Dubai accuses Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad of ‘vast falsification’ of passports

DUBAI: Dubai’s police chief has accused Israel of “vast falsification” of travel documents, noting that dozens of false passports were uncovered following a Hamas leader’s murder in the emirate.
“I ring alarm bells. Israel is falsifying Western passports on a large scale. We discover forged passports on a daily basis,” Dahi Khalfan told AFP.
“The world must stop [...]

September 11, 2001 attacks on United States a ‘big lie’: Mahmud Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN: Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Saturday dismissed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States as a “big lie,” state media reported.
Ahmadinejad has on several occasions questioned the accepted version of the terror strikes on New York and Washington carried out by Al-Qaeda militants, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
“September 11 was a big [...]

Western sanctions draft targets Iran’s banks abroad, urges central bank’s vigilance

UNITED NATIONS: A Western proposal for fresh UN sanctions on Iran includes a call for restricting new Iranian banks abroad and urges “vigilance” against the Islamic Republic’s central bank, diplomats said on Friday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, Western diplomats familiar with negotiations on the draft proposal — which Washington worked on with Britain, France and [...]

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was sedated before being suffocated: Dubai police

DUBAI: The Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was injected with a strong sedative before being suffocated in his hotel room by suspected Mossad agents, Dubai police have revealed.

The results of a toxicology report released today show that the Hamas commander was paralysed by an injection of succinylcholine, a fast-acting muscle relaxant. He was then suffocated with [...]

Two suicide attacks near Baghdad ahead of Iraq polls kill 31, leaving 48 wounded

BAGHDAD: Suicide bombers attacked two police stations and a hospital in a city northeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 31 people and wounding 48 others before a parliamentary election.
The attacks were the bloodiest in the immediate run-up to a parliamentary election on Sunday that is seen as pivotal for the war-scarred nation as [...]

Ex-IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to run in elections against Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak

CAIRO: Former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who says he is prepared to run in elections against President Hosni Mubarak, told AFP on Saturday that political change is the only way to avoid unrest in Egypt.
“Change is coming for sure,” ElBaradei said in a telephone interview. “Change by peaceful means is the only way to avoid [...]

Israel’s Mossad regularly faked Australian passports as well for its spies: ex-agent

SYDNEY: Israel’s Mossad has regularly faked Australian passports for its spies, an ex-agent said on Thursday, as anger grew over the use of foreign travel documents for an alleged assassination.
Former Mossad case officer Victor Ostrovsky told ABC public radio that the spy agency had used Australian passports for previous operations before last month’s hit on [...]

Dubai has 15 new Western suspects in top Hamas militant al-Mabhuh’s killing

DUBAI: Police widened their search in the hunt for the killers of a top Hamas militant in a luxury hotel, saying 15 new Western passport holders are now suspects, with the total number sought now 26.
A police statement said the 15, including the holders of six British and three French passports, are being sought after [...]

Israel’s opposition leader Tzipi Livni praises Hamas commander’s assassination

JERUSALEM: Israel’s parliamentary opposition leader on Tuesday praised the assassination of a Hamas commander by Mossad in Dubai last month, in the first such comment from a top official.
Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima Party said the death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was good, but she did not indicate who was behind the killing.
“The fact that [...]

Iran arrests top Sunni militant leader and Jundallah chief Abdolmalek Rigi

TEHRAN: Iran has arrested top Sunni militant leader Abdolmalek Rigi who has been accused of masterminding a series of deadly bombings and killings, local media reported on Tuesday.
Tehran based Arabic news channel Al-Alam said that he has been arrested in the “east of the country”, while the Fars news agency is quoting the Iranian intelligence [...]

Morocco ups mosque spending amid row over collapse causing 41 deaths

RABAT: Morocco’s government, under fire after 41 worshippers died when a 400-year-old minaret collapsed, plans to double spending this year on rebuilding decaying mosques, Islamic affairs minister Ahmed Toufiq said.
But Toufiq, whose ministry controls the north African country’s 50,000 mosques, warned that similar tragedies could happen before the delicate restoration work is completed, reports Reuters.
Toufiq [...]

Dubai police chief claims that killed Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh betrayed by associate

DUBAI: Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas official assassinated in Dubai, was betrayed by a close associate, the emirate’s police chief claimed as it emerged today that the Palestinian’s murderers used more fake Irish passports.
Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim described whoever leaked details of Mahbouh’s arrival to his assassins as “the real killer”, Abu Dhabi’s al-Khalij newspaper [...]

Israeli Air Force unveils pilotless drones, named ‘Heron TP’ able to hit Iran; Iran to build more enrichment plants

TEL AVIV/TEHRAN: Israel’s Air Force on Sunday introduced a fleet of huge pilotless planes that can remain in the air for a full day and fly as far as the Persian Gulf, putting Iran within their range.
The new aircraft, called the Heron TP, has a wingspan of 86 feet, making it the size of a [...]

Israeli Embassy deletes joke about Dubai murder ‘success’ from Twitter

On Thursday, the same day that Israel’s ambassador to Britain was asked to tell the British government if he knew anything about the apparent use of cloned British passports by suspects in the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai last month, his embassy’s official Twitter feed posted a joking reference to the killing.

After his [...]

Morocco: Minaret collapse of historic 18th century mosque leaves 36 dead, 71 injured

RABAT: At least 36 people died and 71 were injured after the minaret of a historic 18th century mosque collapsed in the central Moroccan city of Meknes during Friday prayers, the interior ministry said.
Local officials said the toll could mount. “The minaret and part of the roof fell on the congregation which had gathered for [...]

Dubai police seeks Interpol help to arrest Mossad chief for al-Mabhouh’s murder

DUBAI: Interpol should help arrest the head of Mossad if Israel’s spy agency was responsible for the killing of a Hamas commander in Dubai, the emirate’s police chief said today.
In comments to be aired on Dubai TV, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim called for Interpol to issue “a red notice against the head of Mossad [...]

Suicide bomber kills at least 13 leaving 21 others wounded in Iraq’s Anbar province

RAMADI: A suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and wounded 21 on Thursday in Iraq’s increasingly turbulent western Anbar province, a senior Iraqi army official and police told Reuters.
 
A medical source said Ramadi’s main hospital had received 13 bodies and 26 people had been wounded.
Separately, in the violent city of Mosul in north Iraq [...]

Palestinian ‘defectors’ and Hamas official suspected of helping Mossad hit squad

JERUSALEM: A key security operative of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was under arrest in Syria tonight on suspicion of having helped an alleged Israeli hit squad identify Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before he was assassinated in Dubai.
Palestinian sources in the Gulf confirmed Nahro Massoud, a Hamas security official, was in detention and under interrogation in Damascus [...]

Britons had passport details stolen by ‘Mossad death squad’

JERUSALEM: British authorities are investigating how six British nationals apparently had their identities stolen by suspected Mossad agents on a mission to assassinate a Hamas leader in Dubai.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that the identities used by six members of the 11-strong hit squad were those of real British passport holders living in Israel. [...]

CCTV footage of slayers of Hamas’ al-Mabhouh released by Dubai police

DUBAI: The Dubai police department today released photos of the 11 people allegedly responsible for assassinating Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh last month — and the chief of police says he’s close to issuing arrest warrants for the group.
Everyone in the group held European passports, according to police: six British, three Irish, one French and one [...]