Egypt News By Asfory
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Iran is ready to hold its first talks with world powers in more than a year about its disputed nuclear program any time after November 10, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Friday.

The meeting with a group of six world powers would be the first in the long-running dispute since October 2009 and also the first since the United Nations, the United States and European Union imposed tougher sanctions on Iran this year.

Western officials say the punitive measures are increasingly damaging the economy of the world No. 5 oil producer and that this may persuade it to agree to curb sensitive atomic activity.

Iran has dismissed the impact of sanctions and shown no sign of backing down over a uranium enrichment drive. It says it has a sovereign right to pursue peaceful nuclear power, but the West suspects it aims to build unlawful atomic bombs.

The six global powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — want Iran to suspend enrichment work which can have both civilian and military uses, in exchange for trade and diplomatic benefits on offer since 2006.

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Several cargo planes have been grounded at separate US airports as authorities investigate suspicious packages, the Transportation Security Administration has said.

The investigations are at Newark in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

The planes were taken to remote locations to be searched.

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The UN tribunal investigating the killing of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, says it expects full co-operation from the government.

A spokeswoman told the BBC the leader of the Shia Islamist group, Hezbollah, was attempting to obstruct its work.

She was reacting to an appeal from Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday for all Lebanese to boycott the inquiry.

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Tens of thousands of supporters of the militant Islamic Jihad movement rallied in the streets of Gaza on Friday, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

Young men and boys wearing white T-shirts with a slogan in the shape of a rifle bore portraits of militants killed in combat, under the black flags of Islamic Jihad.

Ramadan Shallah, the group’s exiled chief in Damascus, sent a recorded message marking the anniversary of the assassination of the group’s leader Fathi Shiqaqi in Malta in 1995, by presumed Israeli secret agents.

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The trial of 25 Shia Muslim opposition activists has opened in Bahrain, five days after a tense general election.

The activists have pleaded not guilty to charges of plotting to overthrow the Sunni-led government and to supporting “terror cells” in the Gulf kingdom.

Some of the accused have told the court that they were tortured behind bars.

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Many of the last strikers holding out against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform returned to work Friday, heralding a possible end to their battle but leaving France with a deep social malaise.

Workers at oil refineries, where industrial action in recent weeks had threatened to paralyse the country, voted to return to work the day after nationwide demonstrations brought only half previous numbers onto the street.

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Still wondering what to get that special someone for the holidays?

Why not “earrings with giraffe tail slices” from German anatomist Guenter von Hagens’ new online shop for euro41.53 ($57.55)?

Von Hagens, famous for his “Body Worlds” traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts, said Friday his new Internet shop is going online Nov. 3.

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One of Egypt’s best-selling novelists lashed out on Friday at an unauthorized Hebrew translation of his best known novel, describing it as intellectual “theft.”

Alaa al-Aswany told The Associated Press that he will sue an Israeli center for translating his hit book, “The Yacoubian Building,” without his permission.

The Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information acknowledged it translated the novel against Al-Aswany’s will on the grounds of “expanding cultural awareness.”

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عاد مهاجم الاهلي محمد طلعت للمشاركة في التدريبات الجماعية للفريق فيما بات الليبيري فرانسيس جاهزاً للمشاركة في لقاء انبي بالجولة العاشرة من الدوري المصري الممتاز.

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عرفات في ذمة الله ونتمني من الله ألا يكون الصراع المرتقب علي السلطة سببا لأن تصبح‮ ‬القضية الفلسطينية في ذمة الله‮.‬ …