More then 20 people were killed when a bomb went off inside a police station in Ingushetia, Southern Russia. The suicide attack happened in Nazran, the largest city in the largest city in Ingushetia injuring more then 60 people. Among the injured are 11 children who are still in the hospital recovering from injuries. The explosion happened at the time of a shift change and many police personal were present in the building compound. A suicide bomber drove a small Russian made truck loaded with explosives into the police station building.

This region has seen many bomb attacks and shooting in recent times and most have been targeted on police and government officials. In June the motorcade of Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was attacked by a suicide bomber. He is still recovering from injuries and has not yet returned to his office.

The Monday suicide attack can be rated as the deadliest in the recent months. Apart from the police station, surrounding buildings, houses and cars parked on the street have been damaged too. As the police men had lined in for an inspection during the shift change, the suicide bomber drove the truck into the police station gate. Officials have estimated that the truck was loaded with 20 kg of TNT explosive and the bomb explosion has been described of high intensity.

The City of Herat in Western Afghanistan was rocked by bomb attack killing 12 people and injuring at least 20 as the attackers had tried to target a police convoy. The attacked killed and wounded both civilians and the regulars of Afghan Police. These attacks have increased in recent days as the country gets ready for its Presidential elections, scheduled for August 20.

Western Afghanistan has not been in news for such attacks for a long time as the concentration of such attacks have been in Taliban strong hold in South and East part of the country. Police officials confirmed that the bomb used in the Herat attack was remotely detonated using a remote control and was place in a rubbish bin on the roadside.

As per latest confirmed reports, two police men lost there lives along with a women and a child. Also injured in the bomb blast is the District Police Chief. The Bomb Blast was targeted on the governor of a district of Herat province who was believed to be a part of the convoy.

Herat is the Afghan gateway to Iran and a city is of great importance to the country as it generates revenue for the government in the form of customs.

Mohammed Yusuf, 39 leader of the Boko Haram the Nigerian version of Taliban has died in police custody; human right campaigners have called the killing unlawful. Boko Haram has been blamed for the unrest in north eastern Nigeria which has resulted in hundreds of people dead. The group like Taliban is against western education and wants to convert Nigeria into an Islamic state and also wants to implement a strict version of Islamic Sharia Law.

Mohammed Yusuf was killed in a shootout by the security forces when he tried to escape. This was confirmed to the Nigerian Television by Moses Anegbode, regional Asst. Inspector-General of Police.

This mass unrest in North Eastern Nigeria started on Sunday in Bauchi and then spread to the other towns. There have been several gun battles since Sunday between the Islamic militants and Government lead security forces. Hundreds of militants have tried to attack government and police buildings and have more then 300 people dead, but some estimate that the death toll could have even exceeded 600. Nigeria has a population of 150 million which is equally split with Muslims dominating the North and Christians dominating the South.

The president of the Civil Rights Congress, Shehu Sani stated that the recent outbreak of violence in North Nigeria on Tuesday has taken the death toll to more than 400 with panicked people taking shelter in hospitals, police and military barracks. Officials have stated that the gory violence that persisted on Tuesday in Maiduguri has the radical Islamic groups going loggerheads against the government police and troops located in the north-central part of the nation.

A police representative stated that after the Islamic rebels launched attacks on Government institutions on Sunday, police personnel and troops have been moved to the militant dugouts. The ensuing gun battle took the lives of 41 individuals. To get matters under control, there have been 176 arrests in Bauchi.

The Islamic rebels, who have also launched attacks on government institutions and Islamic clergy in the neighbouring Yobe and Borno states, are opposed to the manner in which the government has undertaken the teaching of Islam which they believe has borne influence from Western culture.

The police commissioner of Yobe, Alhaji Muhammed Abbas stated that twenty-three fundamentalists believed to be involved in the bomb attack on a police station located in Potiskum that killed two and hurt seven have been detained.

While the police spokesperson in Borno, Isa Azare stated that the Islamic radicals launched an unexpected attack on the police due to which they were able to take the lives of two policemen in the headquarters during late Monday.

The Islamic rebels armed with guns, bows-arrows, knives went on a killing spree, with the terrorised inhabitants in all the three affected states preferring to stay indoors and closing down all shops and business establishments.

On Monday, a mayhem erupted in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly when the opposition PDP  party’s legislators marched close to the speaker’s dais while being quite vocal against the government regarding the Shopian murder case.

The chaos commenced soon after the House gathered on Monday morning on the first day of the budget session, when Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan, a National Conference member was attempting to garner the Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone’s attention on a crucial matter that was resisted by the PDP members.

Headed by Mehbooba Mufti, the twenty one members of the PDP shouted slogans about bringing to book the perpetrators in the Shopian murder case and reiterated that this was more important than anything else.

While Mehbooba attempted to grab the Speaker’s mike, Lone instructed the removal of the stirred up PDP members when his continued requests went unheard and as a means to bring matters under control. The PDP members did not pay heed to their requests and had to be forcefully taken out of the assembly.

