with them and to spy on the mujahedin," Humam Khalil al-Balawi is heard saying in English in a video released by the private television station AAJ on Saturday.

But, "I came to the mujahedin and told them everything and we arranged together this attack," Balawi is heard to say while sitting beside pro-Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in Pakistan's tribal region.

Late December, Balawi blew himself up inside the heavily fortified Forward Operating Base Chapman in eastern Afghanistan's Khost province.

Five CIA agents and two employees of the US security firm Blackwater, now known as Xe, were killed. The attack is the deadliest against US intelligence service since 1983.

Balawi had said that the blast was in revenge for the killing of Pakistani militant leader Beitullah Mehsud. Mehsud was killed during a US drone attack in Pakistan several months ago.

Balawi was born in Palestine.

RZS/JG/DT

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First US bank failure in 2010, Horizon Bank
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:24:00 GMT

A small bank in the state of Washington has become the first US bank to collapse in 2010, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) says.

On Friday, State regulators seized the Horizon Bank based in Bellingham and its 18 branches.

FDIC, which has insured bank deposits since the Great Depression and currently covers accounts up to $250,000, said that Horizon customers are protected.

A total of 140 banks failed in 2009 —the highest number since 1992, when 181 banks failed. But that tally is far from 1989's record high of 534 closures which took place during the savings and loan crisis.

The spike in failures has raised concerns about the FDIC's deposit insurance fund, which has slipped into the red for the first time since 1991.

Horizon Bank's estimated 1.3 billion dollars in assets and 1.1 billion dollars in deposits are being assumed by Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association, of Seattle, Washington, the FDIC said.

SG/SC/DT

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India has lost 'substantial' land to China: Official report
PTI, 10 January 2010, 03:00pm IST

NEW DELHI: The area along Line of Actual Control with China has "shrunk" over a period of time and India has lost "substantial" amount of land in the last two decades, says an official report.

At a recent meeting held in Leh which was attended by officials from the Jammu and Kashmir government, Ministry of Home Affairs and Army, it was agreed that there was difference in the maps of various agencies and that there was lack of proper mapping of the area.

The meeting was chaired by Commissioner (Leh) A K Sahu and attended among others by Brigadier General Staff of 14 Corps Brig Sarat Chand and Colonel Inderjit Singh.

While the absence of proper map was agreed upon, the meeting all the same felt, "however, it is clear and be accepted that we are withdrawing from LAC and our area has shrunk over a period of time."

"Though this process if very slow but we have lost substantial amount of land in 20-25 years," it was said at the meeting held last month.

According to the minutes of the meeting, it was also identified that "there is a lack of institutional memory in various agencies as well as clear policy on this issue which in long run has resulted in loss of territory by the India in favour of China."

The meeting was called to ensure proper protection to nomads who move with their cattle to Dokbug area of Nyoma sector during the winter months every year. In December 2008, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) had damaged their tents and threatened them to vacate the land.

"They (Chinese) have threatened the nomadic people who had been using Dokbug area (in Ladakh sector) area for grazing since decades long, in a way to snatch our land in inches. A Chinese proverb is famous in the world - better do in inches than in yards," a report filed by former Sub Divisional Magistrate (Nyoma) Tsering Norboo had said.

Norboo was deputed by the state government to probe complaints of incursion of the Chinese Army in Dokbug area and threats to the local shepherds to leave the land as it belonged to them. The area has been used by the shepherds to graze their livestock as the area is warmer compared to other parts of Ladakh.

The SDM contended that it was another attempt by the Chinese to claim the territory as disputed in the same fashion as they had taken Nag Tsang area opposite to Phuktse airfield in 1984, Nakung in 1991 and Lungma-Serding in 1992.

The area of Dokbug and Doley Tango was frequented by shepherds and nomads from December to March every year during which their young lambs were capable to walk.

The SDM has also highlighted the fact that Army stopped these nomads from vacating the land. The nomads were terrified by the Chinese threats.

Last year, Chinese troops had entered nearly 1.5 km into the Indian territory on July 31 near Mount Gya, recognised as International border by India and China, and painted boulders and rocks with "China" and "Chin9" in red spray paint.

