Israel hits back at Lebanon after rocket fire

Israel fires back with 15 rockets at Lebanese village
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LEBANON: At least 15 Israeli rockets hit the southern Lebanese village of al-Qlaileh on Friday shortly after two rockets were fired from it towards Israel, a security official said.
Residents of northern Israel said they heard explosions but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
"Debris from at least one Katyusha rocket fired from south Lebanon were found in the area of the city of Nahariya and Kibbutz Gesher Aziv," a police official told AFP.
Public radio said the Israeli armed forces responded with artillery fire against the Lebanese village from which the rockets were fired.
In Lebanon, ambulances were rushed to the village from the port city of Tyre, nine kilometres (five miles) away.
It was the first time since February that rockets had been fired from Lebanon into Israel, raising tensions along a border that remains volatile three years after a war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon.
Occasional salvoes since then have been blamed by Israeli, Lebanese and U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area largely on fringe militant groups rather than on Hezbollah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite movement which remains a powerful force in Lebanon, especially in the south.
During Israel's offensive against Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip in January, Hezbollah denied responsibility for several rockets fired from Lebanon. Security officials have said small groups active among Palestinian refugees or with links to al Qaeda were more likely to have mounted the attacks.

Is sleeping in the same bed harming your relationship? How ’bout your health?

Have you ever been rudely awakened at 3 a.m. when your bed mate takes all the covers or rolls on top of you? How about trying to fall asleep while your partner snores like an asthmatic hog? According to sleep specialist Dr. Neil Stanley, couples should sleep separately for the good of their health and their relationship.
Dr. Stanley is quick to point out that couples suffer 50% more sleep disturbances when they share a bed and that historically, people are not actually meant to sleep beside one another.
The tradition of couples sharing a bed didn’t arise until the industrial revolution, when overcrowding and lack of space made it a necessity. According to Dr. Stanley, who sleeps separately from his wife, the marital bed was intended for sex, not sleep. He suggests more people consider this arrangement.
“We all know what it’s like to have a cuddle and then say ‘I’m going to sleep now’ and go to the opposite side of the bed. So why not just toddle off down the landing?”
According to the Stanley, who created Britain’s premier sleep laboratory at the University of Surrey, poor sleep that comes of bed sharing is linked to depression, strokes, lung disorders, heart disease, car accidents and even divorce.
A study conducted by Dr. Robert Meadows, of the University of Surrey, found that when couples share a bed and one of the partners moves, there is a 50% chance that the other will be disturbed as a result.
“People actually feel that they sleep better when they are with a partner but the evidence suggests otherwise,” says Dr. Meadows.
Despite these findings, couples remain reluctant to sleep separately, with only 8% of those in their 40s and 50s sleeping in different rooms. Perhaps separate beds in the same room might be a better idea, though even that may be a foreign concept in modern relationships.
“It’s about what makes you happy,” says Dr. Stanley. “If you’ve been sleeping together and you both sleep perfectly well, then don’t change, but don’t be afraid to do something different.”

Mobile phone menace in holy place

MAKKAH: It is the bounden duty of a Muslim to respect the marks of Islam and behave without violating the solemn atmosphere of the holy places. Some people, unfortunately forget that they are in the most holy place on earth, especially when they circumambulate around the Kaaba, talking on their mobile phones, discussing mundane matters or joking and laughing at the top of their voice while most others are engrossed in prayers is pure violation of the sanctity of the holy place.
Ahmad Alya, a pilgrim, told Arab News that the workers in the Grand Mosque should make it a point to stop anyone who commits deeds that violate the sanctity and tranquility of the holy precinct. “One day I saw a man, while performing tawaf (circumambulation), talking on his mobile phone in a high voice and laughing. Such deeds should not be tolerated,” he said.
Bara Salah, another pilgrim said, “The authorities should take steps to stop anyone speaking loudly and other actions that violate the sanctity of the Grand Mosque. I heard the man close to me discussing real estate prices on a cell phone. I told him to stop it and focus on the rites so that he did not disturb other pilgrims. His response was a blank look at me as he continued to talk on the phone.”
Salah, however, was more outraged by the fact that another man was talking on his cell phone while standing under the shadow of the Kaaba. There he was more concerned in conveying the message to the other party on the phone that he was presently in Makkah and he would meet him personally when he returns from Makkah to Jeddah. This imparting of the message was more important to him then praying and completing his tawaf to seek forgiveness. As if the use and abuse of cell phones in the holy precincts are not enough there are people more intent in recording their tawaf rather than completing the spiritual journey. There are people going round the Kaaba with another person recording it on a video camera, and then there are instances of two men meeting at any point of circumambulation and opening up a conversation until the end of their tawaf.
Makkah chief of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, said while one has to be respectful and not raising one’s voice is a necessary part of the manners.
“A Muslim should be busy with his rituals and worships and keep away from any act that disrupts or diverts his attention,” he said, adding, “A man in his prayer should not look at his mobile to see who is calling him or his watch or do anything that diverts his attention from the act of worship. The same is the case with tawaf and saay (walking between Safa and Marwah). Uttering the name of God and supplications are the only permitted things while doing them. Talking with friends or family will only violate the veneration of the places of worship.”

