A gunman opened fire on a group of foreign tourists in the Jordanian capital Amman today, killing a British man and wounding six. The attack happened near the Roman amphitheater in the downtown area of the capital.
The gunman, a Jordanian, was arrested by Jordanian police and is being questioned.
One British citizen has died as a result of his injuries and the others - three Britons, a Dutch national, a New Zealander and their Jordanian tour guide - are receiving treatment.

Egyptian Noble Literature prize winner Najib Mahfouz has died today at the age of 94 in Cairo, after suffering from ulcer bleeding.
Mahfouz will always be alive in our hearts & minds with his unforgettable writings & novels.
Najib Mahfouz was born in Gamaliya, Cairo & that provided the backdrop for his writings.
Before turning to the novel, Mahfouz wrote articles and short stories.
Some of his most famous writings are The Madaq Alley -Zuqaq Al Madaq- & The Cairo Trilogy -Al thulathia- : Bayn Al Qasrayn, Qasr Al Shoq & Sukkarya
He has made Arabs proud in 1988 by being the first Arab writer to be awarded a Noble prize.
May God rest his soul.

Officially, Pluto is no longer a planet, which means that our solar system is now composed of just eight planets—a fact that we have to get used to from now on. This was the decision arrived at in a meeting by the International Astronomical Union last Thursday.

Last week, International Astronomical Union, the one responsible for naming planets and other celestial bodies, recommended that in order for a celestial body to be considered a planet, it must be round and should orbit the sun. Astronomers present at the meeting, however rejected such definition. After thoroughly and scientifically deliberating on the issue, the astronomers agreed to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet to put a closure to the long-time debate on what a planet is. The debate was ignited last year by the discovery of the UB313, a planet-like object.

While Lebanon was under heavy bombing last month, the FIRST Miss Arab World Contest took place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Sharm el Sheikh from July 26th to July 29th!

Participation in the first Miss Arab World was surprising with 13 girls from 9 Arab countries; some of these countries are Iraq, Jordan and Palestine!

The event took place as part of the Arab Tourism Festival which started on the 20th of July and ended yesterday. Many Arab and western singers have joined the festival as guests.

Girl's ages range from 18 to 24. The winner which has the title of Miss Arab World 2006 is Nadia Bin Fadla from Tunisia, while the first runner up is Claudia Hanna from Iraq and the second runner up is Dina Adel from Egypt.

What's worth mentioning is that Miss Iraq and first runner up Claudia Hanna can't go back to Iraq after because she has gotten threatened to be killed if she comes back to Iraq that's why she will stay in England and work as a model in the Fashion industry to make her living.

Photos of the contestants

During the urgent meeting of the Arab foreign ministers today in Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Al Siniora got very emotional as he spoke about the suffering of the Lebanese people during 27 days of attacks & as he plead for a truce & a solution to the crises in Lebanon.
Arab foreign ministers have showed complete support to Lebanon & to the seven-point peace plan endorsed by Al Siniora & his cabinet that he presented in Rome, to solve the crises.
The seven-point plan is mainly to reach a ceasefire & demand an exchange of prisoners between Lebanon and Israel.
Al Siniora has also gained complete backing from the Arab League for his efforts to amend the US - French draft resolution. Arab foreign ministers decided to send a delegation to the United Nations to represent Lebanon's interests at the Security Council.

After Sabra & Chatila in 82, and Qana massacre in 96, over 55 innocent Lebanese civilians were killed last night in a new massacre as a result of the savage Israeli attacks which destroyed a three-storey building, which was sheltering several families most of them children, in the southern Lebanese town of Qana. Some of these families had fled the Israeli bombardment of the Lebanese coastal town of Tyre.

At least 30 children are believed to be among those killed in this new Israeli massacre and 3 people only were pulled alive by aid workers from the Lebanese Red Cross …

Israel's slaughtering of civilians during the terrible 19-day offensive has been so careless, so ferocious, that not a decent human in the world should stand still or silent. No decent human should forget this or forgive this.

