The city of Kabul woke up to a horrified dawn as it was hit by eight rockets on Tuesday. This is the first time in last five years that the Afghan capital was hit by so many rockets on such a short interval of time. According to the Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry spokesman, Najib Nikzad – there was not injuries or casualties in the Tuesday’s attack and the attack was to disrupt and derail the August 20 presidential elections.

The first explosion happened around 4 am. One of the rockets landed close to the U.S Embassy. The rockets were not targeted at any specific area of the capital and landed in different locations across the city.

US, NATO and Taliban forces have been fighting the Taliban insurgents who have asked to boycott the election process. For the NATO forces it has been a bad start to the month as they have already lost nine troops, not to forget July which was a record high month of casualties for the NATO forces.

Just yesterday there was a blast targeting the governor of a district of Herat province in which the District Police Chief lost his life. The blast happened in the City of Herat in Western Afghanistan killing 12 and injuring over 20 people.

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.

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.

Alberto Fujimori, the ex-President of Peru, has been sentenced to a seven and a half year prison period on charges of corruption. Peru’s Supreme Court had convicted Fujimori of handing over 9.3million pounds or 15million dollars in state funds to his chief undercover agent, Vladimiro Montesinos. The trial alleged that Fujimori illicitly funnelled vast amounts of money to Vladimiro. The 70-yr old Fujimori has acknowledged to making the payment; however he further added that he had reimbursed the money afterwards.

Fujimori whose time in power spanned a decade commencing from 1990 was cut short in the later part of 2000, when fraudulent charges surfaced. This verdict is the third in row handed down to Fujimori from the time when he came back from exile during the later part of 2007. During April last year, he was given a jail term of 25 years for instructing the security forces to undertake carnage and abductions. In addition to that in 2007, Fujimori was also serving a six year term after being found accountable on separate accusations of power misuse.

The huge dollar disbursement was apparently made two months prior to the corruption charges in the end of 2000 that put a stop to his decade old reign.

Vladimiro is presently serving term in prison found guilty of numerous charges inclusive of corruption and cheating. Vladimiro was engulfed in the scandal that got off post videos that exposed him backhanding opposition party politicians and media honchos surfaced.

Fujimori expressed his partial and relative compliance with the charges levelled against him, stating that he only acknowledged the facts, but did not accept the criminal accountability, the sentence or the civil compensation.

Deadly bomb blasts tore through the two best and the most secured hotels in Jakarta killing 9 and injuring over 40 people. The blasts occurred at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and J.W. Marriott Hotel. There are amongst the most luxurious hotels in the southern part of the city of Jakarta, Indonesia. The hotels are just 50 meters apart from each other.

The blast happened at 7:45 a.m. local time, and from the first reports they look like a coordinated blasts and were times to impact at the time of breakfast. Both the hotels are normally visited by foreign tourist, expats and business visitor’s .The blast targeted the restaurants in both the hotels. As of now the police have moved all the guests to secured locations and teams forensic experts are at the blast sites collecting all the evidence.

The blasts have blown massive holes in the hotel walls and also blew the windows of the hotels. From eyewitness reports one could see the restaurants shattered and also blood marks. It also is reported that it could a work of suicide bombers.

This is not the first time the Marriot has been targeted; in August 2003 a suicide bomber drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into the motor lobby of the hotel. That blast had killed 12 people and injured many as it happened during the lunch hour.

The blasts also put a big question mark on the security arrangements in the city of Jakarta. Its will be a huge puzzle for security experts to solve as to how some one could get through metal detectors and the security personal guarding the hotel entrances. The hotels have multiple layer of security with sniffer dogs and each guest is thoroughly check.