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.