His efforts to prise Harrods store from another less-than-popular tycoon, Mohamed al-Fayed, gave entertainment to millions but in the financial establishment was seen as an unseemly public brawl.

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There would be IRA outrages at the Harrods department store, in London's Hyde and Regent's Parks, in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and, in October 1984, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where Thatcher was herself the principal target.

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In 1985, the Egyptian Al-Fayed brothers won control of the House of Fraser in London and thus gained control of the department store Harrods.

CNN: Wednesday,

In Haroon Bilour's glass cabinet, along with his father's glasses, a silver Rolex watch and a pen with the logo of the British store Harrods, lies the evidence that his father Bashir killed by a suicide bomber sent by religious fanatics was a deeply pious man.

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But at Harrods, the giant London department store, sales are held only twice a year, and are so anticipated that customers line up before the doors open.

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