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New Law in Egypt Effectively Bans Street Protests

Egypt’s military-backed government has issued a law that all but bans street protests by applying jail time or heavy fines to the public demonstrations that have felled the last two presidents and regularly roiled the capital since the Arab Spring revolt. The new law, promulgated on Sunday, is the latest evidence of a return to authoritarianism in the aftermath of the military takeover that removed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July. It criminalizes the kind of free assembly and public expression that many Egyptians had embraced as a cherished foundation of their new democracy after the 2011 ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. And the relatively muted outcry against the law, mainly from human rights advocates, demonstrated how far public sentiment has swung. Rights activists said the new law appeared even stricter than those in place under Mr. Mubarak. It effectively replaces a three-month “state […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egyptian students defy law banning protests

Egyptian security forces on Monday fired tear gas to disperse university students who had defied a new law that restricts demonstrations, the state news agency reported. Students of Al-Azhar University and Assiut University in Assiut province, south of Cairo, staged a protest, chanting against the army and police in defiance of the new law, passed on Sunday, which bans protests without prior police approval. In the first application of the new law, the Interior Ministry approved requests on Monday for protests by lawyers and political activists in front of the lawyers’ syndicate in Cairo and the State Council in Giza, it said on its Facebook page. In another statement, it issued a warning to supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, who it said were planning a protest on Tuesday in Giza province, near the pyramids, with the goal of disrupting traffic and harming tourism. “The Interior Ministry is determined to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egypt's interim president issues law restricting protests

Egypt’s interim president on Sunday banned public gatherings of more than 10 people without prior government approval, imposing hefty fines and prison terms for violators in a bid to stifle the near-constant protests roiling the country. The new law is more restrictive than regulations used under the rule of former dictator Hosni Mubarak, overthrown in Egypt’s 2011 uprising that marked the start of unrest in the country. Rights groups and activists immediately denounced the ban, saying it aims to stifle opposition, allows repressive police practices and keeps security officials largely unaccountable for possible abuses. “The law is giving a cover to justify repression by all means,” said Bahy Eddin Hassan, head of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, one of the local groups that had campaigned against the law. The military-backed government first floated the law in October. Interim President Adly Mansour approved a slightly amended version Sunday, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egypt’s interim president issues law restricting protests

Egypt’s interim president on Sunday banned public gatherings of more than 10 people without prior government approval, imposing hefty fines and prison terms for violators in a bid to stifle the near-constant protests roiling the country. The new law is more restrictive than regulations used under the rule of former dictator Hosni Mubarak, overthrown in Egypt’s 2011 uprising that marked the start of unrest in the country. Rights groups and activists immediately denounced the ban, saying it aims to stifle opposition, allows repressive police practices and keeps security officials largely unaccountable for possible abuses. “The law is giving a cover to justify repression by all means,” said Bahy Eddin Hassan, head of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, one of the local groups that had campaigned against the law. The military-backed government first floated the law in October. Interim President Adly Mansour approved a slightly amended version Sunday, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libyan army clashes with Islamist militants, three killed

Clashes between Libyan troops and militants in the eastern city of Benghazi on Monday killed at least three people and wounded a dozen more during a military operation, security and medical officials said. Still in training, Libya’s new military is struggling to curb Islamist militants and militias who fought in the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi but refuse to disarm and control parts of the country. Gunfire and explosions could be heard in Benghazi and thick smoke rose from the Ras Obeida area. The army ordered residents to stay off the city streets, witnesses said. Fighting broke out when an army special forces unit pursued a suspect into an area where Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia operates its own checkpoints, Benghazi city security officials said. Ansar al-Sharia was blamed for the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi a year ago when the U.S. ambassador and […]

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Libyan officials: Clashes in Benghazi kill 5

Clashes between armed residents and members of a militant Islamic group in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi killed five people and wounded nearly 40 early on Monday, officials said. The fighting started before dawn between armed citizens and members of the officially dissolved militant Ansar al-Shariah group, and later prompted the army’s special forces to step in to quell the violence, said security officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed across much of the city, but mainly in the Raas Obeida district and surrounding areas. Clouds of black smoke hung over Benghazi as ambulances rushed the wounded to hospital. The city’s al-Jalaa hospital received the bodies of four soldiers and one civilian, according to the hospital spokeswoman, Fadya al-Barghathi. Classes were suspended at the city’s schools and local university, and most Benghazi residents […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya’s Fragile Peace Cracks

An accident in Omar Mokhtar Avenue in downtown Tripoli. Nobody was injured but there’s a bumper hanging off the back of a car. In just a few seconds, a group gathers around. “Forget about insurance companies in Libya,” says Mansur, a 30-year-old satellite dish installer. “The main problem is that you can easily run into somebody who produces a gun; everyone carries one in their glove box. In such a case there are two options: “You can get back to your car smoothly and leave, but you could also call a brother or a cousin of yours in one of those militias so he backs you up with heavy artillery.” In Libya, the police and the army are names on paper to entities that do not exist on the ground. Security, or the lack of it, comes from the myriad […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egypt is in official mourning as misery piles up

In Egypt, misery just keeps piling on and, fittingly, the nation is officially in mourning. Political violence and unrest have plagued Egypt since the ouster in 2011 of longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak, but a flurry of deadly incidents this week appears to have touched a raw nerve in the nation’s psyche, with many Egyptians abandoning hopes for democracy and freedom and instead embracing a grim view of the future. “I think the time has come for everyone to acknowledge that the only thing this country can offer us is nightmares,” prominent activist Mona Seif wrote despairingly on her Twitter account Thursday. “It is futile that, every now and then, we try to find an excuse to be happy or optimistic.” The interim, military-backed president, Adly Mansour, announced a three-day state of national mourning Wednesday to honor 39 Egyptians who died this week. They […]

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OMV: Libyan production down since October

Austrian energy company OMV said Wednesday its oil production in Libya has been interrupted for close to a month. “Production has been interrupted since the end of October,” the company said in a statement emailed to United Press International. Simmering conflict in Libya since civil war ended in 2011 has curtailed the country’s oil and natural gas production. Rival groups in the east of the country announced in early November they declared independence for the region known as Cyrenaica, which hosts some of Libya’s key oil terminals. Labor strikes have shut down processing facilities in the west of the country. OMV said it evacuated its personnel from Libya when conflict erupted in February 2011 but re-opened its office in Tripoli 10 months later. The company announced Oct. 21 an oil discovery in Libya, made with partners Repsol and Total, was its first since the […]

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Raw Sewage and Anger Flood Gaza’s Streets as Electricity Runs Low

Raw sewage has flooded streets in a southern Gaza City neighborhood in recent days, threatening a health disaster, after a shortage of electricity and cheap diesel fuel from Egypt led the Hamas government to shut down Gaza’s lone power plant, causing a pump station to flood. Three more sewage stations in Gaza City and 10 others elsewhere in the Gaza Strip are close to overflowing, sanitation officials here said, and 3.5 million cubic feet of raw sewage is seeping into the Mediterranean Sea daily. The sanitation department may soon no longer be able to pump drinking water to Gaza homes. “Any day that passes without a solution has disastrous effects,” Farid Ashour, director of sanitation at the Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, said Tuesday in an interview. “We haven’t faced a situation as dangerous as this time.” The sewage crisis is the most acute of an […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple