Egypt News اخبار مصر
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The U.S. Senate passed a bill that authorizes tough interrogation techniques and prosecution for terror suspects, despite opponents who said the legislation would strip the detainees of their rights, the Associated Press reported.

The Senate’s 65-34 vote on Thursday came hours after President Bush urged Republicans to back the bill ahead of the November 7 elections that will determine control of Congress.

The House of Representatives approved a nearly identical bill on Wednesday. It must now make a technical change to reconcile it with the Senate’s and then send it to President Bush to sign it.

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The U.S. Congress on Friday moved to block the Bush administration from building permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq or controlling the country’s oil sector, as it approved $70 billion for funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The restrictions included in a record $447 billion military funding bill were a slap at the administration, and Republicans have stripped them out of legislation in the past.

Democrats and many Republicans say the Iraqi insurgency has been fueled by perceptions that the United States has ambitions for a permanent presence in the country. They have called on Bush to make a policy statement that the United States has no such plans.

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Unidentified gunmen shot dead two relatives of the new chief judge in the genocide trial of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, police said, according to AFP.

An Iraqi government spokesman said gunmen opened fire late Thursday on a car carrying members of Judge Muhammad Oreibi al-Khalifa in a mainly Sunni district in western Baghdad.

“The brother-in-law (identified as Kadhem Abdul Hussein) and his 10-year-old son were assassinated in Ghazaliyah while they went to collect some of their belongings. They have been assassinated by some unknown group,” spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.

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A car bomb exploded in a town south of the coastal city of Tel Aviv on Friday, killing one person and injuring six others, Israeli police said, according to Reuters.

The explosion took place at a main junction in Rishton Letzion, about 10 km south of Tel Aviv, rescue and ambulance services said.

Initial reports suggested that a human bomber might have caused the blast, but police later said it was a criminal act and not a politically motivated attack.

“I can confirm the background to the attack was criminal,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to travel to the Middle East next week to try to revive peace moves between Israel and the Palestinians.

A spokesman said she would leave on Sunday to visit Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Israel’s PM says he hopes to meet the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, for a summit within days.

It would be their first formal summit since Mr Olmert took over as Israeli leader from Ariel Sharon in January.

In the same month, the militant movement Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, won Palestinian parliamentary elections and Israel froze contacts.

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A letter from 1988 in which Iran’s top commander says Iran could need a nuclear bomb to win the war against Iraq has come to light in Tehran.

The commander is quoted in the letter, written by the father of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, to top officials in the final days of the war.

It has only now been made public - by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The letter seems at odds with Tehran’s statements that Iran is not seeking a bomb because it is against Islam.

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صاروخا اسرائيليا ضرب شمال قطاع غزة يوم الجمعة مما أدى الى مقتل شخصين. وصرحت متحدثة باسم الجيش الاسرائيلي بأن الاثنين استهدفا وهما ينقلان منصة لإطلاق الصواريخ استخدمت عدة مرات في الاسبوع الماضي لاطلاق صواريخ من شمال غزة. وذكرت أنهما استهدفا من قبل القوات البرية لا من الجو لكنها أحجمت عن الكشف عن طبيعة السلاح المستخدم في العملية. ‏

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Russia started evacuating personnel from its embassy in the Georgian capital as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili angrily denied that they were in danger, during a row over the arrest of alleged Russian spies.

A first plane arrived in Tbilisi to begin the partial evacuation of embassy staff and family members and would leave later in the day with about 100 people, the embassy said Friday.

Russian embassy spokesman Mikhail Svirin told AFP that in the Russian view the “security threat is credible”.

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Controversial Egyptian belly dancer and actor Dina has denied circulating rumors that she is suffering from a life threatening illness, and that she has been hiding her illness to protect her career.

Dina suddenly fainted on the set of her upcoming television drama and was admitted to a hospital, which prompted the rumors in the Egyptian entertainment community that she is suffering from a serious illness.

The director and producer of the drama granted Dina a leave of absence to recover.

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Women who gain as little as 7 pounds between pregnancies can put themselves and their babies at medical risk, even if they don’t become overweight, suggests a provocative study of thousands of women.

Researchers found that gaining weight during that interval — not during the pregnancy itself — raised the risk of such complications as diabetes and high blood pressure during the second pregnancy, and even stillbirth.

Pregnant women with diabetes or high blood pressure are at risk of convulsions or organ damage, which in severe cases, can be fatal.

The results provide new evidence that overweight or obese women who plan to become pregnant should lose weight, and that women with healthy weights should avoid packing on pounds before pregnancy, the researchers said.

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