Landslide

President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono of Indonesia
visited a landslide affected area in a district near
Solo, Central Java province, Mon.December 31,2007.

Laid to Rest

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan,
Benazir Bhutto, who was slain after
an election campaign rally in
Rawalpindi was laid to rest at
the family mausoleum Friday,
December 28, 2007.

Saddam's Anniversary

Security forces in Iraq have been placed on alert on the first anniversary of the execution of former President Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein loyalists gathered at the graveside on Sunday for the first anniversary of his execution. Dozens of Sunni Arab tribal leaders, clerics and students stood at Saddam's burial site in his birthplace of Awja in central Iraq, and read verses from the Quran.

Woman Killer or Killers ???

The image showed a
suspected gunman
(in sunglasses)
and suspected suicide
bomber (in white scarf)
near Benazir Bhutto's
vehicle in Rawalpindi.

The Thursday assassination of charismatic opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had cast many ?????. Meanwhile, a furious exchange of claims and counter-claims over responsibility for Benazir's assassination erupted between President Pervez Musharraf's government and Pakistan People's Party.

The interior ministry laid the blame solely on Al Qaeda and Taliban militants by pointing finger to a well-known commander from the country's tribal region of South Waziristan. The commander, Baitullah Mehsud, had denied that he or his forces had anything to do with the attack. Spokesman for Mehsud said, "It is against tribal tradition and custom to attack a woman."

Authorities initially said Benazir died from bullet wound. A surgeon who treated her later said the cause of her death was the impact from shrapnel on her skull. Another version of the incident, she was killed when the shockwaves from the bomb smashed her head into the sunroof as she tried to duck back inside the vehicle.

Successor

Bilawal Zardari, 19, the eldest son of the slain Pakistan opposition leader, the late Benazir Bhutto was appointed as chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Bilawal's father, Asif Ali Zardari was named co-chairman.

The council of senior party leaders will also be formed to supervise the affairs of the party until Bilawal, who is currently studying at Oxford, is fully capable of handling the party affairs.

End of a Race

A horse as one of the favourites in a horse racing collapsed minutes before the race begin. The horse died of a suspected heart attack.

Personally Welcome

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia welcome Heads of States who recently performed the Hajj. The King welcome them personally at his palace. The welcoming ceremony was held on 11 Zulhijjah 1428/December 21, 2007. Among them was the Paramount Ruler of Malaysia.

Salons In Iraq

An Iraqi woman cuts hair and waxes eyebrows in secret from her living room because making women look pretty can get a person killed in her Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighbourhood.

Extremists who believe it is sinful for women to appear beautiful in public have forced many beauticians to move their trade underground.

Two years ago Sunni and Shiite militants began blowing up salons. They killed several hair stylists/beauticians and forced others into putting down their scissors and makeup brushes for good, all in an effort to stamp out what they view as the corruption spread of Western culture.

In the past year, most beauty salons in the Shiite-dominated southern city of Basra went underground, as they did in the Sunni-controlled neighbourhood of Dora in west Baghdad.

The latest attack on a salon was December 13, in the city of Mosul northwest of the capital. The gunmen stormed the home of a woman who was running a beauty parlor out of one room. They killed her. Last year, extremists blew up 42 year-old Umm Doha's beauty parlor in west Baghdad after she did not heed their warnings to close shop.

End of an Illustrious Dynasty

The assassination of Pakistan opposition leader, former prime minister and life chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party, Benazir Bhutto had brought a tragic end to an illustrious dynasty in Pakistan.The mishap happened on Thursday, December 27, 2007 in a gun and bomb attack as she left an election campaign rally in the city of Rawalpindi. Benazir Bhutto, 54, died in hospital in Rawalpindi after being shot in the head.

Her tragic end resembles in many ways of the Kennedy's family in America. President John F.Kennedy was assassinated in the 60's and most of his family members met a violent death. Like the Nehru Gandhi family that has long been a force in the politics of India, saw the tragic death of Indira Gandhi who was killed by her guards when she was the prime minister of India. Her two sons Sanjay, who died in a plane crash in 1980 and later Rajiv, who died in a suicide attack in early 90s.

