Iran detains five in death of journalist from Canada

TEHRAN, Iran -- Authorities detained five Iranian security agents in connection with the death of a journalist from Canada who died in police custody, state-run Tehran radio reported Saturday.

The officers were detained a day earlier after "comprehensive investigations" into the death of Zahra Kazemi's on July 10, the report said, quoting a statement from Iran's judiciary.

Kazemi, 54, died of head injuries and had complained before her death of abuse by guards, according to a report from a presidential committee.

The Iran-born journalist, who lived in Montreal, was arrested while taking photos of a prison during student-led protests. She was interrogated for 77 hours before Revolutionary Guards took her to a hospital, where she died from her injuries two weeks later.

The radio report did not identify the security agents who were detained, the agency where they worked or any details about their alleged involvement in the death except to say they were "in close contact" with Kazemi while she was in custody.

Saudis slam critical report by U.S. Congress

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudis reacted angrily Saturday to a U.S. congressional report that accuses the kingdom of not doing enough to counter terrorism and threatens to put the Persian Gulf state under increased pressure to crack down on militants.

Newspaper editorials slammed the report into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, while analysts were outraged by suggestions that Saudi Arabia would aid the same breed of al-Qaida terrorists who also strike their own country -- Osama bin Laden's birthplace.

"This is like a sword over our heads," said Khalid Batarfi, managing editor of Al-Madina newspaper. "Now they will try to blackmail us and say either you do what we want, in terms of oil policy or support for the peace plan, or we will publish those 28 pages," he added, referring to a portion of the report, believed to refer to Saudi Arabia, that remains classified.

The unclassified version of the report said that one suspected facilitator known to investigators but still at large -- Omar al-Bayoumi -- paid many of the expenses of two Sept. 11 hijackers and "had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia."

Test-tube babies mark 25th birthday of first

BOURN, England -- When Louise Brown cut a big, frosted cake at a huge lawn party Saturday, she was celebrating far more than her own 25th birthday.

Brown, the world's first test-tube baby, marked the anniversary of in vitro fertilization, a technique that revolutionized treatment for the infertile and has brought about the conception of more than 1 million children.

Hundreds of IVF babies and their families gathered to celebrate the medical milestone at Bourn Hall Clinic outside Cambridge, founded in 1980 by Dr. Robert Edwards and the late Dr. Patrick Steptoe.

"For the first time, science and medicine had entered human conception in the most decisive manner," Edwards said.

--From wire reports