Mehbooba Mufti later justified her actions stating that the Speaker was wrong in using unparliamentary language and his behaviour was extremely disagreeable. The PDP members were later seen holding protests outside the assembly in regards to this matter.

Afgan city Khost came under attack from Taliban fighters as thy attacked the police chief’s office. Many people heard sounds of explosions and gunfire in the main city complex with houses the main police station, attorney general’s office, courts and a local bank branch. Suicide bombers tried to enter the main police station. There is a fierce gun battle taking place and casualties are expected on both the sides. Police and army have taken position on the main roads of the city and as of now the city is empty. The Taliban fighters are armed with rockets and AK-47’s. The fighters have taken up position in the building and they are surrounded from all sides.

This is not the first time when Khost has come under attack from Taliban fighters. Earlier in May Taliban fighters had launched attacks on government buildings and killed seven people.

This region of Afghanistan has faced regular Taliban attacks. Gardez just 50 miles from Khost was attacked by Taliban fighters killing four security personal. In Gardez too the targets of attack were government buildings including police chief’s office, a police station, the intelligence directorate and the governor’s compound. In another attack in the city of Jalalabad a security personel was killed.

Following the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran discharged his senior most vice-president Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie. This decision was taken as Mr Mashaie had angered hardliners and Islamic clerics when he said that Iranians and Israelis were friends. There was week long standoff between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad as the president tried to defend his subordinate. In a note Khamenei expressed his discontent wit the vice-president saying that the appointment of Mr Mashaie was against government interests.

It all started a year ago when Mr Mashaie was the tourism minister. He had quoted that Iranians were friends with the Israeli people, in spite of the conflict between the governments of the two countries.

There were mass protests by hardline students in the Iranian capital demanding the dismissal of the Mr Mashaie. They came out in support of the supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The students also gave a strong warning of support withdrawal if the president did not dismiss Mr Mashaie. Protesting against the vice president they chanted in support of the supreme leader.

This is a clear sign that Ayatollah Khamenei is the supreme leader and he is the one who has the final say in all state matters. Post Islamic revolution the parliament has lost all its powers and the final authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran is still Ayatollah Khamenei.

The UN Refugee Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie paid a visit to a camp close to Baghdad to meet up with several immigrant families expatriated due to violence in Iraq in an effort to draw awareness to the sad state of affairs of the displaced individuals within Iraq.

During her one day trip, she had a convivial visit with nine member family talking in detail about proper accommodation, medical facilities and schooling for kids. After gauging matters in the camp, Jolie affirmed that despite the bleak situation in the camp there were some cases of individuals who were able to go back home to other secure places.

Jolie had bought along her 7-yr old adopted son, Maddox along with her on the visit to the war-torn country, expressing her wish to be back another time. She further stated that when she came back the next time she desired to find the people in improved situation, hoping that the UNHCR and the government would assist them in procuring a part of land. She mentioned to a family that they were helped not because they were underprivileged but because they were the future of Iraq.

Private buss operators and taxi operators have brought the bustling city of Kolkata to a halt. The third most populated city has been hit by a strike, with schools and universities postponing the exams. Most of the schools have declared holiday. This strike is due to a government ruling to implement a ban on all commercial vehicles which are 15 years plus. This is to cut down the pollution in the city. The ban will come to effect on 1st August 2009. More that 60,000 cabs and 10,000 busses are part of the strike and this has made a major impact on daily commuters in the city.

In a recent study it has been found that out of the 18 million residents of Kolkata, 70% suffer from respiratory problems. There has also been a sharp increase in lung cancer cases in the city. This ban by the Kolkata high court is to cut down the pollution in the city.

The operators are ready to work with the government and are ready to move to green fuels or even going for new vehicles. But need the government to support them with soft loans with easy repayment schemes. They also need some time before they can make the switch.

Japan’s not-so-favoured Prime Minister Taro Aso after getting official cabinet support, dissolved parliament on Tuesday morning, summoning for a national election to be held on August 30. This move brings to a closure his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rein that spanned more than five decades of stable rule.

The beleaguered Aso has been heavily trailing behind in opinion surveys and had to strive towards subduing internal party rebellion. He had proffered atypical apology to his party members for the government’s slumped support.

A string of routs this month in Tokyo’s municipal assembly polls on 12th July, has provoked the mutineer members in the LDP to try to topple Aso out of power, so a new, more promising leader could brace the election. Many analysts have forecasted the hitherto untried, main opposition, Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to be triumphant in the upcoming general election.

With Japan plunged in profound slump, reporters have observed that Aso has in many occasions appeared irresolute. Just the previous week, Mr. Aso narrowly scraped through a no-confidence motion created by the DPJ in the lower house. Nonetheless, the DPJ stronghold, the upper house too passed an analogous motion.

The poll surveys put out on Monday by the Asahi and Mainichi newspaper revealed a bleak picture for Mr. Aso with a continued dip in popularity in comparison to the previous month’s poll surveys.

The recent surveys has brought to light the emerging DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama , who is inching forward in popularity. The DPJ agenda include better autonomy from the US, more involvement in peace keeping assignments and a less significant role for government.