The late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged after a controversial supreme court judgment, and all his three children met violent deaths. Bhutto's two sons, Murtaza and Shahnawaz died prematurely too. Shahnawaz was the first to die after the death of his father when he was poisoned in France, allegedly by his Afghan wife. Murtaza was murdered in cold blood in a strange police shoot out near his house in Clifton on September 20, 1996. Benazir was then the prime minister but saw it happening helplessly. Murtaza's widow, Lebanon-born Ghinva lives with her daughter Fatima and son Zulfikar in the house which Murtaza had inherited from his father.

As a young girl, Benazir was brilliant public speaker and even conducted television programmes when he father was in power in the 70s. The programme on Pakistan's foreign policy was instant hit with the viewers for its critical expose.

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

Yesterday, a former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide assailant and also detonated a bomb that killed himself and 20 others at an election rally campaign in Rawalpindi.

Earlier Benazir returned to Pakistan in the face of death threats from Islamist millitants. Within 24 hours of landing in Karachi on October 18, she narrowly ascaped with her life when two bombs were detonated near her motorcade, killing at least 130 people.

A Good Samaritan

A Muslim footballer by the name of Frederic Kanoute from Mali had saved the only mosque in southern Spanish city of Seville from closure. This good samaritan had paid 510,860 euros ($700,000) so that Muslims in Seville would not find themselves without a mosque. Kanoute, the striker of Spain's Seville FC had spent almost a year's salary to purchase the building before the privately owned mosque was due to be sold.

RM50 Banknote

Bank Negara Malaysia issued new design RM50 banknote to commemorate 50th Anniversary Independence of Malaysia. The new RM50 banknotes will be available through commercial banks on January 30, 2008 onwards. The existing series of the RM50 banknotes will continue to be legal tender and will be replaced in stages.

President plus Model

French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, 52 and Miss Carla Bruni Tedeschi, 39, ex-model was pkotographed together during a trip to Disneyland Paris. Their relationship begun two months after the French president divorced his wife, Cecilia.

Pilgrimage

The season of Hajj is approaching. Most Muslims are yearning for this blessed journey and gaining its great reward of having one's sins forgiven and coming closer to Allah.

Prospective pilgrims who are chosen as guests of Allah have to prepare themselves for this blessed journey by doing more good deeds, asking Allah for forgiveness, and avoiding bad deeds and anything that may harm their Hajj. They have to supplicate Allah to grant them Hajj mabrur (the one accepted by Allah) and to accept their good deeds.

The Hajj is a religious obligation and one of the five pillars or central duties of Islam. It is a set of acts of worship to be performed in and around Makkah at least once in a lifetime by every Muslim satisfying certain conditions. There are three types of Hajj, ifrad, qiran and tamattu'.

Perhaps Guest Uninvited

A distraction is an attraction.

Processed Meat Photos

How to generate happy brain chemistry right this instant

King Abdullah Visit To Turkey

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited Turkey on November 8, 2007.

King Abdullah Visit To Vatican

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and Pope Benedict XVI held a historic meeting in Vatican city on November 6, 2007.

King Abdullah Visit To Italy

Saudi King Abdullah visit to Italy on November 5, 2007.

Saudi King Visit To Germany

King Abdullah visit to Germany on November 7, 2007.The King was received by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

KSA Monarch Visit To Britain

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia visited Britain on October 31, 2007.

Vatican Visit

Saudi King Abdullah will arrives in Rome on Tuesday and he may wish to have a historic meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican. Tuesday's scheduled meeting in the Vatican is the first between a pope and a Saudi monarch. The meeting which comes at the behest of King Abdullah. He will also stopped for prayer at the city's central mosque, Europe's largest.

Condolences to Astronaut Dr.Sheikh Muszaphar

Dr.Sheikh Muszaphar the first Malaysian astronaut had lost a brother, Sheikh Mustafa after tripping over a stone and hitting a pillar before falling on some bricks. He was in a coma and was operated on to remove blood clot in his brain but he did not regain consciousness. He died at the University Malaya Medical Centre. He was buried in Seremban on Sunday.

