The scene seems familiar. The United States tables a draft resolution on Iraq at the United Nations Security Council. Delegates huddle behind closed doors.
Some still neatly stacked in metal cupboards, others strewn across the floor, the secret letters and files of Iraq’s Foreign Ministry are the latest curiosity in the hunt for the truth behind Saddam Hussein’s complex relationship with the outside world.
Hundreds of thousands of Shia worshippers from all over southern Iraq converged at one of the sect’s holiest shrines this week, in a deliberate display of political and religious strength.
In Damascus, where anger over the invasion of Iraq alternates with pride in the resistance, there is one sure way to lighten the mood. Suggest the war was launched because of Saddam Hussein’s suspected weapons of mass destruction. Everyone here believes it is a war for oil.
In this highly politicised city where anger over the invasion of Iraq alternates with pride in the resistance, there is one sure way to lighten the mood.
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/ 1 February 2003
With as much secrecy as the Pentagon, the United Nations has been busily counting the likely casualty toll of a war on Iraq. While the Pentagon focuses on its troops, the network of UN specialist agencies is trying to estimate what would happen to Iraqis.
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/ 18 January 2003
The Saudi government is canvassing a plan to give Saddam Hussein a last-ditch chance to go into exile if the United Nations security council passes a new resolution authorising war against Iraq, western and Arab diplomats have confirmed.
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/ 28 October 2002
Chechen gunmen shot and killed one of the hundreds of hostages being held at a Moscow theatre, Russian news media reported. A female hostage held by Chechen militants in a Moscow theatre was executed by her captors. A TV report showed a stretcher with a body being taken out.
In a major embarrassment to Israel, Nelson Mandela has agreed to observe the trial of a Palestinian leader formally indicted on Wednesday on charges of murder and terrorism.