Egypt News By Asfory
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Iran failed to comply with a UN Security Council deadline to halt uranium enrichment, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report on Friday, Reuters reported.

IAEA chief, Muhammad El-Baradei told the Council that Tehran accelerated its nuclear program, confirming Iran’s announcement this month that it enriched uranium with a cascade of 164 centrifuges to the low level used in power stations. This must be purified to a much higher level for bomb-making.

The IAEA also said that Tehran was building two new cascades of 164 centrifuges at its underground enrichment plant.

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Egypt blamed suicide attacks in the Sinai peninsula this week on local Bedouins linked to an Islamic radical group also responsible for other bloody bombings in Red Sea resorts in the past 18 months.

“The information indicates that the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks that occurred in Dahab and al-Gura are Sinai bedouins,” Adly told state television late Wednesday. “They also have connections to previous incidents in Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh,” the minister said after five suicide bombers struck within 48 hours in the peninsula.

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The U.N. nuclear watchdog has chided Egypt in a confidential report for failing to declare nuclear sites and materials but said its inspections had so far found no evidence Cairo is seeking nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in the report obtained by Reuters on Monday that Egypt did not understand it had to declare some nuclear sites and materials, including a plant for separating plutonium, which can be used in an atomic bomb.

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The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has soared and may now reach $811bn (£445bn), says a report by the Congressional Research Service.
It estimates that Congress has appropriated $368bn for the global war on terror, including both conflicts.

It says that if the current spending bill is approved, US war costs will reach $439bn, and it estimates that an extra $371bn may be needed by 2016.

On that basis, the two wars would cost more than the $579bn spent in Vietnam.

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Thirty people were killed, including seven Iraqi soldiers, when rebels attacked Iraqi police stations and army posts in Baquba on Thursday, the U.S. army said, according to Reuters.

In one raid, rebels attacked a police station and five police checkpoints with mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. Iraqi troops and police killed 17 rebels, U.S. military sources said. One Iraqi soldier was killed and two wounded in this raid.

In another operation, rebels, also armed with mortar rounds and rocket launchers, attacked an Iraqi army headquarters. Four rebels and six Iraqi soldiers were killed in those clashes, which also left two Iraqi civilians dead, the U.S. army said in a statement.

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President Bush approved a deal under which a Dubai-owned company would takeover nine U.S. plants that supply the Pentagon, White House spokesman Scott McClellan announced on Friday, according to Reuters.
Under the $1.24 billion deal, the Dubai International Capital, which is owned by the United Arab Emirates government, would take over Doncasters Group Ltd, a British engineering company with U.S. plants that manufacture parts for American military vehicles and aircraft.

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أفرجت السلطات المصرية عن مدير مكتب قناة الجزيرة في القاهرة، وذلك بعد احتجازه لأكثر من يوم واتهامه بنقل أخبار كاذبة.

وكانت الشرطة المصرية قد استجوبت حسين عبد الغني حول تغطيته لتفجيرات سيناء.

وقالت وزارة الداخلية إن عبد الغني نقل أنباء كاذبة تحدثت عن وقوع انفجار في محافظة الشرقية.

وقال ناطق باسم الوزارة: “حسين عبد الغني قال إن هناك أحداثا وقعت في الشرقية إلا أنه لم يقع شئ. إنه ينشر التضليل”.

من جهته قال عبد الغني للجزيرة في حديث هاتفي إنه في حالة جيدة لكنه لم ينم خلال الساعات الأربعين الماضية.

وقال حسين عبد الغني في المقابلة التي بثتها القناة معه عبر الهاتف إنه كان يتحدث من داخل مكتب المدعي العام في مصر. ونفى عبد الغني تهمة “نشر أنباء زائفة”.

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NATO is ready to increase assistance in Sudan’s Darfur region but alliance ministers agreed on Friday that any presence should be limited and only in support of African or U.N. efforts.
In its first operation on the African continent, NATO has already provided training and transport to African Union troops struggling to quell the violence there and some nations such as the United States want the alliance to engage more strongly.

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Iran’s U.N. ambassador on Thursday denounced Israel’s election as a vice-chair of the U.N. Disarmament Commission, calling the Jewish state a threat to peace in the Middle East.
Ambassador Javad Zarif accused Israel of “violating every single Security Council resolution that has been adopted about the Middle East.” He also lashed out at Israeli criticism of Iran’s own election as a vice-chair of the commission, noting the Jewish state has refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but “has the audacity to talk about another country having a seat.”

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The Egyptian government will establish a centralized call to the five daily prayers that will be heard throughout Cairo via loudspeakers, AFP reported.

Muslim prayer calls are transmitted via loudspeakers of different mosques five times a day. The muezzins, who deliver the prayer calls, often announce the prayers two or three minutes apart, causing much confusion.

Under the new plan, one muezzin would call for the prayers and his voice would be broadcast at different mosques in the Greater Cairo area.
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