Titles:

World's biggest in Mecca

Israeli general praises the conduct of troops aboard the Mavi Mamara

Russians fear US is testing climate weapon

Mideast and N Africa seek fresh grain supplies

UN warns Pakistan floods could have bigger impact than world's last three natural disasters - as fears of more devastation grow

 News Details:

World's biggest in Mecca
A giant clock on a skyscraper in  Mecca began ticking on Wednesday at the start of the fasting month of Ramadan, amid hopes by Saudi Arabia it will become the Muslim world's official timekeeper. The Mecca Clock, which Riyadh says is the world's largest, has four faces measuring 43 metres in diameter. It sits 400 metres up what will be the world's second-tallest skyscraper and largest hotel, overlooking the city's Holy Grand Mosque, which Muslims around the world turn to five times a day for prayer."The Holy Mecca Clock started with the order of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud ... one minute after 12 a.m. this morning, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan," Saudi state news agency SPA said.Over 90 million pieces of coloured glass mosaic embellish the sides of the clock, which has four faces each bearing a large inscription of the name "Allah." It is visible from all corners of the city, the state news agency said. The clock tower is the landmark feature of the seven-tower King Abdulaziz Endowment hotel complex, being built by the private Saudi Binladen Group, which will have the largest floor area of any building in the world when it is complete. Local media have said the clock tower project cost $3 billion (1.9 billion pounds).The clock is positioned on a 601-metre tower, which will become the second tallest inhabited building in the world when it is completed in three months' time."Because it based in front of the holy mosque the whole Islamic world will refer to Mecca time instead of Greenwich. The Mecca clock will become a symbol to all Muslims," said Hashim Adnan, a resident of nearby Jeddah who frequently visits Mecca.

Israeli general praises the conduct of troops aboard the Mavi Mamara
The head of Israel's military has defended its troops' use of live ammunition during a deadly raid on an aid flotilla sailing to Gaza in May. But Lt Gen Gabi Ashkenazi told an Israeli inquiry they underestimated the threat and should have used more force to subdue activists before boarding. Testifying before the Turkel Commission in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Gen Ashkenazi said he took full responsibility for the army operation and was "proud" of the commandos who took part. "We should have ensured sterile conditions in order to dispatch the forces in a minimum amount of time," he said. "It would have lowered the risk to our soldiers but it would not have prevented the tension... Once the decision was made to stop the ship, the conflict was inevitable." On Monday, Mr Netanyahu insisted Israel had acted legally and that every diplomatic effort had been exerted to have the ships turn back or dock elsewhere. He also accused the Turkish government of looking to gain from the high-profile confrontation.

Russians fear US is testing climate weapon
Russia's official news agency, RIA Novosti, reported on July 29 that the high temperatures that have affected Europe and central Russia for the past month have led local experts to wonder they may be attributable to some secret weapon now being tested by the United States. Gueorgi Vasiliev, a professor in the Physics Department at Moscow's Lomonosov University, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that disasters have befallen the world ever since 1997 when, he said, the US put its HAARP radio apparatus into operation. According to RIA-Novosti, the radio transmitters in Alaska are "very powerful tool for influencing the ionosphere. Some military experts are inclined to think that it is a geophysical weapon." The report goes on to say that Professor Vasiliev also believes that the US would not have invested two decades and $250 million if its purpose is to merely study high-frequency radio waves.

Mideast and N Africa seek fresh grain supplies
Middle East and north African countries, the world's biggest cereal importers, have moved quickly to replace supplies from Russia following the country's grain export ban, and the region has so far escaped the panic of the 2007-08 food crisis.  Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan have all launched grain tenders this week to replace supplies from the Black Sea region of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. However, with stocks relatively high, officials in the region said they were not in a hurry to buy. "Egypt has in stock enough wheat to produce subsidised bread for the upcoming four months," said an official in the Egyptian trade ministry. "The policy to plan ahead to secure strategic commodities has worked." Middle East and north African countries buy almost a quarter of all the cereals traded globally. The provision of subsidised bread is a key strategy in the region for maintaining social peace.  Last year, Egypt bought 6m tonnes of wheat from Russia, a third of Moscow's overseas sales. Turkey, Syria, Iran, Libya, Israel, Jordan, Yemen and Iraq were also among the top 10 destinations for Russian wheat in the 2009-10 season.  Traders said Middle East and north African countries were now buying supplies from the European Union, particularly France, and as far afield as the US and Canada. Traders added that some countries in the region such as Egypt had told them not to offer supplies from Ukraine and Kazakhstan, even though neither country had formally banned grain exports.

UN warns Pakistan floods could have bigger impact than world's last three natural disasters - as fears of more devastation grow
The bleak warning came as Pakistan was threatened by further devastation as a key flood barrier looked set to fail. The intense flooding that began about two weeks ago has washed away roads, bridges and many communication lines, hampering rescue efforts. The UN said the final toll could exceed the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined. Deaths in each of those were much higher than the 1600 people killed so far in the floods. But the Pakistani government estimates that more than 13million people have been affected - two million more than the other disasters. The number of people affected in the three other major recent disasters is five million in the tsunami and three million in each of the earthquakes. A spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said: "It looks like the number of people affected in this crisis is higher than the Haiti earthquake, the tsunami or the Pakistan earthquake. "If the toll is as high as the one given by the government, it's higher than the three of them combined."