Mwenyekiti wa DP, Mchungaji Christopher Mtikila(Pichani), ambaye alichukua fomu kugombea urais wa Tanzania, ameondolewa kwenye orodha ya wagombea urais. Tume ya Taifa ya Uchaguzi (NEC) imesema kwamba Mtikila alikosa sifa. Hakupata wadhamini kutoka mikoa 10 kama sheria inavyotamka. Mtikila aliwasili ofisi za NEC saa 10 jioni, kwa mbwembwe, kabla ya kupata habari mbaya, ambazo hata hivyo, kwa kuwa hakuwa amepata wadhamamini alizitarajia. Katika picha hii, Mtikila alikuwa anahutubia 'umati' ulikusanyika kumsikiliza katika viwanja vya Jangwani, Dar es Salaam, mwaka 2005 alipogombea urais. Wagombea mwingine ambao hawakutimiza masharti ni Paul Kyara wa SAU na wa Jahazi Asilia na Demokrasia Makini. Mgombea wa Demokrasia Makini na wa NRA hawakutokea kabisa kurejesha fomu.

Wagombea urais waliobaki hadi sasa ni Dk. Willibrod Slaa (CHADEMA); Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba (CUF); Jakaya Kikwete (CCM); Hashim Rungwe (NCCR-Mageuzi); Mutamwega Mgaywa (TLP); Sahma Dovutwa (UPDP); na Peter Kuga Mziray (APPT-Maendeleo).

The Daily Telegraph

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•COVER STORY: 'Banks add £1,700 a year to mortgages'
Homeowners are paying £1,700 more for fixed-rate mortgages as banks enjoy record profit margins. High street lenders are refusing to pass on the full benefit of historically low interest rates to customers, figures show. (Link)
•'MP banned for driving offence just days after she was elected' P.10
Yasmin Qureshi, the new MP for Bolton South East, has been banned from driving for six months following an offence committed just days after being elected. Qureshi was seen talking on her mobile phone while driving and was later found to have no car insurance.
•'US insists Iraq 'ready' as it pulls out troops' P.16
The last brigade of front line US soldiers crossed the Iraqi border into Kuwait yesterday, marking the end of American combat operations. This move comes despite increasing violence and the lack of a functioning government in the country. (Link)
•'Britain tells Libyans not to celebrate anniversary of Lockerbie bomber's return' P.16

Britain has warned the Libyan government not to celebrate publicly today's anniversary of Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi's release from prison. (Link)

• 'Floods are Pakistan's tsunami, says UN' P.17

Pakistan's floods are a 'slow-motion tsunami', UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon claims. He has urged countries to allocate more aid to Pakistan. (Link)

• 'Obama is Muslim, says quarter of US' P.18

An increasing number of Americans wrongly believe that President Obama is a Muslim, with almost 1 in 4 saying he is a follower of Islam, according to a recent poll. The results come after Obama intervened in the dispute over controversial plans to build a mosque close to Ground Zero. (Link)

• 'Woman must take off burka to give evidence, judge rules' P.18

An Australian court has ruled that a Muslim woman must remove her burka in public, for the first time in 19 years, while she gives evidence so that the jury can assess her facial expressions. (Link)




The Guardian

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•COVER STORY: 'From shock and awe to a quiet exit - US troops pull out of Iraq'

For the men and women of US combat brigades, seven years and five months of war in Iraq is now over. The overall American combat mission in the country has ended 12 days earlier than the official end of operations. (Link)


•'US officials face uphill task without troops' P.3


Thousands of American civilian officials poised to take over from the US military in Iraq next month face a daunting range of obstacles in nation-building that include reduced security, cutbacks in their budget and the continued failure of the Iraqis to form a government. (Link)


•'Do not celebrate anniversary of Megrahi's release, UK warns Libya' P.17


Britain has warned Libya not to hold celebrations to mark today's first anniversary of the return home of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, amid suggestions from Tripoli that he could live for up to seven more years. al-Megrahi, the only person convicted over the 1988 atrocity in which 270 people died, was released from his Scottish prison on 20 August last year after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. (Link)



•'Lawyer wants new inquiry into 1988 blast' P.17


A senior human rights lawyer has called for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing as controversy intensifies over the convicted bomber's early release on medical grounds. Professor Alan Miller, head of the Scottish human rights commission, said there were still significant doubts about the guilt of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi after an independent investigation uncovered new evidence that undermined the conviction. (Link)


•'Saudi judge asks doctors if they could paralyse man as punishment' P.19


A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals whether they would be willing to damage a man's spinal cord as punishment, after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralysing him, local newspapers reported yesterday. (Link)





•'UN Chief: Pakistan flood like a slow-moving tsunami' P.22


The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has appealed for swifter aid to provide immediate relief in food, shelter and clean water for the millions affected by the worst monsoon rains on record. (Link)




•'Obama is a Muslim, say one fifth of Americans' P.22


One in five Americans believe Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim and nearly half question his claim to be a Christian, according to a new opinion poll. (Link)



•'Judge orders witness to remove niqab in court' P.22


A Muslim witness in an Australian fraud trial must remove her full veil while giving evidence, a judge has ruled. Western Australia district court judge Shauna Deane said it would be inappropriate for the woman to testify with her face covered by the niqab but did not specify what she could wear. (Link)



The Times

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•COVER STORY: 'Universities swamped in mad dash for places'




A desperate scramble for university places was under way last night as an unprecedented number of A-level students competed to snap up a rapidly diminishing number of vacancies.

