It will provide hope – and maybe a small income – in a part of the world where both are in short supply. The greening of rooftops in the filth and decay of this Arab mega city is a story being repeated again and again throughout the Arab world.
It is a powerful metaphor for the work of a religious and marketing phenomenon called Amr Khaled, who is trying to pump oxygen into the arid lives of Muslim youth. Amr (rhymes with “charmer”) Khaled is the Arab world’s first Islamic tele-evangelist, a digital age Billy Graham who has fashioned himself into the anti-Bin Laden, using the barrier-breaking power of satellite TV and the internet to turn around a generation of lost Muslim youth.”When you look at the reach of what he is doing and when you look at the millions he is touching, I don’t know another single individual in the region who is having the impact that Amr Khaled is having,” says the American Rick Little, an adviser on youth issues to the UN who has worked with Khaled on job creation schemes in the Middle East.Khaled, 38, defies the stereotype of the Islamic preacher. In a tiny house on the West Bank a young Palestinian woman is jogging the length of her hallway and back Again and again The pain becomes unbearable But she keeps going Eventually she completes two thousand laps Why? Because Amr said so. A roadside bomb in Baqouba killed a woman, the Diyala police said.In Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, gunmen fired on a police patrol, killing one policeman, Hadi al-Itabi of the Kut morgue said. Gunmen in Ramadi killed a professor at Anbar University, Mohammed Al-Ani from the Ramadi hospital said.Roadblocks went up across Baghdad as police searched for the sister of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, who was kidnapped yesterday.

Gunmen killed one of her bodyguards and seriously wounded another in the abduction.A description of the suspects’ car had been distributed to all checkpoints, said Lt Thair Mahmoud.. Firras Giti.Another car bomb in northern Baghdad killed three civilians and a policeman, and wounded 13, said Maj. Mosa Abdelkareem.A roadside bomb targeting a US patrol in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, hit a civilian car instead, killing three passengers, said police Col. Polla Mohammed.In the capital, gunmen in separate incidents killed a former army captain and fired on the car of an oil ministry employee, killing the man and his son, police said.Gunmen in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, attacked the political offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, killing a civilian, Dr Bahaldin al-Bakri said. The drivers began transporting fuel again this week after being promised increased security.In other violence today, a car bomb exploded near an outdoor market in Baghdad’s southern Dora district, killing seven people and wounding 15, police said.The bomb, which damaged several shops and nearby vehicles, targeted a police patrol near the market at the time, said police Capt. Three Iraqi army vehicles, which had been guarding the convoy, were also destroyed in the attack about 25 miles north of Baghdad, police said.Tanker truck drivers stopped transporting petrol from Iraq’s largest refinery in Beiji on December 18 because of security concerns. The cemetery was strewn with body parts and the tombstones were stained with blood.At least 32 people were killed and 42 injured, said Dr.

Firas al-Nida of the Muqdadiyah hospital.Al-Bakka had survived an assassination attempt Tuesday that killed his nephew.Al-Bakka is the head of the local Dawa party, led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and a main partner in the country’s largest Shiite political coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance.Shiites have been targeted by extremist Sunni groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.A senior official in the Dawa party said such attacks are meant to exert pressure on the United Iraqi Alliance to accept a less optimal compromise in the formation of the government.”We expect attacks to increase before the formation of the government,” Ali al-Adib said.Insurgents attacked a convoy of 60 tanker trucks with rocket propelled grenades and machine guns, destroying three of the tankers and damaging 15 others, said police Lt Abdul Zahra Qassim. But every once in a while something comes along to open the system to what it hates most: daylight. The case of Jack Abramoff, influence-peddler extraordinaire, is one of those somethings.. A suicide bomber killed 32 mourners and injured dozens at a funeral for the nephew of a Shiite politician, one of several attacks today across Iraq that killed a total of 53 people – making it the deadliest day since the December 15 elections.

The increased violence came as Iraq’s three major political parties were close to forming a coalition government that would include Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, according to a Shiite politician.
Iraq’s election commission also planned to release the results of its investigation into almost 2,000 complaints stemming from last month’s parliamentary elections, commission member Safwat Rashid said.More than 100 mourners were standing in a cemetery in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, for the burial of a nephew of Ahmed al-Bakka when the bomber struck, the Diyala provincial police said. In 2004, the mine reported an injury rate three times that at similar sized operations, according to records held by the US Mine Safety and Health Administration.. Lobbying is Washington’s grubby secret Some say lobbying is part of the democratic process Others claim it is legalised bribery, even corruption But love it or loathe it, it is the way Washington works. Usually you hear little about the quiet meetings, the lavish lunches and junkets that lubricate American politics. “So we’re just trusting that their training and their mining instincts have kicked in immediately and they’ve taken every step possible to put themselves out of harm’s way.” While the cause of Monday morning’s explosion remains unclear, officials said the Sago mine has had a history of roof collapses and serious safety violations ­ mostly prior to the International Coal Company’s purchase of the operation last November. Relatives said they had been told that a second hole had showed the existence of cleaner air ­ something that had given them fresh hope.