US marks 8th anniversary of 9/11

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama led a moment of silence Friday to launch eighth anniversary commemorations of the September 11 attacks in 2001 when 3,000 people died in the world's deadliest terror strike.
At exactly 8:46 am (1246 GMT) when the first plane piloted by Al-Qaeda hijackers slammed into the North tower of New York's World Trade Center, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stood with heads bowed outside the White House.
On a rain-swept day so different than that crisp September morning eight years ago, ceremonies were also being held in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field where a fourth plane crashed short of its target.
The solemn ceremonies were marred by a security scare in Washington after a Coast Guard training event on the Potomac River prompted unfounded reports that a suspicious boat had been fired on.
It was the first time that Obama, who was driving to work as a state senator in Illinois when he learned of the attacks on the radio, had led the national remembrance ceremonies as president.
At New York's Ground Zero, all that is left of the two huge towers that were toppled in wave of fire and debris by fuel-laden planes, volunteers read the names of the 2,752 people killed in the strike at the heart of US might.
Obama stepped out in front of the South Portico of the White House, with First Lady Michelle Obama, who was wearing a black dress.
After three chimes played by a US Marine in ceremonial dress, the first couple bowed their heads and observed the moment of silence, joined by around 150 members of the White House staff.
Obama raised his head, and put his hand over his heart as a Marine bugler played a haunting rendition of Taps, the military lament played over soldiers' graves.
Above, the huge American flag on top of the White House hung limply at half-mast. For hours before the ceremony, rain had sluiced Washington, but moments before Obama and the First Lady appeared the rain tapered off and they were able to stand bare-headed.
As soon as they returned to the White House, the deluge resumed.
The President later headed to the Pentagon to lay a wreath and make remarks at the spot where another hijacked airliner crashed, on a day which sent shock waves around the world and left a political legacy Obama is still trying to master.
One US cable news network, MSNBC, marked the anniversary by replaying the terrifying minute-by-minute video of the first moments of the attacks when planes hit the world Trade Center.
The Pentagon memorial is the only major official monument to the victims of the September 11 attacks, with plans for similar sites in New York and Pennsylvania held up in part by financial and legal wrangling.
In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in an open field after passengers overwhelmed the hijackers, tributes begin Friday with a reading of victims' names.
Many believe the hijackers intended to crash the plane into the Congress building in Washington.
Prayer services and interfaith remembrances are scheduled throughout the day, with a candlelight "peace vigil" closing out the commemorations.
In a message carried on the front page of the New York Daily News, Obama declared "we are all New Yorkers" and that the attacks "will be forever seared in the consciousness of our nation."
The president wrote that his controversial and increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan was part of his strategy "to take the fight to the extremists who attacked us on 9/11."
Washington, he said, was committed to preventing nuclear weapons proliferation and to ensuring that all "loose nuclear weapons" be accounted for and secured within four years.

Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a OBN.

Obama meets Abu Dhabi crown prince

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed at White House, the deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates armed forces, the White House said.
The two "discussed ways to deepen the strong political, security and economic relationship" between the United States and the UAE, as well as ways to "bolster regional security, and advance Israeli-Arab peace efforts," the White House said in a statement on Thursday.
Obama and the Crown Prince also discussed civil nuclear cooperation, including the administration's support for the US-UAE Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation.

US to host UN nuke summit

WASHINGTON: The United States on Sept 24 will host a summit of UN Security Council member states on nuclear non-proliferation, the White House confirmed on Thursday.
President Barack Obama is to chair the meeting, which will be held alongside the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York.
It will be the first time a US president leads such a summit and just the fifth in UN history that such a summit is being held, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
'We did ask for it, and are heading it,' Mr Gibbs said. The summit was first announced by the US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice last month.
Ms Rice said at the time that the session would 'be focused on nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament broadly and not on any specific countries.' She said Mr Obama would preside over the special meeting a day after he is due to address the UN General Assembly session.