Bin Laden is key to defeating al-Qaeda: McChrystal

WASHINGTON:   The general in charge of the war in Afghanistan says capturing Osama bin Laden is the ultimate key to defeating the al-Qaida terror network.

General Stanley McChrystal told Congress on Tuesday that bin Laden is an "iconic figure" whose very survival eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks serves as a recruiting tool for al-Qaida. U.S. intelligence officials believe bin Laden is in hiding in Pakistan, along that country's rugged border with Afghanistan.

McChrystal says finding bin Laden isn't the key to winning the war in Afghanistan. But he says he does not think that the United States will defeat the terror network outright until bin Laden is found and brought to justice.

Sarkozy warns against religious "provocation"

PARIS:  President Nicolas Sarkozy warned French believers to refrain from religious "ostentation and provocation" on Tuesday after the Swiss vote to ban minarets stoked debate about Islam in France.

The president made the statement in an opinion piece in Le Monde daily, wading into an increasingly tense debate over national identity that has zeroed in on immigration fears in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim minority.

"Christians, Jews, Muslims, all believers regardless of their faith, must refrain from ostentation and provocation and ... practice their religion in humble discretion," wrote Sarkozy.

"Anything that could appear as a challenge" to France's Christian roots and republican values would lead to "failure" in efforts to promote a form of moderate Islam in France, he warned.

With Islam now the nation's second faith, France has sought to reaffirm its staunchly secular tradition which sees religion as a strictly private affair while seeking to avoid a clash of civilizations within its borders.

Islam allows mixing of the sexes: Saudi scholar

JEDDAH:   Mixing of the sexes is permissable in Islam and is a natural part of life, the president of the Mecca branch of the religious police told a Saudi paper, adding he did not understand why there was so much outrage when the co-ed university, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), was opened.

Those who oppose mixing of the sexes are contradicting themselves as they most likely mix with the opposite sex on a daily basis, such as having female servants, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Qassim Al-Ghamdi, the head of Mecca's Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice committee, told Saudi's Okaz newspaper.

Al-Ghamdi added that it is only a minority of scholars that ban mixing of the sexes and said these scholars had no strong evidence to support their claims and were leading today's Muslims astray from the Muslims during the time of the Prophet Muhammad.

The sheikh went on to say that mixing of the sexes was never prohibited during the Prophet's times and was a natural part of life of the Sahaba's, or Prophet's companions.

Al-Ghamdi also argued that the term "mixing" could not be found in Shariah, or Islamic law, and said Shariah says nothing about banning non-married men and women from working, studying and socializing with each other.

"Islamic law says nothing about mixing unlike the numerous laws on things such as divorce, trading and war. Mixing of the sexes does not have official laws or concepts."

Al-Ghamdi said the term mixing was coined simply because some scholars have exaggerated the so-called taboo of mixing of the sexes despite the fact that it is natural.

"It is dangerous when the term mixing is being connected with the science of Islamic law this affects the heritage of islamic law negatively because have given a fake idea merit," which al-Ghamdi said leads to chaos.

There is usually strict segregation between men and women in Saudi circles and the sexes do not mix in schools, universities, officies and even restaurants and malls have female only areas.

Saudi shocked at Iran claims about nuke scientist

DUBAI:  Saudi Arabia slammed Tehran's allegations that it had handed over Iranian nuclear scientist, Shahram Amiri, to the United States after he disappeared in the kingdom in May, a London-based Saudi newspaper reported Wednesday.

Amiri reportedly disappeared from the holy city of Medina, just three days after landing in Saudi Arabia to perform Umra, or lesser pilgrimage.

"Saudi Arabia receives over a million Iranian pilgrims every year and like all pilgrims, they are usually under the supervision of their country's official mission with regards to their housing and transportation," Asharq Alawsat quoted Saudi Foreign Ministry official, Osama Neqaly, as saying.

Negaly said that the Saudi authorities had searched for Amiri, following reports of his disappearance in Medina, but he is yet to be found.

"Results of the search have been reported to the Iranian mission and the their embassy, but we have not received an official response from Tehran until now," Neqaly said.

The U.S. State Department Tuesday declined to comment on Iranian claims that Washington abducted Amiri while he was in Saudi Arabia.

"We are aware of the Iranian claims," said department spokesman Philip Crowley. "I have no information on that."

"I'm not going to say anything else," he insisted, as reporters pressed him on the matter at a press briefing.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki earlier accused Washington of kidnapping Amiri.

"Based on existing pieces of evidence that we have at our disposal, the Americans had a role in Mr. Amiri's abduction," he said at a press conference in Farsi, which was translated into English by Press TV.

Earlier Tuesday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast acknowledged for the first time that Amiri is a nuclear scientist, something which Iranian officials have previously declined to confirm.