United Arab Emirates

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.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) charged Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq on Monday with bringing the game into disrepute after his team forfeited the fourth Test against England at the Oval. ”There are two charges brought forward by the umpires, one for changing the condition of the ball and the other for bringing the game into disrepute,” ICC spokesperson Jon Long said.

The leader of Islamist fighters controlling Somali capital Mogadishu warned the United States it would pay dearly for any intervention in the country, a pan-Arab paper reported on Wednesday. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the chairperson of the Islamic courts, said the US would face a disaster similar to a botched 1993 intervention.

Tuesday’s match between India and Pakistan in Abu Dhabi marked a significant moment in the career of Emirates Elite Panel umpire Rudi Koertzen as it was his 150th one-day international. By standing in the game, the 57 year-old has become only the second umpire in history to officiate in that number of ODIs, joining the now-retired David Shepherd in that very select club.

International community pressure to convince Iran not to develop nuclear arms should apply to Israel as well, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Wednesday. Saud made his comments during a wide-ranging inaugural speech at the second Saudi-British Two Kingdoms: Friendship and Partnership conference, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Saudi security forces discovered and disarmed explosive devices planted in two separate vehicles near Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery, Abqaiq, the Saudi newspaper al-Riyadh reported on Wednesday. The paper said security forces broke into a house in al-Muntaar town on Tuesday to find two booby-trapped cars with the company’s logo on them.