•'Still no explanation of the events surrounding al-Megrahi’s release' P.14
Critics say the freeing of the Libyan had less to do with compassion than the threat of a successful - and embarrassing - appeal.
•'Oil company gives up hope of a lucrative drilling deal in Libya' P.15
One of Britain’s biggest oil companies is ready to pull out of Libya. BG Group, Britain’s third largest oil company after BP and Royal Dutch Shell, told The Times that it was seeking to leave Libya after a botched five-year drilling campaign failed to discover a single barrel of oil.

•'Ground Zero Islamic centre site chosen by teenage TV star' P.32



The row over the proposed Islamic centre near Ground Zero took a bizarre twist yesterday when it emerged that the site was originally picked by teenager, Francisco Patino, who got the job because he appeared on a reality TV show, American Inventor with his quirky design for a bicycle.






•'Quarter of Americans think Obama is Muslim' P.33


The White House went out of its way yesterday to remind Americans that their President is a Christian who prays every day. A spokesman felt compelled to make the announcement after polls found that almost a quarter of Americans thought President Obama was a Muslim.




•'Provide more aid or militants will fill the vacuum, warns Pakistan' P.35



Hillary Clinton pledged a further $60 million in emergency aid for flood victims in Pakistan yesterday and called on other countries to do the same as Islamabad warned of the dire consequences of the disaster for its battle against extremism.



•'Seven dead as Uighur on a tricycle throws bomb into crowd' P.36



A man from China’s Muslim ethnic Uighur minority hurled an explosive device into a crowd, including a team of security officers, yesterday, killing seven people and wounding 14 in the country’s restive far West.
A spokeswoman for the Xinjiang regional government, declined to comment on whether the attack was an act of terrorism – possibly motivated by tension between the Uighurs and ethnic Han Chinese.



•'Restorative justice' P.36



A Saudi Arabian judge has asked several hospitals if they would operate to damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of paralysing another man in an axe attack. One hospital is known to have refused.


•'Cartoon controversy' P.36



A Dutch Muslim group was fined 2,500 euros for publishing a cartoon suggesting the Holocaust was made up by Jews. An appeal court called the cartoon 'unnecessarily hurtful'.


•OBITUARIES: 'Ghazi al-Gosaibi' P.65


Ghazi al-Gosaibi was a leading, and sometimes controversial, Saudi politician and diplomat over the course of four decades.
A technocrat, he consistently argued the case for political and economic reform, albeit in a gradual fashion suited to Saudi Arabia.





The Independent


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•COVER STORY: 'Goodbye to Iraq'

Robert Fisk discusses the mark America has left on Iraq, including the torture of prisoners, corruption and civil war after seven-and-a-half years of war. (Link)


•'At night and in secret, the last US combat troops depart' P.4


American troops officially left Iraq yesterday, two weeks ahead of schedule and without any grand farewell. The timing was kept confidential in an attempt to avoid insurgent attacks on the vulnerable departing column. (Link)


•'UK doubles Pakistan aid to £60m' P.14




Britain is to more than double the amount of aid it is giving to Pakistan to cope with the devastation wreaked by the recent flooding, the International Development Secretary told the United Nations last night. (Link)





•'Britain's most influential Muslim - and it was all down to a peach' P.16

Timothy Winter or Sheikh Abdul-Hakim Murad as he is known by his colleagues, is considered more significant within Islam than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In this feature, he tells The Independent about his process of conversion and departure from the material world. (Link)


•'Israel and Palestinians poised for direct talks' P.24

The first direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for more than 18 months were in prospect last night after successful diplomatic efforts to find a formula designed to allow the talks to start.(Link)


•'One in five Americans believes Obama is a Muslim, says poll' P.28


Nearly one-fifth of Americans believe Barack Obama is Muslim, according to a poll conducted even before the President waded into a row over the building of a faith centre and mosque near Ground Zero in New York. (Link)


•'Saudi Arabia: Judge asks hospitals to paralyse criminal' P.30


A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver; leaving the victim paralysed. (Link)




Al Jazeera


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•COVER STORY: 'UN appeals for more Pakistan aid'

The United Nations has issued an urgent appeal asking donors to 'open their wallets' for more aid to help rebuild Pakistan, which has been devastated by the worst flooding in the country's history. The US has called the disaster bigger than the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistani earthquake and this year's Haiti earthquake - but it has attracted far less in donations. (Link)


•'Last US combat brigade leaves Iraq'

