After earlier being denied entry visas by the UAE's Saudi Arabia embassy, the Saudi ambassador in London, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf al Saud, intervened to help.

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The recent defection of two key Sunni figures, Tlas and Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, means all al-Assad has left is a narrow Alawite bloc with shrinking public support, Joshi said.

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Randy Hamud, an attorney for Al-Mohdar, has said the students lived in San Diego for three years and knew two of the hijackers -- Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar -- only as casual acquaintances through a local mosque.

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