Marine in ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ killed in Iraq

A Marine and one-time recruiter who appeared in Michael Moore’s documentary film “Fahrenheit 9/11” has died in a roadside bombing in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar, 30, died Monday of wounds suffered while conducting combat operations in Iraq’s volatile Anbar province, the Defense Department said on Tuesday.

Plouhar, who was stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., had taken four years off from active duty to serve as a recruiter in Flint after donating one of his kidneys to his uncle. He is seen in the 2004 film approaching prospective recruits in a mall parking lot.

AP

”bullying of the arrogant powers”

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that independence and resistance to greed of the hegemonic powers formed the centerpiece of their opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In a meeting with justice officials to mark anniversary of bombing on June 28, 1981 in which the then chief justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti and 72 senior statesmen were killed, Khamenei said that since the 1979 Revolution, the hegemonic powers exerted various military, political and economic pressures on Iran to undermine the pillars of the Islamic Republic.

"Therefore, under such sensitive circumstances, every individual and all the officials of three branches of government are expected to make strides for reinforcement of pillars of the Islamic Republic carefully by promoting sense of responsibility and national solidarity."

The Supreme Leader said that Iran is the only country which both the government and nation have stood against bullying of the arrogant powers, so the dispute between Iran and the hegemonist powers is not an ordinary one. "The Islamic Republic of Iran regards popular support from 70 million population and sympathetic sentiments from Muslim nations as a security for the government. The Muslim nations announced their support for Iran's independent policy and admire Iran for taking up this line."

AB

12 die in Iraq attacks

A trash collector and the head of security for Baghdad University died in separate drive-by shootings today as a string of attacks nationwide left a dozen people dead, police said.

The attack against the trash collector, a Shiite, took place early Thursday in western Baghdad, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said, according to the AP. Armed men in a civilian car also stopped a car carrying Kadhim Challoub, who was in charge of the guards at Baghdad University, ordered his driver and his guard out, then killed the security chief on the eastern side of the capital, according to police Lt. Mohammad Khayoun.

He also said a roadside bomb aimed at a police patrol missed its target but killed one civilian and wounded another in northern Baghdad.

Two merchants were shot dead near the civil defense office as they were waiting for a car to take them to work in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Sadiyah in southwestern Baghdad, Hussein said.

Elsewhere in the Iraqi capital, according to police, a baker died when a bomb went off near his workplace in Dora, and an electrical worker died while he was heading to work in a predominantly Sunni area of western Baghdad.

A bomb exploded in southern Baghdad as well, killing a woman and injuring her three sons as they were in their car, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.

Police also found the body a man who had been blindfolded, handcuffed and shot in the head in western Baghdad.

Gunmen on a motorcycle also killed a policeman and attackers firing from a car shot to death a 34-year-old man working in a construction equipment shop in separate attacks in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, local health official Abdul-Salam al-Zamily said.

Iraqi police in the northern city of Kirkuk found the body of a 15-year-old girl who had been kidnapped five days ago, Brig. Sarhat Qadir said.

AB

Muslim Council of Britain condemn Israel

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) Wednesday condemned Israel's latest invasion as exposing the Zionist regime's claims to have 'withdrawn' from Gaza.

"The blowing up of bridges and Gaza's main electricity transformer by the Israeli army can only be described as illegal acts of collective punishment against the Palestinian people," the umbrella organization said.

MCB Secretary General Muhammad Abdul Bari said that the Zionist regime had 'repeatedly shown that it has absolutely no regard for international law'.

"This disproportionate use of military force in one of the most densely populated areas in the world is a recipe for another disaster in the making," Bari warned.

The MCB called on the British and US governments to take urgent steps to bring about a negotiated settlement to the current crisis involving Palestinian and Israeli prisoners.

"We urge that such efforts must include the release of the 400 women and children among the 9,800 Palestinians that have been detained by the Israeli Occupation Forces," it said.

MN

Palestinian ministers detained

Israeli troops have detained dozens of Hamas ministers and lawmakers in the West Bank, as its offensive in Gaza to free a captured soldier continues.
At least seven ministers and 20 MPs were rounded up in raids in several towns, Palestinian officials said.
Israeli ground forces meanwhile massed at Gaza's northern border, as troops and tanks dug into positions in the south, a day after they invaded.
The troops detained Nasser Shaer, the Palestinian deputy prime minister, and three other Cabinet ministers, as well as four lawmakers in Ramallah.
Several others were arrested in the town of Jenin, they said. Also, the Hamas mayor of the West Bank town of Qalqiliya and his deputy were detained.

IN

Russian diplomat deaths confirmed

Russia has confirmed that four of its diplomats taken hostage in Iraq are dead, a day after a group announced their deaths in an internet video.
The confirmation came after Russian experts checked the authenticity of the videotape released by the kidnappers.

The Russian foreign ministry expressed "deep pain" that the kidnapping had ended "in an irremediable way" despite efforts to win their release.

A group called the Mujahideen Shura Council released the hostage video.

The insurgent umbrella group is linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The video showed one man being beheaded and another shot dead, as well as the body of a third, but there was no sign of the fourth hostage.

The group had given Russia an ultimatum to withdraw from Chechnya and release Muslim prisoners from Russian jails - or the hostages would die. Chechen rebels said they had no links to the Iraqi group.

The men were seized in Baghdad on 3 June, and the kidnappers said the executions were in revenge for "torture, killing and displacement by the infidel Russian government" in Chechnya.

The Russian foreign ministry said the "terrorists" responsible were "inhuman, without honour, conscience or religion".

It urged the Iraqi authorities and the US-led coalition forces to find and punish the perpetrators.

BBC

Rape case four hanged in Pakistan

Four Muslim men were hanged in Pakistan on Thursday for gang-raping a teenage Christian girl at gunpoint in the city of Faisalabad in 1999.
The men were convicted by an anti-terrorism court. Their guilty verdicts were upheld by higher courts, and clemency appeals were turned down.

"The men were hanged at 0430," said a prison official in Faisalabad.

Christians form a small minority in Muslim-majority Pakistan, which has a population of about 150m people.

The bodies of the men were handed over to their relatives later on Thursday.

Their appeals to higher courts - including a Sharia (Islamic) court all failed. A final plea for clemency was rejected by President Musharraf.

BBC