Zawahri vows Al Qaeda to free Aafia, Guantanamo inmates

DUBAI: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said the group would spare no effort to free Aafia Siddiqui as well as the hunger striking inmates at Guantanamo Bay, according to an audio recording posted on the Internet on Wednesday.

“The (hunger) strike by our brothers at Guantanamo unmasks the true ugly face of (the United States of) America,” Zawahri said in an audio recording posted on an Islamist website and whose authenticity could not be verified.

United Arab Immoralates: Saudi Sheikh slaps travelers to Dubai with fatwa

A Saudi cleric has sparked controversy when he issued a fatwa (religious edict) this week barring travel to Dubai because of the spread of “immoralities” there.

Sheikh Mohamed al-Shanar used his Twitter account to answer a question by a woman on whether a woman can visit Dubai without a male guardian.

“A woman asks me if it she may go to Dubai without a guardian. I answer her saying: going to Dubai is forbidden, whether she was accompanied by a guardian or not [because of the spread of immoralities], and sins increase if traveling without a guardian was not a necessity,” the cleric said on his Twitter account.

Cemetery suicide shocks Indians

Dubai: A jobless Indian has committed suicide in a cemetery in Dubai, leaving the community stunned and shaken.

Social workers said Arun S.R, 32, may have spent a couple of nights at the old cemetery in Bur Dubai, opposite Dubai Creek, before hanging himself from a tree on April 24. His body was handed over to his family in Peroorkada of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on May 30.

Uma Padmanabhan, a Dubai-based social worker, told XPRESS a cleaner in the area noticed the body at the cemetery and informed the police. “The victim had nothing on him except his pyjamas, a pair of slippers and a wristwatch. We are told that a blanket and a pillow were also recovered from the site.”

Iran to meet UN nuclear watchdog on May 21: reports

DUBAI: Iran and officials from the United Nations nuclear watchdog will hold a new round of talks over Iran’s disputed nuclear program on May 21 in Vienna, Iranian media reported on Monday.

The Mehr and ISNA news agencies gave no further details in their reports.

The International Atomic Energy Agency press had no immediate comment. Last week, a diplomatic source told Reuters that a meeting in May was a possibility, but that no date had yet been fixed.

Massive quake strikes Iran-Pakistan border, 40 killed in Iran

DUBAI/KARACHI: A major earthquake struck a region near the Iran-Pakistan border on Tuesday, with Iranian state television reporting at least 40 people killed in the aftermath.

An Iranian government official said he expected hundreds of deaths from the massive 7.8 magnitude earth quake, felt as far away as New Delhi and Gulf cities of Dubai and Bahrain.

“It was the biggest earthquake in Iran in 40 years and we are expecting hundreds of dead,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.