Salam Pembaca…

Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim semalam telah secara rasminya mengangkat sumpah sebagai Ahli Parlimen Permatang Pauh dan turut diangkat sebagai Ketua Pembangkang di Dewan Rakyat. Menang dengan 15, 671 undi majoriti, suatu angka yang luarbiasa bagi pilihanraya kecil di negara kita. Malah pertambahan undi yang diraih berbanding kemenangan isterinya di kawasan tersebut merupakan satu petanda sokongan yang makin hangat terhadap kewibawaannya serta visinya untuk ditabalkan sebagai Perdana Menteri yang akan datang.

Anwar bukanlah orang baru dalam kancah politik tanahair. Seorang politikus yang tulen dan satu-satunya dirantai dengan pelbagai rencah dan konflik mega yang menyelubungi karier politiknya. Selain statusnya selaku mantan Timbalan Perdana Menteri, beliau juga adalah bekas banduan. Seorang yang sanggup ke penjara dek keengganan beliau untuk bersekongkol dengan kebusukan mainan politik kotor. Istiqamah beliau dalam memelihara maruahnya sebagai pemimpin yang cuba menegakkan keadilan wajib dicontohi.

SOLOMON ISLAND, April 2 - A massive earthquake has struck off the Solomon Islands, causing a tsunami to crash into the country's west coast and prompting disaster warnings for regional contries, including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia.

At least four people were reported missing on Monday.

JERUSALEM, April 2 - Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has dismissed suggestions that Israel is working with the US in drawing up contingency plans for conflict with Iran.

His comments followed an assessment given to the Israeli cabinet on Sunday on the possible outcomes of a confrontation between Tehran and Washington.

"Declarations that there is an American plan to strike Iran that is being co-ordinated with Israel which would at the same time attack Syria and Lebanon is not familiar to me, and is a baseless rumour," Olmert told a Jerusalem news conference on Sunday.

Standing alongside Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor who was on a visit to Jerusalem, Olmert insisted Israel had no desire to see a fresh conflict in the region.

"Israel is not planning an attack and does not wish for war, as it did not want one in the past," he said.

Intensifying confrontation

Olmert's comments followed a briefing given to the Israeli cabinet earlier on Sunday by Amos Yadlin, the military intelligence chief, in which he set out his assessment of the likely reactions of Iran's main regional allies, Syria and Hezbollah, to an intensifying confrontation between Tehran and Washington.

"They fear a war initiated by the Americans because they understand that there might be an attack against Iran over the summer, but not by Israel," a senior government official quoted Yadlin as telling cabinet ministers.

Although Yadlin insisted that Israel had no intention of becoming embroiled in such a conflict, he warned that any moves by the Jewish state could be wrongly interpreted by its neighbours as a sign of hostile intent.

"If the Americans launch an offensive in Iran, Hezbollah and Syria will think the move had been co-ordinated with Israel and would expect Israel to strike them too," another government official at the meeting told AFP.

'New conflict'

Yadlin said he was concerned that the region might inadvertently stumble into a new conflict.

"We might again find ourselves in a war no one wanted," he told ministers. "Israel must be prepared and make sure its steps will not lead to any miscalculation on the other side.

"Israel is closely following developments on this front out of a concern that the three players might misinterpret certain steps taken by Israel."

Yadlin said Hezbollah was abiding by a UN-brokered ceasefire in south Lebanon, but charged that the Shia fighters were busy rearming north of the Litani river - out of the jurisdiction of UN peacekeepers.

Civilian deaths

Israel fought a 34-day war against Hezbollah last summer after two soldiers were captured in a cross-border raid.

Around 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died in the conflict.

"Hezbollah has no intention of getting into a second round of conflict," Yadlin was quoted as saying.

"But it is busy rebuilding its forces and has accelerated those efforts for fear of a summer attack."

On Saturday, Iran's joint chief of staff warned Arab states neighbouring Israel against what he called a "Zionist suicide attack" this year.

"The Zionists plan to carry out a suicide plot in the summer," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted major general Hassan Firouzabadi as saying.

