King Fahad John Garang both died today

[Salma]

Breaking News: The Saudi TV confirms King Fahad's Death, La xawla wala qowata ella bellah, he was sick for very long time. May Allah ease on him.

 

===================

 

Sudan vice-president confirmed dead

 

The Sudanese presidency has confirmed that southern leader and First Vice-President John Garang died in a helicopter accident.

 

John Garang's Death

 

What a year!!!! full of death & assassinations in the Political Field.

 

Subxana Allah

[Muhammad]

wow Subxanallah

 

world politics seems to be on a roller coster this year.

it would be interesting to watch the comming year!

 

May Allah swt help the Muslims, those alive and those dead! amiin!

[Muhammad]

U.S. crude rises after Saudi King Fahd dies

Monday 1 August 2005, 3:15am EST

 

SINGAPORE, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose more than 50 cents to a nearly three-week high above $61 a barrel on Monday after state television said King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, was dead.

 

U.S. light, sweet crude reached a new intra-day peak of $61.11 a barrel, up 54 cents on the previous close and about 35 cents higher than before news of King Fahd's death. Prices are still below their all-time high of $62.10 a barrel.

 

Saudi state television interrupted regular broadcasting with recitations of the Koran on Monday, which a Western diplomat said was because King Fahd was dead. State television later confirmed the death and said Prince Abdullah was named king.

[Camel Mlik]

Politics in Saudi Arabia is surely going to change after King Fahd death cause King Fahd was qualify for being a lackey for America.

 

Now that Prince Abdullah was named king Saudi Arabia is going to be a different country. I don't think King Abdullah is going to be a lackey for America like his Father and I hope he does not.

 

May allah rest the late Lackey for America late King Fahd in peace. After all we all are humans and make mistakes.

[Camel Mlik]

Pictures out

[Camel Mlik]

Timeline: King Fahd

Monday, August 01, 2005

 

Key dates in life of Saudi Arabian King Fahd:

 

—1923: Born, son of King Abdul Aziz, founder of modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

 

—1945: Member of Saudi delegation at signing of U.N. Charter.

 

—1953: Appointed country's first education

minister, lays foundation for nationwide school system.

 

—1962: Named interior minister.

 

—1967: Becomes to second deputy prime minister.

 

—1975: Anointed crown prince, becoming de facto ruler during illness of half-brother King Khaled.

 

—1981: Proposes Mideast peace plan calling for Palestinian state in return for implicit acceptance of Israel, but Arab hard-liners reject proposal at Arab League summit.

 

—1982: Assumes throne at Khaled's death.

 

—1988: Signs Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

 

—1988: Initiates diplomatic efforts to end eight-year Iraq-Iran war.

 

—1990: Signs border demarcation accord with Oman.

 

—1990: Condemns Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and worked with U.S.-led coalition to drive Iraqis out. Angers Islamic militants by allowing U.S. and other Western troops onto Saudi soil.

 

—1993: Introduces new regulations for Council of Ministers.

 

—1993: Hosts 14th Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh

 

—1993: Donates $100 million for social services and utility projects for Palestinians in Gaza Strip and West Bank.

 

—1993: Approves new Higher Education Council and universities system.

 

—1994: Donates funds for restoration of Islam's third holiest shrine and two other mosques in Jerusalem.

 

—1995: Suffers stroke; brother Crown Prince Abdullah takes over as day to day leader.

 

—Aug. 1, 2005: Fahd dies at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

 

———

 

Sources: King Fahd's Web site, Saudi Arabian Information Resource

[Salma]

Originally posted by M.I.L.K:

Now that Prince Abdullah was named king Saudi Arabia is going to be a different country. I don't think King Abdullah is going to be a lackey for America like his Father and I hope he does not.

 

The dead was his Elder brother not father.

[NGONGE]

Originally posted by Zulfa:

quote:Originally posted by M.I.L.K:

Now that Prince Abdullah was named king Saudi Arabia is going to be a different country. I don't think King Abdullah is going to be a lackey for America like his Father and I hope he does not.

 

The dead was his Elder brother not father.

Not to mention that Prince Abdullah was running the kingdom for the past ten years anyway. If any change should occur in the Kingdom’s foreign policies it will likely be a superficial one.

 

PS

M.I.L.K, could you please delete that photo? It's spoiling the thread, saaxib.

[Camel Mlik]

"Not to mention that Prince Abdullah was running the kingdom for the past ten years anyway. If any change should occur in the Kingdom’s foreign policies it will likely be a superficial one".

 

your right if Abdullah was running the Kingdom for the past ten years and didn't change anything things are likely to stay the same.

[Camel Mlik]

Saudi King Fahd dead at 82; Crown Prince Abdullah named ruler

 

By The Associated Press

 

 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, who moved his country closer to the United States but ruled in name only since suffering a stroke in 1995, died early Monday, the Saudi royal court said. He was 82.

 

Crown Prince Abdullah, the king's half brother and Saudi Arabia's de factor ruler, was appointed the country's new monarch.

 

"With all sorrow and sadness, the royal court in the name of his highness Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and all members of the family announces the death of the custodian of the two holy mosques, King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz," according to a statement read on state-run Saudi TV by the country's information minister.

 

Fahd died at approximately 2:30 EDT, a senior Saudi official in Washington told The Associated Press. President Bush was alerted within minutes of Fahd's death, the official said on condition of anonymity.