Congratulations Malaysia

Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft was launched on Wednesday, 10 October 2007/28 Ramadan 1428H @ 9.21 pm Malaysian time from Baikonur, Kazakhstan headed for ISS with three crews on board. The three crews were veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and a Malaysian physician Dr.Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. Peggy Whitson will be the first woman to command the orbital outpost and Dr.Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor is Malaysia's first man in space.

Sunday, 21 October 2007/9 Syawal 1428H @ 6.37 pm Malaysian time Soyuz spacecraft returned to earth and landed safely but with a rough descent after a technical glitch that sent the spacecraft on a steeper than normal path. The Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft returned to earth safely. The landing capsule carrying Russians Fyodor Yurchihkin and Oleg Kotov, and Malaysian Dr.Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor landed short of the designated landing site.

Heart to part

A women has seen her own heart on display at a medical exhibition. Jennifer Sutton, 23, had sucessfully underwent an operation to replace her heart earlier this year. She had developed a life-threatening condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy in her teens. Now the original heart, which nearly killed her, has been removed and put on temporary display in central London. Restrictive cardiomyopathy causes the heart muscle to stiffen so the heart cannot relax normally after contraction. As the disease progresses the heart muscle continues to stiffen and eventually contraction is also affected.

Welcome Ramadan

Insya Allah the beginning of Ramadan will be on the 13th of September 2007.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Every year
in the month of Ramadan, fasting practiced by most observant Muslims,
from dawn to sunset, abstaining from food, drink and sexual relations.
For those who are sick, pregnant, elderly, or travelling can make up
an equal number of days later in the year. If they are physically unable
to do this, they can feed a needy person for every day missed.

Beautiful Fliers

Butterflies

butterflies have been fluttering around
of course no doubt in my compound
they perch on beautiful flowers
nectar do they look for
as if to last forever
lives are shorter

Fascinating Insects

Butterflies are beautiful flying insects with large scaly wings. Butterflies are also very good fliers. They have two pairs of large wings covered with colourful, iridescent scales in overlapping rows. Butterflies feed primarily on nectar from flowers. Some also derive nourishment from pollen, tree sap, rotting fruit, dung, and dissolved minerals in wet sand or dirt. Butterflies play an important ecological role as pollinators.They flit from flower to flower for its sustenance. Butterflies have very short lives. A butterfly is one of nature's most beautiful creatures in the world.

Freedom 4_2

Two women among the 23 South Korean hostages kinapped last month by the Taliban were freed August 13, 2007. The freed hostages were identified as Kyung-ja and Kim Ji-na.

Notice

It's fine if dog's owner should abide by this notice for the good of the environment.

South Asia Floods

A woman wades through a flooded street to collect food.

Father and daughter wade through flooded water to a safer place.

Bridge Collapsed

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River because of structural failure. It happened at about 6:05pm Central Time during the height of evening rush hour killing seven people and injuring dozens. Cars were crushed under huge slabs of concrete, flipped onto their roofs or thrown in the river as the 40-year-old bridge, packed with vehicles bumper to bumper traffic, collapsed with a thunderous roar.

The Mast

Ban Xishua also known as Xi Shun or The Mast has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's tallest living man at 7 ft. 8.95 inches or 2.361 meters. He was born
in 1951 and is a herdsman from Mongolia. On
24th March 2007 he married Xia Shujian, a
saleswoman who is 28 years old and is half of
of his age.

Ice Cafe

A very unique experience for diners at Dubai' Ice Cafe when dining out for frost time. A cold cuts experience, from seating to glassware to cutlery and crockery, everything is cut in ice.
Almost everything at the cafe is sculpted out of ice. Diners will sit on ice benches/chairs, eat at ice tables out of ice plates and drink from ice glasses served from a bar made of ice.
"It is a popular misconception that furniture at an ice restaurant is wet. It is the moisture on the surface of ice that gives it the wet feel. There cannot be any moisture at minus 6 degrees. Every bit of it turns to ice." explained the spokeperson.
The restaurant was recently open Thursday, June 21 2007, located at Times Square mall, between 3rd and 4th interchange on Shaikh Zayed Road. Cover charge of Dh60 inclusive of thermal gear and a free mocktail.