December, 2005

• 31 December

  Mystery of Ben Laden’s year of silence

  PARIS — He has not issued any public statement all year. Speculation has grown over his influence, health and even possible death. Where is the Western world’s most wanted man, Osama Ben Laden?

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• 31 December

  Lights out in Baghdad as power remains erratic

  BAGHDAD — Baghdad is getting only around six hours of electricity a day, down from 11 in October, and attacks on Iraqis working on US-backed reconstruction projects are at a record, the US military said on Wednesday.

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• 31 December

  AT A GLANCE

  Greek patriarch boycotts Israeli Christmas party OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters) — The Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Jerusalem boycotted an annual Israeli Christmas party on Thursday because the invitation failed to recognise him as the church’s new leader, a church official said. A clergyman sacked by the church over an alleged land …

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• 27 December

  The war in Chechnya is continuing

  The Russian politicians and mass media are lying when they say that the war in Chechnya is over. The situation is just becoming worse and worse all the time, says Isa Dzjabrailov, deputy Minister of Information in the Chechen exile government.

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• 27 December

  Israel and the Arab world — a hidden trade waiting for a political deal

  CAIRO — Staff members at a Riyadh hospital got a surprise when they looked at the fine print on the paper cups they were using. Workers in a storeroom at a Dubai hospital were similarly shocked when they took a close look at the tags on a large shipment of …

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• 27 December

  Sharon to have heart treatment in hospital

  OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is to return to hospital early next month to undergo a minor procedure in order to repair a tiny hole in his heart, his doctors said on Monday. Professor Haim Lotan told reporters that Sharon would undergo “a catheterisation in the …

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• 27 December

  Maronite Church leader urges president to consider his position

  BEIRUT (AP) — The head of the influential Maronite Catholic Church has publicly urged Lebanon’s president to consider his position, saying he prayed that Emile Lahoud will take a decision that would reassure the nation. In a Christmas Day sermon on Sunday, Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir came closer

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• 27 December

  Saudi dissident returns home after more than two years in self-exile

  CAIRO (AP) — A US-educated Saudi dissident, who was part of a media campaign against the kingdom’s rulers during two years in self-exile in London, returned to Jeddah, saying he regretted those activities and admitting he had been wrong, Saudi newspapers reported Monday.

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• 27 December

  Libya quashes death sentences in AIDS trial

  TRIPOLI (AFP) — Libya’s supreme court on Sunday ordered a retrial for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for their alleged role in infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. The decision overturned death sentences that would have been carried out by firing squad and gave …

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• 27 December

  Nineteen Iraqis killed in attacks

  BAGHDAD (AFP) — Nineteen Iraqis, including eight policemen, died in insurgent attacks in and around Baghdad on Monday as two Shiite politicians were gunned down and a provincial governor escaped an assassination bid.

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