A top United Nations official warned on Friday of ”very grave” humanitarian problems in Iraq, including a lack of food and the internal displacement of more than two million people. ”There are very grave humanitarian problems. The most serious is the internal displacement of the Iraqis,” UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said.
Oxfam warned in a report on Monday that unabated violence in Iraq is masking a humanitarian crisis that has worsened since the United States-led invasion in 2003, putting at risk almost eight million Iraqis. While violence dominates the lives of millions of ordinary people inside Iraq, ”another kind of crisis” has been slowly unfolding, said the report.
Iraq warned of a humanitarian crisis on Thursday as it appealed to the international community to help countries hosting hundreds of thousands of Iraqis uprooted by war. ”The Iraqi government calls on the international community, in particular neighbouring countries, to support Iraq,” said Mohammed al-Hajj al-Hmud of Iraq’s Foreign Ministry.
Three suspected Jordanian Islamists appeared in court on Wednesday accused of plotting to assassinate United States President George Bush when he visited the country last year. Nidal Momani, Sattam Zawahra and Tharwat Ali Draz were arrested on November 28, a day before Bush visited Jordan, and later indicted on charges of ”conspiracy to carry out terrorist plots”.
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/ 23 February 2007
Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi lawyer said on Friday he will write a book revealing ”many secrets” told to him by the executed dictator about the fall of Baghdad, his arrest and imprisonment. ”The book will contain information never before revealed and many secrets about the fall of Baghdad,” Khalil al-Dulaimi told Agence France-Press in a telephone interview about the book he is planning.
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/ 29 January 2007
Yusif Agoub is proud of the fleshy Masgouf fish from the river Euphrates swimming in a tiled pool in his kitchen and the rough Iraqi bread baking in the wood-fired oven. It feels like Baghdad but the carp are imported from Syria and this is one of the best restaurants in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
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/ 28 January 2007
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have sought safe haven from the violence at home in neighbouring Jordan, where the influx of migrants has triggered concerns over inflation and job losses. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said more than 700 000 Iraqis fled to Jordan in the aftermath of the United States-led 2003 war.
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/ 30 November 2006
United States President George Bush praised Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as a ”strong leader” on Thursday and said he agreed with him that any partition of Iraq would only increase violence. Bush’s show of support for Maliki came after US officials insisted the Iraqi leader had not snubbed Bush on Wednesday when the two had been expected to meet.
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/ 28 September 2006
Saddam Hussein’s defence team on Thursday called for a halt to his genocide trial, saying it was a political "farce" to seek revenge against the ousted Iraqi leader. "We call upon the public opinion with all its organisations and segments to work to stop this farce after it intentionally prejudiced the feelings of Iraqis, Arabs and all good people … ," it said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2006
A lone gunman opened fire on a group of foreign tourists in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Monday, killing a British man and wounding six, an official and a witness said. Jordanian government spokesperson Nasser Joudeh denied earlier reports that the attack was carried out by two men, one of them an Iraqi.
A Jordanian court on Tuesday sentenced to prison two newspaper editors for ”attacking religious sentiment” by reprinting cartoons deemed offensive to Prophet Muhammad, their lawyer said. Jihad Momani, former editor of the weekly Shihane tabloid, and Hisham al-Khalidi, editor-in-chief of the tabloid Al-Mehwar, ”were each sentenced to two months in prison”, attorney Mohammed Kteishat told Agence France-Presse.
A suspected member of al-Qaeda in Iraq confessed on Jordanian television on Tuesday to last year murdering a Jordanian driver in Iraq and abducting two Moroccan embassy employees. The man, who identified himself as Iraqi national Ziad Khalaf al-Karbuli, said during the 15-minute tape that he shot to death Khalid Dassuki.
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/ 12 February 2006
Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants have decided to go on hunger strike, one of his Jordan-based lawyers said on Sunday. "The [former] president and his comrades have decided to stage a hunger strike to protest against the tribunal’s attempts to force them to appear" in court, Zyad Najdawi told Agence France-Presse.
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/ 11 November 2005
United Nations chief Kofi Annan was headed to Amman on Friday as Jordanians mourned victims of deadly attacks on three luxury hotels claimed by al-Qaeda, which jolted one of Washington’s staunchest Middle East allies. The death toll rose to 57 after a renowned film director died of injuries sustained in one of the blasts.
