Jay Deshmukh
Sudan Bureau Chief for Agence France Presse (AFP) based in Khartoum.
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/ 21 February 2006

Baghdad market bomb kills 21 as Britain urges unity

At least 21 people were killed when a car-bomb ripped through a mostly-Shi’ite market in southern Baghdad on Tuesday as visiting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw appealed for Iraqi unity. The evening explosion devastated the Abu Dshir general market in the capital’s southern district of Dura as people went about their evening shopping, also wounding 27, police said.

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/ 2 February 2006

Pope Shenouda III to visit South Africa

The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the oldest of African churches, is scheduled to visit South Africa for four days next week. ”His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark … is the only African Pope and 117th in the Apostolic succession of Saint Mark,” the Egyptian embassy said.

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/ 1 February 2006

Saddam absent as trial moves on

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and all the high-profile accused on Wednesday refused to attend the latest session of their trial, as the embattled tribunal finally completed the first phase of testimony. Neither Saddam nor his defence team and none of the three other well-known defendants attended the hearing.

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/ 14 September 2005

A bloody day in Baghdad

More than a dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a deadly series of attacks that began with a huge suicide car bombing that targeted labourers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility.

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/ 15 August 2005

Iraq battles to complete Constitution

As the Monday deadline for drafting Iraq’s Constitution inched closer, leaders of the war-torn country battled to complete the draft, delaying the special Parliament session called to consider the charter. A source in the communication department of the 275-member National Assembly said the delay was for two hours.

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/ 28 April 2005

Airbus cries foul over India’s Boeing order

European Aircraft giant Airbus Industrie has cried foul over state-run Air India’s decision to buy 50 Boeing jets, saying it was denied a chance to show off its new A380 superjumbo. Airbus urged the Indian government to order a new tender after Air India approved on Tuesday the purchase of up to 50 Boeing planes worth -billion.