The 22,420 ft Mount Gya, also known as "fair princess of snow" by Army, is located at the tri-junction of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, and Tibet. Its boundary was marked during the British era and regarded as International border by the two countries.

Before this, Chinese helicopters had violated Indian air space on June 21 along the Line of Actual Control in Chumar region and also helli-dropped some expired food.

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Maoists now see Indian hand in Nepal's palace massacre: Nepal daily
IANS, 10 January 2010, 01:46pm IST

KATHMANDU: Nine years after he was gunned down in his own palace, allegedly by his son over a family dispute, the assassination of Nepal's king Birendra continues to haunt the nascent republic's politics with the former Maoists now claiming the involvement of neighbour India.

Maoist supremo and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who has begun making increasingly anti-Indian rhetoric in recent times, now alleges the Indian government played a role in Nepal's national tragedy that wiped out Birendra's entire family June 1, 2001.

He is also claiming that New Delhi was behind the death of Nepal's charismatic communist leader Madan Bhandari in 1993.

"Madan Bhandari and King Birendra were killed because they did not surrender to India," Maoist mouthpiece Janadisha daily said Sunday in a front-page report.

The daily quoted from a speech by Prachanda Saturday during a programme to mark the fourth round of Maoist protests against the coalition government of Nepal that is scheduled to climax with an indefinite general strike from Jan 24.

Prachanda said the government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was a puppet that was being remote-controlled by the Indian government.

"Former king Birendra and Madan Bhandari were killed because they supported national sovereignty," Prachanda said.

The former revolutionary said king Birendra was killed because he favoured buying weapons for the state army from China instead of India and was making efforts to hold talks directly with the Maoists, who were then an underground party.

Had Birendra not been killed, Prachanda said he would have held talks with the monarch within a month.

Earlier, Prachanda had also said that king Birendra sent his youngest brother Dhirendra as a secret emissary to the Maoists to propose talks between the palace and the guerrillas. But the king was killed before the talks could start.

Dhirendra and eight other royals, including the queen, Aishwarya, and the crown prince, Dipendra, died in the infamous massacre in the Narayanhity palace in Kathmandu.

A commission formed by the government subsequently found the crown prince responsible for the carnage. The motive was apparently their threat to disinherit him as he wanted to marry a woman they did not consider suitable.

Madan Bhandari, one of the founders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), died in a car crash outside Kathmandu in 1993.

However, many people still believe there were deeper conspiracies behind the two deaths that deeply impacted Nepal's politics.

During his short tenure as premier last year, Prachanda had promised to start a fresh investigation into the palace massacre but the pledge was never fulfilled.

In the past, the Maoists had blamed Birendra's surviving brother Gyanendra, who ascended the throne after his death, for the massacre, an allegation denied by the king before he surrendered his crown.

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Indian set on fire in Melbourne
PTI, 9 January 2010, 02:34pm IST

MELBOURNE: In yet another attack targeting Indians in Australia, a 29-year-old man from the country was set on fire by a group of four assailants here, drawing strong condemnation from a student body which called such assaults unacceptable and asked authorities not to "dodge" the issue.

Jaspreet Singh was attacked in Essendon area of northwest Melbourne shortly before 2.00 am local time (0730 HRS IST), a week after an Indian student was stabbed to death amid a slew of assaults on the community in Australia.

Singh, who suffered 20 per cent burns including on his arms, chest and face, was admitted to 'The Alfred' hospital.

Singh and his wife left a dinner party in Essendon, in the city's northwest, between 1.30 am and 2 am and drove to their nearby home in Grice Crescent. He dropped his wife at home and had gone to park his car when he was attacked, local media reported.

Police said that as he was getting out of the car, four men attacked him, pushing him back against the vehicle and pouring an unknown fluid on him. One of the men then ignited the fluid with a lighter before all the attackers fled.

The victim, who is now in a stable condition in the hospital, ran from the car while peeling off his clothes.

Denying any racial angle to the attack, detective acting senior sergeant Neil Smyth said it is not yet known who the four men could be or their relationship to the victim. He said investigations indicate the attack was random.