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/ 10 November 2005
Jordan said on Thursday it has arrested several suspects over hotel bombings that killed 56 people in the deadliest attacks in the kingdom’s history, claimed by homegrown extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s militants. The group of al-Zarqawi, who heads al-Qaeda’s Iraq operations, warned of more to come.
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/ 10 November 2005
Jordan was on Thursday hunting the masterminds of the worst attacks in the kingdom’s history that killed 57 people and were claimed by the group of homegrown extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The suicide attacks late on Wednesday on one of the closest United States allies in the Middle East targeted three luxury hotels in the Jordanian capital.
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/ 10 November 2005
Suicide bombers carried out nearly simultaneous attacks on three United States-registered hotels in the Jordanian capital on Wednesday night, killing at least 57 people and wounding up to 300 in an al-Qaeda-style assault on the Arab kingdom with close ties to the US and a border with Iraq. Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher said most of those killed were Jordanians.
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/ 26 October 2005
Lawyers representing Saddam Hussein announced on Wednesday that they will suspend all contacts with the special tribunal trying the ousted Iraqi president until they are given better security. The decision follows the killing of Saadun Janabi, an attorney representing one of Saddam’s co-defendants, a day after the opening of the trial last week.
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/ 20 October 2005
Saddam Hussein’s Jordan-based legal team will meet his Iraqi lawyer soon to draw up a battle plan for his next court appearance, one of the lawyers said on Thursday. Issam Ghazzawi confirmed that the former dictator’s Iraqi courtroom lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi is expected in Amman in the next 24 hours to brief the team on the trial, which was adjourned until November 28.
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/ 18 October 2005
Saddam Hussein’s rights have been ”violated” in the legal process following his capture, one of his top United States lawyers said on Tuesday on the eve of the deposed Iraqi leader’s trial opening on charges of ordering the massacre of 143 countrymen two decades ago.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said on Saturday it is committed to support the stability of the world economy by responding to the world’s demand for oil, and support sustainable development in the Middle East. Opec’s president was addressing the Dead Sea summit of the World Economic Forum in Jordan.
A seven-year-old Jordanian boy stole his father’s hard-earned salary to buy prepaid phone cards to vote for his favourite female candidate on a television reality show, Petra news agency reported on Sunday. The boy was enamoured by Algerian candidate Salma al-Ghazali, who appears on the <i>Star Academy</i> reality show.
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/ 7 February 2005
A budding romance between a Jordanian man and woman turned into an ugly public divorce when the couple found out that they were in fact man and wife, state media reported on Sunday. Separated for several months, boredom and chance briefly reunited Bakr Melhem and his wife, Sanaa, in an internet chat room.
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/ 31 October 2004
Japan was making arrangements on Sunday to fly the decapitated body of a 24-year-old Japanese tourist killed in Iraq to Kuwait for his return home, a senior Japanese official told reporters in Jordan. Shosei Koda’s head and decapitated body with bound hands and feet was found wrapped in a United States flag on Saturday in Baghdad.
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/ 15 September 2004
A young Jordanian man is facing jail after donning a veil and joining an all-female wedding party in order to win a bet, the official Petra agency reported on Wednesday. The man, identified only by his first name Salim, wore a black coat and a veil to get into the party, where female guests were dancing and singing.
Saddam Hussein’s defence team, which has not yet been allowed to enter Iraq, on Thursday again slammed as ”illegal” the Iraqi special tribunal trying the deposed dictator. ”This court is illegal since it was designated by an illegal authority, created by the occupation,” one of the lawyers said.
A fence separating Israel from the West Bank is ”racist” and a symbol of the lack of coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians, the Palestinian prime minister said on Wednesday, a day after US President George Bush backed off from overt criticism of the security barrier.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were due to hold talks Wednesday in Amman on the Middle East crisis, as Israel reoccupied Palestinian land following a bloody bomb attack.
SEVEN million children below the age of five suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth in the Middle East and North African countries, a United Nations children’s fund report said on Thursday.
Al Jazeera, television on Monday broadcast new video excerpts that included a final will and testament from one of the September 11 hijackers and the purported audio taped voice of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden claiming unequivocal responsibility for the attacks.