 

Saudi TV, which said the king was 84 years of age, broke with regular broadcasting to announce Fahd's death. Quranic verse recitals followed the announcement by the minister, Iyad bin Amin Madani, whose voice wavered with emotion as he read the statement.

 

Madani said only that the king died of an illness.

 

Fahd died at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where he was admitted on May 27 for unspecified medical tests, an official at the hospital told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because news of the monarch's death had not been officially announced at the time.

 

At the time of his widely publicized hospitalization that caused concern home and abroad, officials said he was suffering from pneumonia and a high fever.

 

During his rule, the portly, goateed Fahd, who rose to the throne in 1982, inadvertently helped fuel the rise of Islamic extremism by making multiple concessions to hard-liners, hoping to boost his Islamic credentials. But then he also brought the kingdom closer to the United States and agreed to a step that enraged many conservatives: the basing of U.S. troops on Saudi soil after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

 

In his last years, Fahd was more of a figurehead than the actual ruler — so he was sidelined as the close relationship he nurtured with the United States deteriorated after the Sept. 11 attacks. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and many in the U.S. administration blamed kingdom's strict Wahabi school of Islam for fueling terrorism.

 

 

 

 

King Fahd's debilitating stroke in 1995 confined him mainly to a figurehead role in the kingdom. Crown Prince Abdullah has been Saudi Arabia's de facto leader since then and has led the country's battle against Islamic extremism and terrorism.

 

Abdullah oversaw the crackdown on Islamic militants after followers of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden launched a wave of attacks, beginning with the May 2003 bombings of Western residential compounds in Riyadh. Abdullah also pushed a campaign against extremist teaching and preaching and introduced the kingdom's first elections ever — municipal polls held in early 2005.

 

And Abdullah — who before coming to power had not been happy with Saudi Arabia's close alliance with and military dependence on the United States and Washington's perceived bias toward Israel — rebuilt the kingdom's ties with the U.S. He visited President Bush twice at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, most recently in April 2005.

 

Visitors who saw King Fahd after his 1995 stroke reported he was barely aware of what was going on around him and could not recognize those who shook hands with him. Foreign dignitaries usually were allowed brief meetings with him, their visits lasting only as long as it took to film TV footage for the state-run stations. He was usually accompanied by close family members to avoid any potential embarrassment.

 

On newscasts, the king was shown seated as he extended his hand to visitors or sipped coffee. Occasionally, policy statements, comments or speeches were issued in his name, and he was shown chairing ministerial meetings when Abdullah was out of town.

 

Fahd, born in Riyadh, was proclaimed the fifth king of Saudi Arabia on June 13, 1982, three years after two events that would fuel the rise of Islamic extremism in Saudi Arabia.

 

In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini founded the Islamic Republic in Shiite Iran and, in the same year, radical Muslims briefly took over the holy mosque in Mecca, proclaiming the royal family not Islamic enough to rule.

 

Those developments, coupled with the king's reputation as a former gambler and womanizer, made the liberal-leaning Fahd move toward appeasing the country's powerful religious establishment, including the morals police who enforce the strict social codes that oblige women to veil and ban men and women from mingling.

 

Saudi Arabia did not want Shiite Iran to be seen as more Islamic than the Sunni kingdom, birthplace of Islam. So Fahd took the title "custodian of the two holy mosques" — referring to Islam's holiest shrines at Mecca and Medina — and he poured millions of dollars into the religious establishment and into enlarging fundamentalist universities.

 

In the 1980s, Riyadh, Washington and Islamabad mobilized Islam to fight Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan. Millions of Saudi riyals were donated to that effort and thousands of Saudis joined the jihad, including bin Laden, in a recruitment drive encouraged by the government. The king's official biography says Fahd was "an ardent supporter" of the Afghan mujahideen.

 

But after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, Fahd, like U.S. and Pakistani officials, gave little attention to the mujahideen, who turned that country into a training ground for their attacks, including the 9/11 suicide hijackings.

 

Earlier in his rule, Fahd was credited with turning Saudi Arabia into one of the Middle East's most modern states despite tribal traditions and Islamic fundamentalists' fears that modernization would dilute Muslims' faith.

 

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

[OG_Girl]

Allah yarham the first one(King Fahad).

 

The second one...I got no emotions for him (Garang)

 

Salam

[General Duke]

May Allah have mercy on the marxuum.

 

As for politics like Ngoonge said not much will change within Saudi Arabia the Saud house is an intitution that will try to maintain order for their own sake..

 

Grange death is going to have some impact on the peace in Sudan. Like him or not he was abig player in the South.. It is quite fishy how his plane just blow up or crashed.

[NGONGE]

^^^He was the main player. To southern Sudanese, the sudden death of Garang is akin to Nelson Mandela being released from his prison cell after 27 years and dying the minute he became president! Garang has been fighting the Sudanese government for 25 years. The minute oil was found in Sudan, America and others interfered and contrived a peace deal. Garang was made vice president! Now the face of the South, their leader and hero is dead. Developments in that part of the world are probably worth watching more than what coronation King Abdullah is going to have.

[General Duke]

^^^ Indeed you are right. While the Saudi's tranfer is already complete, who will or can replace Grange in the SPLA?