"It's unlikely to be a racially motivated incident as due to the timing and the nature, it's highly unlikely anyone could have targeted the victim in the circumstances," Smyth said.

The incident is being investigated by the arson and explosives squad of police.

Police appealed for public assistance to locate the victim's clothes, which he shed as he fled the scene.

Singh's friends said he has been living in the city on a spouse visa.

Meanwhile, Gautam Gupta, President of Federation of Indian Students of Australia (FISA), said such attacks are unacceptable and the federal Government must act against them.

"We are extremely disturbed, we have contacted the Prime Minister's office and have suggested that they intervene, it's high time they intervene," he said. "How many times are they going to just dodge this issue."

Australian Deputy Premier Julia Gillard condemned the attack on Singh, saying the "matter remains under investigation by Victorian police and government would not comment further until police provide more information".

"Government condemns such acts of violence in the strongest way," she said.

The attack comes a week after the stabbing death of 21-year-old Indian graduate Nitin Garg in a Yarraville park while he was on his way to his part-time job in a restaurant.

The body of another Indian youth, 25-year-old Ranjodh Singh, was found beside Wilga Road in Willbriggie in the neighbouring state of New South Wales on December 29.

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46% drop in Indian students' applications: Australia
PTI, 7 January 2010, 11:13am IST

MELBOURNE: Hit by international student attack crisis, Australia has experienced a huge decline by 46 per cent of Indians applying for student visas in the country last year, country's immigration department has said.

The total number of student visa applications around the world also dropped by over 20 per cent.

Department's spokesman Sandy Logan said racism and violence issue against foreign students were not mainly to be blamed for the slide in visa applications.

It was also due to stricter and tougher scrutiny of applications and the immigration department has been rejecting a higher number of applications from India, he said.

"It is correct to say that there has been a decline in the number of student visa applications coming from India," he said.

There's also been a decline though in the number of student visas applications that have been withdrawn by those applicants. In August last year the government announced strengthened checking for high-risk segments of the student visa programme.

"It was a targeted series of checks as a result of analysis which suggested the risk was most significant in India, Mauritius, Nepal, Brazil, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

Once integrity checking is taken into account a student visa application has been refused," he said.

Logan further said, "We are aware that there has been an effect across the board as a result of the global financial crisis," he said.

"But we were also expecting that with greater and more stringent integrity checks, the student visa application cohort from a number of these countries will drop."

Meanwhile, founder and director of International Education Consultants Australia, Kathryn Richardson, said adverse publicity of violent incidents involving foreign students in Australia cannot be ruled out as a factor.

"Of course you would expect there would be some sort of response to that. I don't fear, at this stage, that it is something that will be in the long run a dramatic and constant change,"

"But if the numbers fall off this year due partly to publicity or bad publicity, it probably wouldn't be surprising," Logan said.

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Indian student's body to be flown back on Saturday
IANS, 8 January 2010, 02:34pm IST

NEW DELHI: The body of Nitin Garg, the Indian student who was stabbed to death in the Australian city of Melbourne last week, will be flown back on Saturday afternoon.

His body is expected to arrive via Dubai in an Emirates Flight, official sources said. The body will be handed over to his brother and taken to Punjab by road, they said.

Garg, 21, an accounting graduate, was knifed in West Footscray suburb of Melbourne while on his way to work last Saturday. He staggered to Hungry Jack's restaurant - where he worked - and pleaded for help before collapsing.

He was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital where he died. Garg hailed from Punjab.

The ministry of external affairs has assured the family of the deceased financial aid and the Australian authorities have said catching the killers is a "high priority" for them.

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In Afghanistan, 3 more US soldiers killed
Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:00:38 GMT

Three more American soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says in a statement.

The service members were killed on Monday, ISAF said.

"Three ISAF service members from the United States were killed this afternoon in an engagement with enemy forces in southern Afghanistan," read the statement.

Earlier on Sunday, an improvised explosive device killed another US soldier in the war-torn country.

The US and other coalition countries have 113,000 troops in Afghanistan. Nearly 1600 foreign soldiers have died in the war-ravaged Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion.

The increasing number of casualties has drastically reduced public support for the eight-year conflict, according to opinion polls in Western countries.

AGB/DT