A spokesperson for radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Wednesday on Muslims worldwide to intervene urgently to save the holy Iraqi city of Najaf and warned United States soldiers against entering the sacred Imam Ali Shrine, Al-Arabiya television reported.
A purported al-Qaeda statement posted on an Islamist website threatened Europe with a ”bloody war” following the expiry of a July 15 deadline set by Osama bin Laden for European states to pull troops out of Muslim countries. ”Today, we declare a bloody war on you. We will not stop our raids until you return to reason,” said the statement.
Saudi authorities on Monday launched a manhunt for three terrorists who fled after a weekend of appalling violence in which they killed 22 civilians in a hostage drama in the eastern Saudi city of al-Khobar. Checkpoints have been set up and security has been intensified in the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh.
Chaotic Saudi hostage rescue
Images of death and destruction from a wedding video were aired on Arab television channels on Monday as the United States military admitted its insistence that foreign fighters had been killed in an airstrike was inconsistent with Iraqi claims that a marriage party had been hit.
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/ 23 September 2003
World Bank president James Wolfensohn has voiced understanding in Dubai for the stand taken by developing nations in international trade talks and called for a ”new balance” between rich and poor. He said the collapse of trade talks in Mexico reflected the ”forces causing imbalance” between the world’s rich and poor.
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/ 23 September 2003
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Horst Koehler, has backed the call by the Group of Seven of leading industrialised economies for more flexibility in exchange rates. ”Allowing greater exchange-rate flexibility would be helpful both domestically and globally,” he said.
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/ 22 September 2003
At their meetings in Dubai, the Group of Seven and the International Monetary Fund have recognised the need for tough reforms to ease economic imbalances threatening the global recovery, but governments will need political courage to press on with the painful changes.
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/ 22 September 2003
Industrial nations and developing countries are searching for a way to break the deadlock caused by the collapse of the World Trade Organisation talks in Cancun. Trade is the key to winning the fight against poverty, the development committee of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund has been told.
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/ 22 September 2003
As The Netherlands announced â,¬2,5-billion over five years in education aid, South Africa said a global trade system that was "fairer" to poor countries would help even more. Ministers from the two countries sparred at a news conference regarding the United Nations goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=20848">World Bank looking to revive trade talks</a>
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/ 18 September 2003
Osama bin Laden is running the terror war against the United States from a cave, a press report said on Thursday, quoting a source it said was the chief of training for the al-Qaeda network. ”Al-Qaeda is everywhere around the world and in strength,” said an e-mail interview published on Friday by a Saudi-owned weekly.
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/ 18 September 2003
Africa should enjoy stronger growth rates next year, but devastating political instability, health crises and natural catastrophes are still undermining the continent’s economic performance, the International Monetary Fund has said in its World Economic Outlook released in Dubai.
Gunmen describing themselves as Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen militia vowed to step up attacks on US forces and their Iraqi collaborators to avenge the killing of his sons Uday and Qusay, in a video aired on Al-Arabiya television on Thursday.
An audiotape attributed to ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on Wednesday warned that the war against the US-led coalition was not over and called for Iraqis to continue their resistance.
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/ 25 February 2003
Dubai-based property developer EMAAR Properties unveiled plans on Monday to construct the world’s tallest habitable tower.
Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida is making full use of the Internet in its war against the United States, forcing Washington to chase ”Islamist” websites thought to serve as a platform for the terror network.
An Iraqi minister threatened Israel with attack if it participated in any US-led military action against the regime of President Saddam Hussein, in comments published in an Emirati daily on Friday.
Prevented from hunting dwindling stocks of wildlife in their desert homelands, Gulf Arabs are increasingly setting their sights on the big game and birds of South Africa’s veld.