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/ 3 February 2008
Tiger Woods watched his 25-foot putt race down the slope and bend toward the cup, then he skipped backward and punched the desert air in celebration when it disappeared into the cup for a final birdie. So ended his spectacular charge on Sunday to win the Dubai Desert Classic over Ernie Els, a familiar victim.
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/ 3 February 2008
Tiger Woods struggled with everything on the course on Saturday, missing putts, driving wayward balls into the desert terrain and yelling at a photographer for taking a shot while he was swinging. Ernie Els had a very different day, rising from fifth to first place at the Dubai Desert Classic.
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/ 30 January 2008
Al-Qaeda’s North Africa wing said it was behind a blast at a police station in Algeria which authorities said killed two people. Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb said a suicide bomber drove a truck packed explosives that detonated at the police station in a town east of Algiers on Tuesday.
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/ 14 January 2008
United States President George Bush heads to Saudi Arabia on Monday to encourage support for Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking by the Arab powerbroker and seek help maintaining American pressure on Iran. Bush will spend two nights in the Islamic kingdom, having already visited Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
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/ 12 January 2008
President George Bush visited the United States navy’s Fifth Fleet on Sunday amid new tensions with Iran over an incident in which the United States says its ships were harassed in the Strait of Hormuz. Washington says Iranian boats threatened its warships on January 6 along the vital route for crude oil shipments.
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/ 30 December 2007
Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden warned Sunni Muslims in Iraq not to take up arms against the terror network and promised the "liberation of Palestine" in a new online message. In the 56-minute tape released late on Saturday, the Western world’s most wanted man also accused the United States of seeking to control the region through the Iraqi government.
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/ 4 December 2007
An armed group demanded that Britain leave Iraq in video footage aired by the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel on Tuesday, which showed one of five Britons seized in May. ”I have been here, now held for 173 days, and I feel we have been forgotten,” a man identifying himself as Jason said in the video.
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/ 4 December 2007
The biggest Persian Gulf producers of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) are leaving open the option of an oil-supply increase that could influence whether crude prices head back towards a barrel. Oil ministers, gathering to meet on Wednesday, have adopted a coordinated line to insist that supplies are sufficient to meet winter demand.
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/ 3 December 2007
Ali al-Nuaimi, the Oil Minister of Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) kingpin Saudi Arabia, said on Monday that it was premature to talk about a possible increase in crude production by the cartel. "Right now it will be very premature to tell you what the assessment is" of oil data, he said.
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/ 3 December 2007
South Africa are edging closer to Australia at the top of the International Cricket Council one-day international (ODI) rankings and now lie just four points behind the leaders following a 2-1 series victory over New Zealand. Graeme Smith’s team began the series on 123 rating points, five adrift of Australia.
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/ 21 November 2007
South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn has left his mark on the LG International Cricket Council (ICC) player rankings following his man-of-the-series performances against New Zealand. Steyn, who took 20 wickets in two matches against the Black Caps, has rocketed up to third in the latest listings for Test bowlers, a reflection of his recent potency.
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/ 19 November 2007
South Africa’s comprehensive clean sweep of its two-match series against New Zealand has lifted it to third position in the latest LG ICC Test championship table. Graeme Smith’s side, which won Tests in Johannesburg (358 runs) and Centurion (an innings and 59 runs) collected four rating points for its efforts.
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/ 12 November 2007
Sudan on Monday blamed countries that allow Darfur rebels to operate in their territory for failing to use their influence to persuade the insurgents to attend peace talks last month. Neighbouring Chad allows Darfur rebels to remain armed on its territory, though the groups have representatives in several countries.
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/ 8 November 2007
Seven people were killed and about 15 others injured when a Dubai bridge collapsed in a luxury area of the Gulf Arab emirate of Dubai on Thursday, the police said. The collapse appeared to be the result of a construction problem, police said. "Engineers are at the site and are inspecting the situation."
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/ 21 October 2007
Shoaib Malik and the Pakistan team have been fined for slow play, the International Cricket Council said on Saturday, following their 25-run victory over South Africa in their second day-night international at the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday.
