Mauritania’s ousted leader Maaouiya Ould Taya arrived on Monday in Qatar, which has reportedly granted him asylum after he was toppled in a bloodless coup almost three weeks ago. ”The delegation arrived in Doha at 8am,” said Mohamad Ould Ali, the private teacher of the exiled leader, adding that he was in ”high spirits”.
Ernie Els won his second straight tournament in the Middle East, rallying to take the Qatar Masters by one shot after carding a seven-under 65 in the final round on Sunday. The third-ranked South African, who finished with a 12-under 276, fired seven birdies to come back from a five-stroke deficit overnight.
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/ 15 January 2005
Six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has pulled out of the Tour of Qatar, citing family reasons. The Qatar race is scheduled for January 31 to February 4. ”This is quite unfortunate since we were looking forward to seeing him race here for the first time,” the president of the Qatar Cycling Federation said on Friday.
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/ 3 November 2004
A militant group calling itself the ”Brigades of Iraq’s Honourable People” on Wednesday provided a video that shows the beheading of three members of the Iraqi national guard accused of spying for United States forces, Al-Jazeera television said. Al-Jazeera will refrain from airing the footage ”out of respect for viewers’ feelings”.
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/ 19 October 2004
Qatar is set to substitute robots for jockeys in camel races, a favourite sport in the oil-rich Gulf region that has faced widespread criticism over the use of child jockeys from the Indian subcontinent. But the sport’s supremo in Doha insists the plan to use ”robot jockeys” within the coming year is not in response to protests by human rights groups.
Al-Jazeera expressed ”outrage” on Monday at Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari’s criticism of the satellite news channel’s coverage of Iraq and threats to close its Baghdad bureau. ”Al-Jazeera would have hoped the Iraqi government would embark on its new term with initiatives to lift media restrictions,” the station said in a statement.
Chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden is alive and well, a representative for his al-Qaida network said in a statement broadcast on Sunday on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
As the United States and Britain press for a war against Iraq, energy experts believe the energy map of the Middle East and beyond will change depending on the outcome of any conflict.