Tag: Egypt

WASHINGTON - A top Egyptian minister has accused the United States of imposing its "will" on its Arab ally, as the White House warned that Cairo had failed to even reach a "minimum threshold" for reform. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit lashed out in a television interview on a day when Washington took a critical line towards Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, who is in charge of a dialogue with opposition groups.
Amid warnings by the Egyptian government of a

CAIRO - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flooded Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square and towns across Egypt on Tuesday, in the biggest show of defiance to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak since the revolt began.
In Cairo, the immense crowd hailed as a hero a charismatic cyber-activist and Google executive whose Facebook site helped kickstart the protest movement on January 25 and who has since been detained and held blindfolded for 12 days.
The journalists overlooking the

CAIRO - Egypt's popular revolt has opened up new political perspectives for the biggest country in the Middle East but dealt the economy a serious blow, scaring off tourists and foreign investors. "The crisis is costing the economy at least 310 million dollars daily," since it began on January 25, said a report from Credit Agricole, lowering a growth forecast for 2011 from 5.3 percent to 3.7 percent.
Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation with 80 million people, was already

CAIRO - Authorities at Cairo airport began screening incoming and outgoing diplomatic pouches on Monday, the MENA agency said, a day after the foreign ministry accused diplomats of trying to bring weapons into Egypt. The pouches will be screened by X-ray... to stop any illegal items from entering Egypt, which has been rocked by two weeks of deadly nationwide anti-government protests.
The exceptional measures were introduced on the orders of the foreign ministry, despite

CAIRO - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's embattled regime struck a landmark deal on Sunday with opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, agreeing to jointly pursue democratic reform. After two weeks of mass street protests and with global pressure mounting for the regime to negotiate a peaceful transition to a more democratic rule, the government met its most powerful foes.
Government spokesman Magdi Radi said the parties agreed to form a committee of judges and

CAIRO/WASHINGTON - Egyptian opposition groups said on Sunday a meeting with Vice-President Omar Suleiman was positive but had done nothing specific to meet their demands for a complete political overhaul in Egypt.
Abdel Monem Aboul Fotouh, a senior member of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood which joined the talks despite the fact it is officially banned, said the government statement represented "good intentions but does not include any solid changes." "We need President Mubarak

GENEVA - UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Friday that Egypt would experience the kind of change that has swept Tunisia in the wake of a popular revolt that toppled that country's president last month. "Change is coming to Egypt, as it came to Tunisia, but the violence and bloodshed must stop now," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said as she called for an investigation into street protests in Egypt this week.
"Protestors must be properly protected, including

WASHINGTON - The US military's top officer on Friday cautioned against moves to cut off aid to Egypt due to the unrest against the government of President Hosni Mubarak. "I would just caution against doing anything until we really understand what's going on," Admiral Mike Mullen said in an interview on ABC News.
Mullen was asked a possible freeze to the vast US aid to Egypt, as a move that Republican Senator John McCain has said is being considered. "That's not mine to decide,"

KARACHI - Adviser to Prime Minister on Textiles Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig has said that the export of Pakistani textile products to Tunisia and Egypt has declined due to the political turmoil and unrest in the region, but will resume as soon as the situation stabilises.
In an issued statement, he informed that he had received representatives of various textile exporters expressing their concern on the limited exports of textile products to Egypt and Tunisia due to the ongoing turmoil

PARIS - Five EU nations urged an immediate political transition to end violent unrest in Egypt, in a joint statement on Thursday by Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. "Only a quick and orderly transition to a broad-based government will make it possible to overcome the challenges Egypt is now facing," said the statement. "That transition process must start now."
Egypt's long-standing president Hosni Mubarak is facing mass protests calling for him to quit power, which

CAIRO - Members of a cell belonging to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and convicted of plotting attacks in Egypt were among the escapees in a weekend prison break, a security official told AFP on Thursday.
The 22 cell members fled on Sunday along with members of Palestinian group Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and thousands of other convicts during a mass breakout amid anti-government protests in Egypt. The Hezbollah members escaped from Wadi Natrun north of Cairo after

CAIRO - Egypt's embattled government on Thursday announced steps aimed at defusing a bloody revolt, as protesters battled pro-regime militants for control of Cairo's Tahrir Square and spurned an offer to talk. As fighting between protesters and government loyalists raged into a second night, with an unidentified foreigner beaten to death in the square and a hypermarket torched in a Cairo suburb, a number of live feeds by foreign television channels had gone dead - apparently over

BERLIN - Revolt in Egypt and the implications for the stalled Middle East peace process are set to be key talking points for top defence officials at the Munich Security Conference in Germany from Friday. The three-day annual get-together of ministers, top military brass, national security advisors and experts will also tackle hot-button issues like Iran, Afghanistan, the rise of China, NATO-Russia relations and disarmament.
Other topics for the 750 participants, who will include

LAHORE - The political uprising in Egypt has prompted the Pakistan Hockey Federation to cancel the proposed home and away series against the Egyptian national team. The PHF was compelled to take the decision after the sports, foreign and interior ministries asked the PHF to refrain from touring the troubled country and wait until the situation turns normal.
The PHF has also asked for travel advisory from their Egyptian counterparts, but have not received any reply so far. The PHF

HONG KONG - Oil stayed above $100 a barrel Tuesday on lingering concerns over the political unrest in Egypt. The price of Brent North Sea crude broke the $100 mark in New York on Monday to hit its highest level in more than two years as protesters demanded Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak step down.
Traders sent crude prices higher on supply fears because while Egypt is not a major producer, it is home to the Suez Canal, which carries around 2.4 million barrels of oil a day -

CAIRO - Anger against routine police abuse and torture has been a driving force behind the massive popular protests sweeping across Egypt, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday.
"The Egyptian government's foul record on this issue is a huge part of what is still bringing crowds onto the streets today," Joe Stork, the US-based rights group's deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa said in an accompanying statement. The 95-page report, "Work on Him

ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday to meet his people's desire for change as he voiced support for democratic reform in the whole Middle East. In a weekly speech to his party's lawmakers in parliament, Erdogan described his appeal to Mubarak as very sincere advice, a very sincere warning.
"Hear the cry of the people and their extremely humane demands. Meet the people's desire for change without hesitation... In