United Arab Emirates

An al-Qaeda front group in Europe threatened on Tuesday to launch bloody attacks in France in response to the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president. ”As you have chosen the crusader and Zionist Sarkozy as a leader … we in the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades warn you that the coming days will see a bloody jihadist campaign,” the group’s ”Europe division” said.

A militant Islamist group in Iraq has threatened in a videotape showing two purported German hostages to execute them if the Berlin government fails to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The Kataeb Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions) said in the videotape posted on Saturday on an Islamist website: "We give the German government 10 days from the date of this statement …"

Roger Federer took over the number one ranking in men’s tennis more than three years ago, and he shows no signs of letting it go. The 10-time Grand Slam champion reached a new milestone on Monday when he broke Jimmy Connors’s 30-year-old mark with his 161st week at the top of the ATP rankings.

Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi has been banned for four one-day internationals (ODIs) after being found guilty of breaching the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) code of conduct during his side’s ODI against South Africa at Centurion. The charge was laid by ICC CEO Malcolm Speed.

Ernie Els got off to a storming start in the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic on Thursday with a run of an eagle and three birdies from the third hole. That more than offset a bogey four at the second and hoisted the three-times former winner into a joint share of the early lead.

Retief Goosen has won the European Tour’s golfer-of-the-month award for January after a spectacular birdie-eagle finish clinched victory at the Qatar Masters. The South African took the honour ahead of Jo’burg Open winner Ariel Canete of Argentina, the tour said in a news release on Wednesday.

At least two workers were killed and 57 injured when a fire broke out on Thursday in a tower block under construction in Dubai, the trading hub of the United Arab Emirates, state news agency WAM said. An official at Rashid hospital said four workers were killed in the fire.

Ashwell Prince, who scored his sixth Test hundred in South Africa’s win over Pakistan in Centurion, is now within touching distance of a place in the top ten of the LG International Cricket Council player rankings for Test batsmen. The left-hander has risen three spots to eleventh position, his highest-ever placing on the list, and is now breathing down the neck of teammate Jacques Kallis.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, who entered Mogadishu for the first time this week, defended a United States air raid on his country, saying in comments published on Wednesday it targeted al-Qaeda militants. Many people died in the US strike on a southern Somali village occupied by fleeing Islamists believed to be sheltering al-Qaeda suspects.

Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a new video aired on Wednesday that only jihad (holy war), not elections, can bring about the liberation of the occupied Palestinian territory. "Any road other than jihad will only lead to loss," Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man said in the video broadcast on al-Jazeera television.

India seam bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth has been fined 30% of his match fee after being found guilty of two International Cricket Council code of conduct breaches during his side’s first Test match against South Africa. Sreesanth was found guilty of the offences after a hearing conducted by match referee Roshan Mahanama.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter expects goal-line technology to be in use within a year but has ruled out video replays for disputed decisions while he is in charge. The technology will involve either balls with a microchip or a behind-the-goal camera linked to a computer and should be in use by the Club World Cup in Japan in December 2007.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter hit out on Monday at rich clubs with inflated squads, accusing them of buying too many players and depriving smaller teams from being competitive. ”There is kind of like a traffic jam of players in Europe,” he said at the Soccerex conference in Dubai.

It’s supposed to be a time of peace and piety, but it’s really hard to stay spiritual while trying to get work done during Ramadan. For one month of the lunar calendar, Muslims abstain from food, drink, sex, cigarettes and profanities from sunrise to sunset with the aim of purifying the body and soul.

Al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq called for the kidnapping of Westerners to swap for a Muslim cleric jailed in the United States, according to an internet audio tape issued on Thursday. ”I call on every holy fighter in Iraq to strive during this holy month [Ramadan] … to capture some dogs of the Christians so that we can liberate our imprisoned sheikh,” said the speaker, identified as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and well, a source in Afghanistan’s militant Taliban movement told al-Arabiya news channel on Tuesday, denying recent reports of his death or illness. The Dubai-based station said that the source, who phoned it’s Pakistan office, denied previous reports claiming that the United States’s most-wanted man had died.

An Iraqi militant group led by al-Qaeda vowed a war against the ”worshippers of the cross” in response to a recent speech by Pope Benedict on Islam that sparked anger across the Muslim world. ”We tell the worshipper of the cross [the pope] that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya,” said a statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council.

Al-Qaeda marked the fifth anniversary of September 11 by posting video footage of Osama bin Laden exhorting the attackers to be patient in their preparations and to steel themselves for ”martyrdom”. In the edited footage, the picture of the blazing twin towers and the Pentagon building hit on the same day were used as a background.