Egypt News By Asfory
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The U.N. nuclear agency declared Iran had failed to halt nuclear work by a Thursday deadline, and Tehran defied the threat of sanctions by vowing never to abandon a program the West fears could give it atom bombs.
A confidential report of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), leaked to Reuters, said Iran resumed enriching small amounts of uranium in recent days. The agency said its probes had been blocked by lack of Iranian cooperation.

“Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities,” the report said.

“Iran has not addressed the long outstanding verification issues or provided the necessary transparency to remove uncertainties associated with some of its activities,” it said.

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The country’s leading Muslim clerics led mourners in special prayers Thursday for Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, some of whose work was condemned by Islamic extremists as sacrilegious.
President Hosni Mubarak joined a military funeral for Mahfouz at the al-Rashdan mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City neighborhood. Mahfouz, the only Arab to have won a Nobel Prize for literature, died Wednesday at age 94.

Earlier, the author’s coffin was wrapped in a green shroud with the words “There is no god but God” in gold letters as it was driven to the Hussein mosque accompanied by a crowd of friends and admirers.

“With the clear faith we see between the lines of Mahfouz’s books, he managed to reach all hearts in the world, not only Arabs or Muslims,” said Ali Gomaa, Egypt’s grand mufti, as he spoke before the coffin.

Leading the prayer service was Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheik at Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s most important seat of learning. The presence of the two leading clerics was seen as an attempt to rebut allegations that Mahfouz was not a devout Muslim.

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The Israeli military said Thursday that it transferred control of a small portion of the Israel-Lebanon border to Lebanese and UN troops for the first time in more than two decades, The Associated Press news agency reported.

Lebanese and UN forces started deploying in southern Lebanon two weeks ago as part of a UN-brokered ceasefire that ended the 34-day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

Hezbollah had been in charge of southern Lebanon, but Israeli forces occupied an area about 9 miles inside Lebanon after the fighting ended.

The Israelis have been gradually transferring control of this zone to Lebanese and UN forces since then.

Under Resolution 1701, 15,000 international peacekeeping troops will be deployed in southern Lebanon to back an equal number of Lebanese soldiers.

The Israeli army said on Thursday that it withdrew from a small area of the border near the Israeli town of Metulla.

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The United Nations’ humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, slammed Israel for its “completely immoral” use of cluster bombs in Lebanon, the BBC reported.

UN efforts to clear cluster bombs in Lebanon have been under way since the Israeli offensive ended two weeks ago.

According to Egeland, the UN Mine Action Co-ordination Centrehad had found “nearly 85 percent of bombed areas in south Lebanon” and identified “359 separate cluster bomb strike locations that are contaminated with as many 100,000 unexploded bomblets.”

“What’s shocking and I would say completely immoral is that 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict when we knew there would be a resolution, when we knew there would be an end,” he said.

The UN Security Council passed a ceasefire resolution to end the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday 11 August. The truce itself came into effect on Monday, August 14.

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Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad challenged the U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday to a televised debate on world affairs, the BBC reported.

President Ahmadinejad said Iran and many other states are against “America’s unjust practices in managing the world”.

“Isn’t it time that international relations are founded on democracy and equal rights of the nations?”

“I suggest holding a live TV debate with Mr. George W. Bush to talk about world affairs and the ways to solve those issues…

The debate should be go uncensored in order for the American people to be able to listen to what we say and they should not restrict the American people from hearing the truth,” Ahmadinejad told a news conference.

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The US government has been criticised for granting a visa to former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.
Some US politicians and a Jewish rights group have protested against the move, saying they consider Iran a threat to the country.

But former President Jimmy Carter is reported to be interested in meeting Mr Khatami, who is making a private visit.

The US state department said there were no plans for him to meet government officials.

The US granted the visa on Tuesday despite a looming showdown at the United Nations over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Opposition

Mr Khatami is to give a speech at Washington’s National Cathedral on Thursday 7 September on the role that Islam, Judaism and Christianity can play in shaping peace.

He will also attend a conference at the UN on promoting dialogue.

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US military prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for a US marine charged with killing an Iraqi civilian.
Pte John Jodka, 20, is one of eight US soldiers accused of taking Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home in Hamdania, near Baghdad, and shooting him dead.

Prosecutors say the troops also placed a rifle by the man’s body to make it appear he was an insurgent.

The hearing was part of a procedure aimed at establishing whether there is enough proof to court martial the men.

Another soldier accused in the Hamdania murder, Cpl Marshall Magincalda, 23, also appeared at the hearing at Camp Pendleton base, California.

Lawyers for both the men said they were concerned their clients may not receive a fair trial.
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قتل الجيش الاسرائيلي الخميس فادي الخفايشة البالغ من العمر 29 عاما وهو قائد كتائب شهداء الأقصى بمدينة نابلس في الضفة الغربية، وذلك وفقا لما ذكرته مصادر أمنية وطبية.

ولقي الخفايشة حتفه في اشتباك مع الجنود الاسرائيليين في الحي القديم بالمدينة.

وقالت المصادر إن 4 آخرين من عناصر كتائب شهداء الأقصى أصيبوا في الاشتباك.

وكان ثمانية فلسطينيين على الأقل قد قتلوا الأربعاء في إطار العملية العسكرية الإسرائيلية المتواصلة في غزة.

وأفادت مصادر طبية وشهود عيان بأن بين القتلى أربعة من المسلحين واربعة مدنيين قتلوا بالرصاص الإسرائيلي في حادثين منفصلين في حي الشجاعية في مدينة غزة.

وبهذا يرتفع الضحايا من الفلسطينيين الذين قتلوا في غزة خلال الأربعة والعشرين ساعة الماضية الى 14 قتيلا بينما رفعت مصادر أخرى العدد الى 18 قتيلا.

وأكدت مصادر إسرائيلية مقتل اربعة مسلحين فلسطينيين بنيران إسرائيلية وأشارت إلى أن بين القتلى اثنين قاما بإطلاق صواريخ مضادة للدبابات باتجاه المدرعات الإسرائيلية المشاركة في العملية.

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The U.S. government should have been quicker to employ local firms to help rebuild Iraq instead of relying on U.S. corporations whose contracts gave them no incentive to minimize costs, a U.S. official said on Thursday.
The top U.S. auditor for Iraqi reconstruction also said it was too early to say whether Iraqis would “get value for money” from the $22 billion Washington is investing on rebuilding postwar Iraq. The program has been beset by complaints of waste, fraud and corruption that his office is investigating.

Thirty percent of the projects inspected by his office had not met the required standard and some were outright failures.

“The program is obviously still in full swing, and to make a judgment about its success or failure at this point would be premature,” Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, told journalists in Baghdad.

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An armed man threatening to commit suicide apparently breached security at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv and was loose on the grounds inside, Israeli police said Thursday. The man, of Arab descent, was demanding asylum in the United Kingdom, police officials said.
Embassy spokeswoman Karen Kaufman said police had been invited into the embassy compound and were seeking to deal with the situation. There were no reports of any shots fired.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was armed with a pistol and police were on the scene and had made contact with him. Police said anti-terrorist units had surrounded the site.

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