In the wake of King Abdullah’s death, Amnesty International head Salil Shetty criticised the Saudi regime for being "insensitive to human rights".
It was the strategic thinking and the organisational skills of Ayman al-Zawahr that kept al-Qaeda together.
Naguib Mahfouz, who became the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and who was later stabbed by an Islamic militant who accused him of blasphemy, died on August 30, said his doctor, Hossam Mowafi. He was 94. Mahfouz, whose novels depicted Egyptian life in his beloved corner of ancient Cairo, was admitted to the hospital more than a month ago for injury to his head.
Osama bin Laden has defended attacks by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi against civilians, saying in a taped web message on Friday that the Jordanian militant was acting under al-Qaeda orders to kill anyone who backs the Americans in Iraq. Bin Laden paid tribute to the slain leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in the 19-minute videotape.
The Shi’ite alliance nominated a tough-talking Shi’ite politician, Jawad al-Maliki, as prime minister in a move that breaks the long impasse over forming a new government aimed at pulling Iraq out of its sectarian strife. Al-Maliki replaces outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
No image available
/ 24 October 2005
An insurgent blew up his car in a Baghdad square, killing four people in the first significant suicide bombing in the capital in weeks. More than 20 Iraqis died in a swell of violence, including a bomb that killed a police colonel and four children. In the past, Baghdad has been heavily battered by deadly suicide attacks, with a string of them killing nearly 700 people from April 1 to early September.
Eight South Koreans and three Japanese were kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq, and captors armed with automatic rifles and swords threatened on Thursday to burn the Japanese alive if Tokyo does not withdraw from the United States-led coalition. The group calls itself the ”Mujahedeen Squadrons”.