The Sabra & Chatila massacre of Palestinians by Israel's militia allies in 1982 doomed Israel's 1982 invasion. Now the Israelis are stained again for the second time by the new bloodbath at Qana.

Israel is raising hate among every single house in the Arab world against them, and surely beyond the Arab world.

Ironically, Prime Minister Ihud Ulmert has said that Israel isn’t in a hurry for a seize fire & would continue the bombardments!

Yesterday, Israel didn't stop at bombing the small Lebanese villages full of innocent civilians on the Israeli-Lebanese border, but they also bombed one of the UN border outposts killing 4 UN observers.
UN officials commented on that by saying; a bomb dropped by an Israel warplane scored a direct hit on the post in the town of Khiam, near the eastern sector of the border.
According to a UN officer, the UN observers called an Israeli military liaison about 10 times in the six hours before they died to warn that the aerial attacks were getting close to their position!

Lebanon has been under Israeli fire for two days now. Beirut International Airport has been closed down after it got heavily bombed by Israeli war planes and the south of Lebanon is still under attack. On the other hand the Lebanese independent Islamic union (hizb allah) is firing back at Israel. It is worth mentioning that it all started after hizb allah abducted 2 Israeli soldiers in order to negotiate with the Israeli government about exchanging Lebanese & Palestinian prisoners. Around 71 Lebanese civilians have been killed and hundreds injured so far.

By Guest Writer Grace

It has just been reported that Al Qaida militant Abu Musab Al Zarqawi has been killed in a US air strike on his safe house in Iraq.
Iraq's prime misiter announced today that Al Zarqawi, who has been linked to suicide bombings, kidnapping & hostage beheading in Iraq has been killed in a US air raid north of Baghdad.
Al Zarqawi has also been responsible for the Amman explosions last November.
News agencies around the world are waiting for more details about the US raid & also for pictures that will be releases later in the day.

The latest on the mystery of the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the former Union Leader & Teamsters president, is the knock down of a 100-foot-long barn on a Milford Township horse farm in western Oakland County & the excavating of its concrete floor.
This has come because of a tip from a federal inmate, Donovan Wells, who lived on the farm in the 70's.Wells claims to have seen two strange men dig a large hole on the property with a backhoe, while what appeared to be a rolled-up carpet lay nearby. This happened the day after Hoffa disappeared, July 30, 1975.

Asala's uptight personality has defiantly loosened up on Chako Mako show, which is hosted by Nishan on New tv. Asala appeared on the show which interrogates celebrities, and asks about personal matters. It wasn’t until her new husband Tarek Al-Arain, who also was a guest, was leaving that the big shocker happened. A sudden and quick good bye kiss initiated by Asala! Well, it is alight since they are married but still kids could’ve been watching, and it was on TV! Personally I actually think it is courageous of her to do that! What do u guys think of this?

By guest writer Mimi

After spending 7 days underwater in a special designed aquarium, David Blaine failed to achieve his challenge to set a new world record by holding his breath underwater more than eight minutes 58 seconds. He was able to hold his breath underwater for only 7 minutes and 8 seconds and he couldn’t even succeed in freeing himself from the chains and handcuffs; divers jumped in to freed him.

David Blaine’s liver and skin are damaged, he is suffering from loss of sensation throughout his body and he got rashes!

Do you think David’s quest was worth it?!

• Magician David Blaine 7 days Underwater

Here are some of the newly released photos from Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison that US Government has been fighting to keep it secret.

Click here to see the photos. (Warning: Graphic Photos)

It seems that after 39 days in a coma and seven operations, prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to die by the end of the day, a source at Hadassah hospital said and asked not be identified because he isn't authorised to speak to the media.

Lots of press briefing about Ariel Sharon's condition took place, wonder what will be the next briefing about?!