NEWS)))))

Cyclone Gonu waned into a storm as it passed into a major oil shipping route toward Iran on Thursday, but killed 28 people and left a trail of destruction that halted Oman's oil and gas exports for a third day Rueters reported yesterday. Gonu, which peaked as a maximum-force Category Five hurricane on Tuesday and faded to a Category One hurricane on Wednesday is now an ordinary tropical storm, experts said.The storm's maximum sustained wind speed is now about 45 miles per hour, the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, and it was likely to keep dissipating."As far as Oman is concerned, it is over. Cyclone Gonu passed into the Gulf of Oman and is heading toward Iran but it is no longer a tropical cyclone," said Ahmad al-Harthi, head of Oman's meteorological department. "It caused a lot of havoc in terms of high seas, rain, winds and floods in combination." Three people were killed in southern Iran due to the storm, while those living within 300 meters of the coast in Hormozgan province had been evacuated, Iran state television said.State media said roads and houses in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan had been damaged and many coastal areas were cut off by flooding."Connections between over 500 villages and Nikshahr city have been cut and many houses in villages are badly damaged."

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Four “suspected terrorists” believed to be transferring roadside bombs from Iran to Iraq were arrested by Coalition troops on Tuesday, the U.S. military announced.“The individuals detained during the raid are believed to be members of the secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training”, the Multi-National Force – Iraq said in a statement.Among those detained during the raids in northeast Baghdad was a “suspected terrorist cell leader”. “Intelligence reports indicate that the suspected terrorist cell leader detained during the morning raids is associated with the operational and logistic elements of the secret cell terrorist network. He is also believed to be involved in the procurement and distribution of small arms”, the Multi National Force in Iraq said.

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Iranian regime has expelled about 100,000 Afghans in nearly six weeks in a drive to deport those who are in the country illegally, the UN refugee agency in Afghanistan said Tuesday. About 1,000 were now returning every day through two border points, the UNHCR's representative in Afghanistan, Salvatore Lombardo, told reporters. "We are talking of approximately 100,000 Afghans being deported since April 21," he said. "The crisis had at the very beginning a very high number of people being deported. It has decreased in the past couple of weeks. What we see now is probably approximately 1,000 deportees per day from the two crossing points." Tehran has said it wants one million Afghans repatriated by next March. Afghanistan has asked its neighbor to halt the returns, saying it does not have the capacity to accommodate a large number of people at once. The United States has also voiced concern over the flood of returning deportees becoming a burden. The deportations were quick and sometimes not "according to all the standards," he said, without elaborating.