Category: Egypt

An Egyptian security official says a suicide car bomber is suspected to have been behind the deadly explosion that targeted the police headquarters in a Nile Delta city the day before. The attack killed 15 people, mostly police officers, and wounded over 100. It was the deadliest bombing yet in a months-long wave of violence blamed on Islamic militants. The official said Wednesday the investigation has shown that a bomber drove a pickup truck laden with explosives close to the police headquarters in the northern city of Mansoura, then detonated it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Tuesday’s bombing brought down an entire section of the police headquarters, incinerated dozens of cars and police vehicles and damaged several buildings. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be […]

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Egypt has made a partial payment on the money it owes to international energy firms in a bid to revive confidence in its flagging hydrocarbon sector, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. Egypt has an energy debt of around $6.4 billion. It has been paying hefty premiums for its crude supplies due to the weak Egyptian pound and dwindling foreign currency reserves. It has also been facing a slowdown in oil and gas exploration activities due to continuing civil unrest following the removal of president Hosni Mubarak from office in 2011. "Some companies already received last week some payments as part of a $1.5 billion deal we agreed to pay before the end of this year," an Egyptian oil official who asked not be named told The Wall Street Journal. "The rest of the $1.5 billion will be paid to the companies this week as […]

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A bomb blast tore through a police compound in Egypt’s Nile Delta on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding 134 in one of the deadliest attacks since the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July. The army-backed government vowed to fight "black terrorism", saying the blast an hour after midnight in the city of Mansoura north of Cairo would not derail a political transition plan whose next step is a January referendum on a new constitution. With eight policemen among the dead, the blast pointed to the risk of militancy moving to the densely populated Nile Valley from the Sinai Peninsula, where attacks have killed some 200 members of the security forces since Mursi’s downfall. "We face an enemy that has no religion or nation," Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, the survivor of an assassination attempt in September, said while inspecting the scene of the blast, […]

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Clashes between the police and students in Egypt have intensified in recent weeks, partly shutting some of the country’s top universities and taking a heavy toll on demonstrators. At least two students have been killed and hundreds more injured or arrested since early November. Since the start of the Arab Spring protests, in 2010, Egyptian universities have experienced their fair share of tumult. But recently the situation has reached a fever pitch. The ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in July triggered student protests against the military-backed government, resulting in a crackdown by security forces. The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, an Egyptian group that monitors academic freedom, has denounced a “widespread violation of universities’ independence and the rights and freedoms of their students.” Protests have taken place at universities across the country — most notably at the Islamic university of Al-Azhar and at Cairo University. […]

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An al-Qaida-inspired group in Egypt’s volatile Sinai has warned the country’s military and police, urging troops to desert their ranks or face death at the hands of its fighters. Ansar Jerusalem, or Ansar Beit al-Maqdis as the group is known, said in a statement on militant websites Monday that it considers Egyptian troops to be infidels because they answer to a secular government. If the warning is ignored, Ansar Jerusalem says it "will be more determined to fight" the military and police. Like other Sinai-based militant groups, Ansar Jerusalem has been blamed for rising attacks against Egypt’s forces since a July coup toppled the country’s former Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. The group has also said it was behind a September suicide bombing that targeted Egypt’s interior minister, who escaped unharmed. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

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An al-Qaida-inspired group in Egypt’s volatile Sinai has warned the country’s military and police, urging troops to desert their ranks or face death at the hands of its fighters. Ansar Jerusalem, or Ansar Beit al-Maqdis as the group is known, said in a statement on militant websites Monday that it considers Egyptian troops to be infidels because they answer to a secular government. If the warning is ignored, Ansar Jerusalem says it "will be more determined to fight" the military and police. Like other Sinai-based militant groups, Ansar Jerusalem has been blamed for rising attacks against Egypt’s forces since a July coup toppled the country’s former Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. The group has also said it was behind a September suicide bombing that targeted Egypt’s interior minister, who escaped unharmed. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

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The world’s population broke the 7 billion person barrier in 2011 and is projected to increase by 40 percent in the coming forty years. Population growth averages vary among the world’s nations, with the populations of developed nations expected to increase by just 10 percent, and the greater part of population growth expected to come from developing nations, especially the least developed, where population is expected to double in the coming four decades. So what about Egypt’s population outlook? Egyptian census data shows that in 1948, Egypt’s population reached nearly twenty million, added another twenty million by 1975, twenty million more by 1994, with the populace reaching sixty million. Another twenty million over the next seventeen years means eighty million Egyptians by 2011. Egyptians needed thousands of years to reach the first twenty million, before managing to double several times in a few years, without creating a […]

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A court in Egypt has sentenced 21 female supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi to 11 years in prison. They were found guilty of multiple charges, including belonging to a terrorist group, obstructing traffic, sabotage and using force at a protest in the city of Alexandria last month. Seven are under 18 years of age and will be sent to a juvenile prison. Human rights groups criticised the sentences, with one campaigner describing the verdict as madness. The women and girls had taken part in an early morning demonstration in support of Mr Morsi. Relatives say it was the first protest by the group, called the 7am movement, and that it was peaceful. One family told the BBC their 15-year-old daughter was only passing by on her way to school. A defence lawyer said the women expected to be sentenced to a […]

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The riot police brought a violent end to peaceful protests here on Tuesday, beating, sexually harassing and detaining some of Egypt’s most prominent human rights activists in a burst of repression that seemed likely to broaden opposition to the military-backed government. The crackdown was the highest-profile police action against non-Islamist protesters since July 3, when the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi , setting off months of bloody civil conflict between Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters and the state. While the deadly repression of Islamists in recent months has evoked little sympathy from the public or consternation among officials, the violence on Tuesday posed a bigger threat to the government, which has relied on support from non-Islamists. In scenes that spread on social media, activists who have played central roles in Egypt’s post-revolt struggles were manhandled and groped by officers, some in plain clothes, and shoved into police vans. […]

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Egypt’s state news agency says the prosecutor general has ordered a four-day detention for 24 activists detained while protesting a newly passed law criminalizing demonstrations without permits. MENA also says the prosecutor on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for two leading activists accused of inciting demonstrators. He also released more than 10 female protesters. Witnesses say the women were released in the desert in the middle of the night. On Tuesday, security forces used water cannons to break up the demonstration outside Cairo’s upper house of parliament, where protesters denounced a proposed constitutional amendment allowing military courts to try civilians. Many observers said police behavior was reminiscent of the days former President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s longtime autocrat ousted in 2011.

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