| 22 December 2004 | Wednesday | 09 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
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Blair visits Baghdad's Green Zone
BASRA, Dec 21: Protected by US Black Hawk helicopters, British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Iraq on Tuesday in a surprise show of political bravado designed to boost prospects for Iraqi elections and cheer his troops before Christmas. ... 
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Widespread abuses at Iraqi jails, Guantanamo: NGO releases FBI memo
WASHINGTON, Dec 21: Detainees at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were shackled to the floor in fetal positions for more than 24 hours at a time, left without food and water, and made to urinate and defecate on themselves ...
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GCC urges US to ensure all groups' participation: Election in Iraq
MANAMA, Dec 21: Gulf Arab states, worried by rising Shia power in Iraq, urged the United States on Tuesday to ensure all religious and ethnic groups take part in next month's elections. ...
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Fallujah: a baptism of fire
FALLUJAH: The brutish street war in Fallujah has been a baptism of fire for today's US marines, experiencing a relentless form of urban strife unlike any they had ever known. ...
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Palestine: Why Blair will fail
DAMASCUS: Since Yasser Arafat's death, international attention has turned away from Iraq to the other, older, most imperishable of Middle East crises. ...
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Bush says no 'negotiating with myself'
WASHINGTON, Dec 21: In Washington, there are plenty of ways to say "no comment", but President George Bush offered his own formulation on Monday, when he refused to "negotiate with myself in public". ...
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Immigration system not working: Bush
WASHINGTON, Dec 21: President George Bush said flatly on Monday that America's immigration system is not working and that in his new term he would push for a temporary guest worker program. ...
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White House okayed 'inhumane techniques'
WASHINGTON, Dec 21: The White House directly authorized inhumane interrogation techniques of detainees in Iraq such as sleep deprivation and the use of dogs, according to a civil liberties group that released documents in a case against the government. ...
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Hostage-taking bid near White House
WASHINGTON, Dec 21: Police blocked off several city streets near the White House on Tuesday, bringing rush-hour traffic to a standstill after a "possible" hostage taking at a Rite Aid pharmacy. ...
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World's smallest baby doing well
CHICAGO, Dec 21: Doctors at a clinic in Chicago on Tuesday presented what was believed to have been the world's smallest baby at only 243.8 grams, or the size of a mobile telephone, when it was born in September. ...
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Chinese law to prevent Taiwan independence
BEIJING, Dec 21: China said on Tuesday a proposed anti-secession law was aimed at preventing Taiwan from becoming independent, but refused to say whether it would set a deadline for the island to reunify with the mainland. ...
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Witness attacked during Bashir trial
JAKARTA, Dec 21: The terrorism trial of Indonesian leader Abu Bakar Bashir was halted abruptly on Tuesday as his supporters tried to attack a witness testifying against the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah. ...
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Japan angers China by issuing visa to Taiwan leader
TOKYO, Dec 21: Japan issued tourist visas on Tuesday to Taiwan's outspoken former president Lee Teng-hui and his family, defying a warning from China that the move would further damage tense Sino-Japanese relations. ...
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Gujarat riots: woman retracts statement
MUMBAI, Dec 21: The key witness who earlier implicated 17 Hindus in the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat almost three years ago retracted her statement during court testimony on Tuesday. ...
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Court stays BD order on book ban
DHAKA, Dec 21: The Bangladesh High Court on Tuesday granted a stay order against a Jan 8 government ban on publications of the Ahmadiya community. The bench also asked the government not to publish the gazette notification of the ban. ...
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Ukrainian candidates clash on television
KIEV: On Monday night Ukraine's presidential contest got personal when the two candidates went face to face in a bitter TV debate. It was broadcast nation wide five days before the repeat of the country's run-off election, on December 26. ...
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