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/ 18 October 2007
Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto set out on Thursday on a journey home to end eight years of self-exile, under threat of assassination from militants linked to al-Qaeda once she reaches Karachi. For years Bhutto had promised to return to Pakistan to end military dictatorship, yet she is coming back as a potential ally for President Pervez Musharraf.
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/ 17 October 2007
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said she would return to Pakistan on Thursday to end eight years of self-exile and lead her party into national elections despite threats of al-Qaeda inspired suicide attacks. Despite being out of power since 1996, the charismatic Bhutto (54) remains one of the most recognisable women politicians in the world.
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/ 20 September 2007
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called on Muslims in Pakistan to wage holy war against the government of President Pervez Musharraf in a new audio message issued on Thursday. Bin Laden declared al-Qaeda’s intention to retaliate for the blood spilled of "champions of Islam".
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/ 20 September 2007
Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri urged Sudanese Muslims in a video posted on Thursday to fight a force of African Union and United Nations peacekeepers. Al-Zawahri accused Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of abandoning his Muslim brothers to appease the United States.
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/ 15 September 2007
The head of an al-Qaeda-led group in Iraq offered  000 for the killing of Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks over his drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad. ”From now on we announce the call to shed the blood of the Lars who dared to insult our Prophet,” said Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, in an audiotape posted on a website on Saturday.
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/ 11 September 2007
Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden praised as a ”champion” one of the September 11 hijackers in a new video released on Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the devastating attacks on the United States. He also called on Muslim youths to join a ”caravan” of martyrs, in the second al-Qaeda video in just five days featuring the Western world’s most wanted man.
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/ 8 September 2007
Osama bin Laden said in a new video marking the sixth anniversary of al-Qaeda’s September 11 attacks that the United States was vulnerable despite its military and economic power, but he made no specific threats. The al-Qaeda leader said US President George Bush was repeating the mistakes of the former Soviet Union by refusing to acknowledge losses in Iraq.
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/ 7 September 2007
An Islamist website said on Friday it would soon show a new video of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on United States cities. The website published a still photograph apparently from the video, which showed bin Laden appearing older compared with available pictures.
Foreign medics freed from a Libyan jail were tortured into confessing they deliberately infected hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, a son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi said in remarks broadcast on Thursday. The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were freed on July 24 after a deal between Tripoli and the European Union.
Al-Qaeda threatened in an internet statement on Monday to escalate attacks against the ”enemies of Allah” in North African countries, warning Muslims to stay away from government sites. ”The Mujahedin [holy warriors] … have many hidden surprises for the enemies of Allah in the countries of the Islamic Maghreb, which will come in an escalating sequence,” said al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, on Tuesday threatened more attacks on Britain two weeks after failed bombings in London and Glasgow. ”I say to [former British prime minister Tony] Blair’s successor that the policy of your predecessor drew catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said in a tape posted on a website.
The five cricket officials — including South Africa’s Rudi Koertzen — who caused the final overs of the Cricket World Cup final in Barbados to be played in near darkness have been banned from officiating in the World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa in September.
Widely touted as the Middle East’s very own Orlando, "Dubailand", a cluster of mega-billion-dollar projects, is gradually emerging across the desert sands of the booming Gulf emirate. Faced with a dwindling wealth of oil, Dubai has taken on a new challenge of larger-than-life projects in line with its ambition to become the region’s main business and leisure hub.
A critical desalination plant supplying water to Oman’s capital has regained most of its production capacity, easing the cyclone-damaged Muscat’s water shortage, officials and news reports said on Tuesday. Oman lost more than -million in oil revenues when exports were halted by last week’s Cyclone Gonu.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) board has unanimously approved a recommendation for Cricket South Africa to nominate an acting president following the death of Percy Sonn last month. The nominee, once approved, will assume the role of acting president until the ICC’s annual conference of 2008.
A brother of a slain Taliban leader said al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was alive and well and that he had received a letter of condolence from him after his brother was killed in May. ”He is alive, active and well,” Haji Mansour Dadullah, a Taliban militant leader, said of Bin Laden.
A Somali Islamist group on Monday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that targeted the Horn of Africa country’s prime minister. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has accused al-Qaeda of being behind Sunday’s suicide bombing that killed seven people outside his home in Mogadishu.