He predicted that an Israeli attack would start from Lebanon and Syria and proceed to Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. - mks._

ANKARA � The Turkish parliament elected on Tuesday, August 28, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as new President in a decisive third round of vote.

"Abdullah Gul in the third round obtained an absolute majority and was elected the 11th president of Turkey with 339 votes," parliament speaker Koksal Toptan said after the vote, reported Reuters.

ImageThe other two contenders, Sabahattin Cakmakoglu from the right-wing Nationalist Action Party and Tayfun Icli from the center-left Democratic Left Party, got 70 and 13 votes respectively.

The Justice and Development Party's (AKP) has 341 seats in the 550-seat parliament.

Gul, a gently spoken diplomat and an architect of Turkey's European Union membership bid, needed a simple majority of 276 votes to win in the decisive third round ballot.

The new president is set to be sworn in at parliament at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) before he formally takes over from outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in a ceremony closed to the press at 7:30 pm (1630 GMT).

Gul's election came after a four-month-long political crisis when the secularist elite, including the powerful army generals, derailed his first bid.

The AKP government pushed for early elections and came out stronger, increasing its share in the legislature.

In Turkey, the government holds most power but the president can veto laws, veto appointments of officials, appoint judges and is commander in chief of the military.

No Hijab Problem

Hours before his election, a new poll showed that nearly three quarters of Turks have no problem with a hijab-clad first lady, the main argument of Gul's opponents.

The survey, conducted by the respected Konda company for the Milliyet newspaper, showed that 72.6 percent of those polled would view it as "normal" if the wife of the president wore a hijab.

Gul's presidential bid has sparked objections by secularist that his election would bring the first veiled first lady to the Cankaya presidential palace since the creation of the modern Turkish state.

The headscarf, an obligatory code of dress in Islam, is banned in government offices and universities.

Secularists see it as a threat to the ideology of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who threw religion out of public life as he rebuilt Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

Gul's wife, Hayrunisa Ozyurt, has commissioned an international fashion designer, who left his touches on the wardrobes of Hollywood superstars and wives of European politicians, to come up with a new style for her hijab.

Challenges

Political analysts warned that Gul would faces many daunting challenges in this new post, mainly striking a balance between the state institutions, run by AKP, and the military institution.

"Gul will not have an easy start," the popular Vatan newspaper said.

"His every step... will be under scrutiny by institutions and sections of society who are sensitive on secularism.

"Gul will need to be careful and make efforts to calm them."

Opponents fear that Gul, who has Islamic roots, would undermine the secular feature of Turkey.

The head of the powerful army, which toppled four government since 1960, warned a day earlier that "centers of evil" are seeking to systematically erode the secular system.

"The Turkish Armed Forces will not make any concessions�in its duty of guarding the Turkish Republic, a secular and social state based on the rule of law," Yasar Buyukanit said in a written message. (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - mr_

MELBOURNE, 14 Okt - Pemakaian bertudung Muslimah mungkin dilarang penggunaannya di semua lapangan terbang di bawah rancangan radikal yang sedang digubal Kerajaan Perdana Menteri John Howard, demikian menurut sumber-sumber pegawai kanan Australia, seperti dilaporkan Bernama.

Langkah berjaga-jaga yang di luar jangkaan itu akan melibat pengharaman hijab, kain yang menutup aurat kepala wanita Islam, di semua lapangan terbang di Australia sebagai tindakan mengawal keselamatan, kata akhbar The Herald Sun dalam laporannya.

Pegawai keselamatan dikatakan juga turut bimbang dengan pemakaian niqab and burqa. Niqab merupakan pakaian menutup muka kecuali dua biji mata, manakala burqa menutup kesemua muka dengan menggunakan kain jaring nipis.

Pengharaman pakaian tersebut dikatakan sedang digubal di pejabat Menteri Imigresen, Kevin Andrews and pegawai-pegawai kanannya sedang meminta pandangan para pegawai keselamatan sebelum rancangan larangan itu dilaksanakan.

Perubahan dasar imigresen itu berikutan dengan langkah Kerajaan Howard melarang kemasukan mereka yang datang dari Sudan. _