Egypt News By Asfory
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A preliminary military inquiry found evidence that U.S. Marines killed two dozen Iraqi civilians in an unprovoked attack in November, contradicting the troops’ account, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

Forensic evidence from corpses showed that victims had bullet wounds, despite the initial statements by Marines that the civilians were killed by a roadside bomb that also claimed the life of a soldier, a defense official said.

“The forensics painted a different story than what the Marines had said,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The official said the bodies had wounds that would not have been caused by an improvised explosive device.

President George W. Bush said on Wednesday there would be punishment if an investigation turns up evidence of wrongdoing by U.S. Marines in the killings in the Iraqi town of Haditha.

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In a major policy shift toward Iran, the U.S. said it would join direct multilateral talks with Tehran over its nuclear program if the Islamic Republic suspended its uranium enrichment activities, Reuters reported.

The U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the proposal was part of a package of incentives and sanctions whose “essential elements” have been agreed with Britain, France and Germany.

Rice said that “as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table”.

She added that the move was “to enhance the prospects for success”.

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U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday.

Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday.

Jassim, the mother of two children, and her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were killed by the U.S. forces, according to police Capt. Laith Mohammed and witnesses.

The U.S. military said coalition troops fired at a car after it entered a clearly marked prohibited area near an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings.

“Shots were fired to disable the vehicle,” the military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. “Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds … and one of the females may have been pregnant.”

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Defense lawyers for toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accused the prosecution of trying to bribe a witness and putting another on the stand who perjured himself, Reuters reported.

Saddam and seven members of the former Iraqi regime are accused of a crackdown that led to the execution of 148 Shias in the village of Dujail following a 1982 failed assassination attempt on Saddam. All the accused have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

If convicted, they could face the death penalty.

The trial is now in the defense phase, which is expected to take some weeks.

On Wednesday, a defense witness, speaking from behind a curtain to protect his identity, accused chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi of offering him money in 2004 to give false testimony.

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Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has declared a month-long state of emergency in Basra, which has been plagued by sectarian clashes, anarchy and factional rivalry.
Visiting the city, Mr Maliki said he would use an “iron fist” to crush those who threaten security.

The prime minister has accused criminal gangs of holding the city’s oil exports and other trade to ransom.

More than 100 people have died in the last month in Basra – until recently seen as one of Iraq’s safer cities.

Relations between Basra’s garrison of 8,000-odd British troops and the city’s dominant Shias used to be cordial but have deteriorated rapidly in the past few months.

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The U.S. army sent about 1,500 additional troops to Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday, according to AFP.

General George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, ordered the deployment of two armed battalions from Kuwait, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

The Pentagon said the extra troops were on a “short-term deployment” and would take from 15 to 16 the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq, dimming prospects for reductions in U.S. troop levels this year.

However, Whitman said U.S. troops levels in Iraq still stood at 133,000 despite the recent deployment. But he noted that the movement of forces into and out of Iraq is “dynamic” and that the total number of U.S. soldiers could climb.

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Britain’s largest union of college teachers voted to boycott Israeli academics and universities who fail to oppose their government’s “apartheid policies” against the Palestinians, AFP reported.

Members of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) passed the motion on Monday at their annual conference in Blackpool, northern England despite growing pressure from pro-Israeli groups.

The motion, which criticizes Israel’s “apartheid policies”, slams what it describes as the “exclusion wall” between Israel and parts of the Palestinian territories. It also criticizes “discriminatory educational practices” in Israeli higher education.

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A Cairo Family Court has declared that Lina, the young daughter of Egyptian interior designer Hind Hinawi, is in fact the biological child of young Egyptian actor Ahmad Fishawi.
Hind had appealed an earlier ruling against her. According to the London based daily, Al Sharq Al Awsat, the court had based its decision on the fact that the Islamic faith does not recognize intimate relationships out of wedlock, or the children born from them.
Hind testified that the two were secretly married. Ahmad admitted that he had an illicit affair with Hind, but claimed that they never secretly married. However, DNA test do not lie.

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في قضية نسب الطفلة لينا أخشي أن أنضم الي طرف فأتهم بالخلق الفاسد، وأخشي أن أنضم الي الطرف الآخر فأتهم بفساد الخلق.

كل الفلسفات السياسية في القرن العشرين كانت تنافق الإنسان الصغير‏.‏ أولاد الشوارع‏,‏ وكل الزعماء السياسيين يؤكدون أنهم ولدوا في الشوارع لأبوين يعيشان علي الأرصفة‏!‏

إلا شوارع أمريكا اللاتينية فهي مخصصة لكرة القدم‏,‏ ففي البرازيل وحدها عشرة ملايين طفل يلعبون في الشوارع‏,‏ وإذا أراد أحد الأندية أن يبحث عن جوهرة سوداء ارتاد الشوارع‏.‏

وفي العام الماضي‏,‏ توقف بيليه الجوهرة السوداء في أحد الشوارع يتفرج علي طفل يلعب‏,‏ هذا الطفل يذكره بشبابه‏,‏ فحمله في السيارة هو وأبواه إلي أحد الملاعب الكبري‏,‏ وتعاقد الأب مع النادي‏,‏ وانضم الطفل الموهوب إلي أطفال آخرين في النادي يحتضنهم ويربيهم ويطعمهم ويسقيهم ويتعاقد من أجلهم مع أندية أوروبية تشتري هذه المواهب بعد سنوات‏.‏ فكل نجوم كرة القدم اللاتينية أولاد شوارع ويشرفهم ذلك‏.‏

ويجب ألا ننسي أن شوارعهم غير شوارعنا‏,‏ فشوارعنا شتيمة إهانة زرية طالعة نازلة قذرة‏,‏ أما شوارعهم فليست كذلك‏.‏

وفي الحماس الشديد لكأس العالم تحولت كل الشوارع والميادين في أمريكا اللاتينية إلي أطفال يلعبون أمام السيارات وعلي الأرصفة‏,‏ فالدول الأوروبية تري مستقبلها بين أقدام هؤلاء الأطفال‏.‏

ولكن منذ أيام قررت ولاية لانكشير الانجليزية منع الأطفال من اللعب في الشوارع‏,‏ وإلا فالغرامة خمسون جنيها أو الحبس‏.‏

وقد نشر البوليس هذا القانون الجديد بسبب تعرض الأطفال لخطر السيارات‏,‏ وشكوي أصحاب السيارات من كرة القدم التي تحطم الزجاج‏,‏ أو التي تربك السائقين‏.‏

وقد شكا كثيرون من هذا القانون الذي يحرم الطفل من حريته البريئة‏,‏ بدلا من المخدرات والسرقة‏,‏ ولكن القانون لا يلين‏.‏

وفي الوقت نفسه‏,‏ تقدم ليشكر البوليس كثير من الآباء وأصحاب السيارات‏,‏ وهاجمت الصحف الرياضية هذا القانون‏,‏ ولكن وقفت المقاطعة ضد قرارها‏:‏ الغرامة أو الحبس حتي لو أدي ذلك إلي انعدام أبطال كرة القدم‏..‏ فالقانون أقوي من الكرة‏!‏