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| December 20, 2003 | Saturday | Shawwal 25, 1424 |
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US backs off criticism of Sharon plan
WASHINGTON, Dec 19: The United States on Friday backed off its initial harsh comments after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s threat to act unilaterally if Palestinians did not meet their Middle... 
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US raises concern over religious aspects: Afghanistan’s draft constitution
 WASHINGTON, Dec 19: The United States on Thursday raised concerns about the extent to which religious freedom is protected in Afghanistan’s draft constitution, currently under debate in a grand council in...
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Al Qaeda chasing Americans: Zawahri
DUBAI, Dec 19: Arabic television channel al Jazeera on Friday aired an audio tape purportedly from Al Qaeda’s second in command Ayman al-Zawahri, saying his group was chasing Americans everywhere, including...
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Rumsfeld tried to appease Saddam: Declassified documents
WASHINGTON, Dec 19: Documents declassified on Friday show that Donald Rumsfeld visited Baghdad in March 1984 to tell Saddam Hussein that America’s public criticism of Iraq for using chemical weapons against...
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10 US guards fined for beating foreigners
WASHINGTON, Dec 19: Ten US jail guards have been fined for physically abusing foreign nationals. The justice department ordered the action after viewing hundreds of videotapes that showed jail guards attacking...
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US to send more troops to Iraq
WASHINGTON, Dec 19: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has approved the deployment of an extra brigade of the elite 82nd Airborne Division to Iraq in January and extended that of another brigade...
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Spacecraft starts final leg of Mars probe
LONDON, Dec 19: A British spacecraft the size of an open umbrella began the final leg of its mission to find life on Mars as it successfully broke free on Friday...
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British soldier’s widow seeks apology
LONDON, Dec 19: The widow of a British soldier killed in Iraq after being ordered to hand back life-saving body armour on Friday demanded a public apology from Defence Secretary Geoff...
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Rumours of attacks in NY alarm officials
WASHINGTON, Dec 19: US authorities are concerned by the volume of terrorist threats to US interests at home and overseas, especially over the coming holiday period, officials said on Friday....
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Charges filed against Jackson
SANTA MARIA, Dec 19: Michael Jackson was charged on Thursday with nine counts of molesting a young boy, including committing seven “lewd acts,” but the pop star’s lawyer called the case...
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Titanic survivors had average life span: study
PARIS, Dec 19: The theme song in the 1997 movie “Titanic” suggests the heroine’s heart “will go on and on,” but the figures show that survivors of the great liner disaster...
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Nato to expand operaions in Afghanistan
BRUSSELS, Dec 19: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) on Friday gave the green light to extending a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan beyond Kabul for the first time....
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Why Iraq has no official death toll
BAGHDAD: Despite the capture of Saddam Hussein, civilian deaths in Iraq may prove to be the true Achilles heel of the US and Britain’s intervention. The bodies pile up in morgues...
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US may be pushing Nato too hard
BRUSSELS: After the September 11 attacks, Washington bypassed Nato and took its military response to Afghanistan with a coalition of the willing: “Nato? keep the myth alive,” joked one Pentagon official...
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Scientists detect ‘dark energy’ in universe
LONDON: Welcome to the dark side. Around 73 per cent of the universe is made not of matter or radiation but of a mysterious force called dark energy, a kind of...
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9/11 could have been prevented: committee
WASHINGTON: The head of an independent commission investigating the September 11 attacks on Thursday said that they could and should have been prevented, and that the officials responsible for the failure...
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Serbia: criminals take to polls
BELGRADE: Ultra-nationalists led by a war crimes suspect from behind bars may become the biggest group in Serbia’s parliament. Three small parties are fielding candidates who have been indicted by the...
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Who needs WMDs when you’ve got Saddam
WASHINGTON: With former president Saddam Hussein in the bag, the administration of President George W. Bush appears determined to make US voters forget Washington invaded Iraq on the pretext that its...
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