The last US combat brigade has withdrawn from Iraq, more than seven years after the US-led coalition invaded the country in a war that has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 US troops. (Link)


•'Germany drops Kunduz raid probe'


Germany's military has said it will not pursue disciplinary action against a German commander who called in an air raid that killed dozens of civilians in northern Afghanistan last year. A preliminary investigation found no evidence that a breach of discipline had taken place following the order by Colonel George Klein for US aircraft to bomb two fuel tankers stolen by the Taliban near the city of Kunduz. (Link)


•'Al-Qaeda 'claims' Baghdad attack'


An al-Qaeda affiliated group, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), has apparently claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Baghdad earlier this week - the deadliest attack in Iraq this year. (Link)


•'Kyrgyzstan forces 'aided' violence'


Kyrgyzstan's armed forces may have actively taken part in violence by ethnic Kyrgyz mobs against the minority ethnic Uzbek community which killed at least 370 people two months ago, a New York-based rights group has said. Many witnesses reported seeing individuals in camouflage attacking ethnic Uzbeks and using armoured military vehicles to remove improvised roadblocks barring entry into Uzbek neighbourhoods, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Monday. (Link)


•'Caracas to continue Iran gas export'

Venezuela will continue to supply Iran with gasoline despite the threat of international sanctions. David Velasquez, Venezuela's ambassador to Tehran, said on Thursday that his government would not be 'bullied' into halting gasoline shipments. (Link)



•'Many Americans say Obama is Muslim'


One-fifth of Americans have said they believe Barack Obama, the US president, is a Muslim, according to a new opinion poll. Time poll, published on Thursday, also suggested that almost a third of Americans said Muslims should be barred from running for president or serving on the US Supreme Court. (Link)





The Daily Mail


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•LEAD STORY: 'We won! And we brought democracy, U.S. soldier hollers as the last combat troops quit Iraq after 7 years' P.2

US fighting forces finally left Iraq yesterday, 7 years after invading the country in 2003. (Link)


•'Weapons expert was allowed to see secrets far outside his brief' P.4



A Ministry of Defence clearance form has revealed that David Kelly had permission to access all relevant intelligence documents of British or American origin marked ''Top Secret.'





•'Lockerbie bomber may live until 2017' P.19



A year after being released from A Scottish prison, medical sources in Tripoli have revealed that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi may live for another seven years.(Link)



•'Taliban hire sniper to hit troops at 600 yards' P.20



The Taliban have hired a mercenary sniper to kill British soldiers, it was revealed yesterday. The sniper has been blamed for the recent death of Darren Foster, a British soldier in Afghanistan. (Link)





•'One in four Americans think Obama is Muslim' P.19



Nearly one in four Americans are convinced that Barack Obama is a Muslim according to a poll, despite the fact that he is a Christian. (Link)








The Evening Standard (19th)

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•COVER STORY: '40 seconds from disaster on tube'

Tube passengers were 40 seconds from a major disaster when a runaway trained careered down a line. (Link)


•'A farewell to arms...last US combat troops roll out of Iraq' P.24


The Evening Standard profiles a a staff sergeant who entered Iraq when he was 18 and left when he was 25, proud that he had survived the violence that took place during those seven-and-a-half years. (Link)


•'US raises Pakistan flood aid to $150m' P.24


The US is raising its aid to flood victims in Pakistan to $150 million, an increase of $60 million. (Link)


•'Take off burka, says Australian court' P.24


A Muslim witness was today ordered to remove her burka while giving evidence in an Australian fraud trial. (Link)



The Metro

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•LEAD STORY: 'Cheers as combat troops leave Iraq' P.14



Soldiers in the last US combat brigade to leave Iraq cheered as they left Iraq for the first time since invading in 2003.




•'Crowds mourn 3 fallen sappers' P.14

Hundreds of mourners paid a silent tribute yesterday to two soldiers whose bodies returned from Afghanistan. Darren Foster and Ishwor Gurung are the most recent British fatalities in Afghanistan.


•'Aid doubled as terror fears rise' P.15



Britain is to double its aid for flood ravaged Pakistan, it was announced last night. Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary told the United Nations general assembly in New York that the international community should have done more to help the situation.



•'Muslim witness told to remove her niqab' P.16



A Muslim woman in Australia has been told she must remove her niqab when giving evidence in court. A judge ruled that covering her face would affect the jury's ability to judge her.





The Sun

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•LEAD STORY: 'Uproar at Lockerbie party plan' P.2 and P.8



Plans for a day of celebrations to mark the anniversary of Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi's release have sparked fury in Britain, as the Foreign Office branded them 'tasteless and offensive,' Page 8 features a comment piece by Lorraine Kelly on the issue. (Link)



•'US men quit Iraq' P.4


The last US combat troops left Iraq yesterday, just two days after a suicide bomber killed 59 people in Baghdad.

•'Disney in Muslim worker's hijab row' P.9


A Muslim woman, Imane Boudlal, claims she was banned from wearing a hijab at the Disney restaurant where she works because the headscarf did not fit the company's image.