Saddam Hussein, the ousted Iraqi dictator who was hanged in 2006 for crimes against humanity, feared he would pick up sexual diseases while he was United States custody, according to extracts from prison writings published in an Arabic newspaper.
Pakistan’s envoy to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who went missing in February, appeared on Saturday in a video aired by al-Arabiya news channel in which he said that he was held by the Taliban. ”We were on our way to Afghanistan in our official car on February 11 when we were kidnapped,” said Azizuddin.
Imtiaz Patel will not become the next International Cricket Council chief executive, the ICC said on Monday. Patel had been earmarked to succeed Australian Malcolm Speed who will step down in July after seven years in office. However, the sports television executive has told the ICC he is not interested in the post.
Osama bin Laden urged Palestinians on Thursday to use ”iron and fire” to end an Israeli blockade of Gaza, in a recording after the Vatican rejected accusations by the al-Qaeda chief of a ”new crusade”. In an audiotape broadcast by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite channel on Thursday, bin Laden urged Muslims to keep up the struggle against US forces in Iraq
The International Cricket Council (ICC) restored controversial Australian Darrell Hair as a Test and one-day international umpire on Tuesday and decided to shorten the 2011 World Cup. Cricket’s governing body also said a ”full independent security assessment” would be made before violence-hit Pakistan staged the Champions Trophy in September.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will be headed up by a South African within the next four months. Imtiaz Patel, CEO of SuperSport, has been offered the position of CEO at the ICC and now it’s just a matter of negotiating terms before he takes over the reigns from current CEO Malcolm Speed in early July.
Sudan President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday raised doubts over a peace deal that Senegal said the leaders of Sudan and Chad are to initial in Dakar on the eve of an Islamic summit. Bashir referred to a Saudi-brokered deal signed in Riyadh in May 2007, when the two leaders made a pilgrimage to Mecca and prayed together inside the Kaaba, the holiest Muslim shrine.
The world’s tallest skyscraper under construction in the Gulf city-state of Dubai will take longer than planned to finish, its builders said on Wednesday, putting off the opening planned for the end of this year. The building’s final height is a closely guarded secret. Building representatives previously said it would stop somewhere above 693m.
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/ 25 February 2008
An Iraqi militant group posted a video on the internet on Monday that appeared to show the 2004 killing of 12 Nepalese men who worked for a contracting firm in Iraq. In the video, a militant beheaded one of the men with a knife. The rest were shot in the back lying face down in a sandy lot.
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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.