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/ 12 February 2006

Saddam planning hunger strike

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

Jordan mourns its dead

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

Al-Zarqawi group warns of more Jordan attacks

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 on alert as al-Zarqawi claims blasts

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 hit Jordan hotels

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

Saddam lawyers suspend contact with court

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’s ‘surrealist’ trial

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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/ 22 May 2005

Opec vows to support economic stability

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.

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/ 8 March 2005

Boy nicks dad’s salary to woo TV star

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

Nasty surprise for chat-room lovers

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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/ 15 September 2004

Man faces jail after joining women’s party

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.