Joelle Bassoul
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/ 4 February 2006

Angry survivors blame crew for Egypt ferry tragedy

Surviving passengers of an ageing Egyptian ferry that sank in the Red Sea, leaving hundreds feared dead, blamed the crew Saturday for failing to turn around when a fire broke out and monopolising the life rafts. "Two hours after our departure from [the Saudi port of] Duba thick smoke started to come out of the engines," said 34-year-old Egyptian Raafat al-Sayyed.

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/ 12 December 2005

Special voting starts in crucial Iraq elections

Hospital patients, prison detainees and security forces were voting on Monday at the start of elections for a full-term Parliament set to restore full sovereignty to war-torn Iraq nearly three years after the United States-led invasion. Draconian security measures, similar to those enforced during two earlier elections this year, have been imposed.

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/ 6 December 2005

Classroom bombing kills 36 in Baghdad

At least 36 Iraqi police officers and cadets were killed on Tuesday in a double suicide bombing in Baghdad. The massive blast — on the same day that eight other Iraqi security personnel were killed in violence across the country — raised concerns about security just nine days before the country goes to the polls.

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/ 24 November 2005

Bomb attack at Iraqi hospital kills 30

At least 30 people were killed when a car bomb exploded outside a hospital in Iraq on Thursday in a notorious area known as the ”triangle of death”. The bombing, which also left about 23 people wounded, occurred in Mahmudiyah, about 20km south of the capital, in an area known for frequent insurgent attacks on Iraqi and United States government forces.