Posted: 13 Apr 2014 03:20 AM PDT

JERUSALEM: Palestinians and Israeli police clashed at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday, police said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the violence erupted when police opened one of the walled compound's gates to non-Muslim visitors, according to the regular visiting hours.

"Stones and a number of Molotov cocktails were thrown at police," he told AFP.

"Police responded by using stun grenades and entered the Temple Mount area," he added, using the Jewish term for the site where tradition says the biblical Jewish temples once stood.

A later police statement said that a woman was arrested and two policemen were slightly injured.

The temple site is revered as Judaism's holiest place. The compound also houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, and is considered the third holiest site in Islam.

Although non-Muslim visitors are permitted, Jews are not allowed to pray at the site.

Rosenfeld could not say if Jews were among those seeking to visit the site on Sunday. – AFP

We encourage commenting on our stories to give readers a chance to express their opinions; please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. While the comments here reflect the views of the readers, they are not necessarily that of Borneo Post Online. Borneo Post Online reserves the right not to publish or to remove comments that are offensive or volatile. Please read the Commenting Rules.

Malaysia says no mid-flight phone call from MH370 cockpit

Posted: 13 Apr 2014 03:17 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Sunday rejected claims that phone calls were made from missing flight MH370 before it vanished, but refused to rule out any possibility in a so far fruitless investigation over the cause of the jet's disappearance.

The New Straits Times, quoting an anonymous source, had reported Saturday that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid made a call which ended abruptly, possibly "because the aircraft was fast moving away from the (telecommunications) tower".

There had also been unconfirmed reports of calls by the Malaysia Airlines plane's captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah before or during the flight.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters Sunday that authorities had no knowledge of any calls made from the jet's cockpit.

"As far as I know, no," he said when asked if any calls had been made.

However, he added that he did not want to speculate on "the realm of the police and other international agencies" investigating the case.

"I do not want to disrupt the investigations that are being done now not only by the Malaysian police but the FBI, MI6, Chinese intelligence and other intelligence agencies," he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Hishammuddin also said no passenger on the plane had been cleared in the criminal investigation into the fate of the flight, clarifying an earlier indication from Malaysia's police chief.

"The Inspector-General of Police said at that particular point in time there is nothing to find suspicion with the passenger manifesto but … unless we find more information, specifically the data in the black box, I don't think any chief of police will be in a position to say they have been cleared."

The police chief also clarified last week that passengers had not categorically been cleared as the investigation was ongoing.

Pilots under scrutiny

Pilots Fariq and Zaharie have come under intense scrutiny since the plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8, with still no clue as to the cause of the disappearance.

Investigators last month indicated that the flight was deliberately diverted and its communication systems manually switched off as it was leaving Malaysian airspace, triggering a criminal investigation by police which has revealed little so far.

A number of theories have been put forward, including hijacking, a terrorist plot or a pilot gone rogue, with authorities grasping at straws as to the fate of the plane without crucial data from the jet's "black box", which has yet to be located, and no wreckage found.

Several sonic 'pings' which authorities have said are consistent with a black box have been detected by ships in the search area in the remote southern Indian Ocean, off the west coast of Australia.

But Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre, which is leading the search for the plane, said Sunday that another 24 hours had passed without a confirmed signal, increasing fears that batteries in the beacons attached to the plane's two black boxes may now have run flat.

The last pings were detected on Tuesday.

There were 12 aircraft and 14 ships combing a 57,506 square kilometre (22,200 square mile) region of the Indian Ocean on Sunday, 2,200 kilometres northwest of Perth, including Australia's Ocean Shield which is using a US Navy towed pinger locator to pick up the hoped for black box signals. – AFP

Suicide bomber kills seven police in Iraq

Posted: 13 Apr 2014 03:15 AM PDT

IRAQ: A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a checkpoint in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing seven police, and gunmen shot dead three people, officials said.

The latest violence comes amid a protracted surge in nationwide bloodshed that has claimed more than 2,550 lives so far this year and sparked fears of Iraq slipping back into the all-out sectarian killing of 2006 and 2007.

The unrest has been driven principally by widespread anger among the Sunni Arab minority over claims of mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces, as well as by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

The suicide bombing at the police checkpoint northwest of the city of Kirkuk also wounded 11 police officers.

Anti-government militants frequently target the security forces, some of whom are poorly trained and lacking in discipline.

In a village in the Sulaiman Bek area, also north of Baghdad, gunmen attacked a police officer's house, killing his father and brother and wounding two more people.

The gunmen also shot dead a Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militiaman nearby.

Sulaiman Bek has been repeatedly attacked by militants, who have seized part or all of the area on several occasions.

Iraq's first general election since American troops left at the end of 2011 will be held on April 30, in a major test for the security forces.

While they were able to keep violence to a minimum during last year's provincial polls, the security forces have failed to halt a subsequent year-long surge in unrest.

More than 315 people have been killed since the beginning of this month, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources. – AFP

Israel police, Palestinians clash at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa

Israel police, Palestinians clash at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa