Tag: Egypt

TOKYO - Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday called on Cairo to form a "democratic government" as several hundred thousand Egyptians massed in an eighth day of protest against President Hosni Mubarak.
"It is desirable that Egypt will undergo a transition to a democratic government in a peaceful manner by communicating fully with the people," Kan told reporters. Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said he wanted the Mubarak government to listen to the Egyptian people and make

LAHORE - The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), in a bid to prove that Pakistan is safe for sports activities, is giving final touches to preparations for the series against Egypt.
After February 26, 2006 when Pakistan-India were locked 3-3, Pakistan has not hosted any series. Lately, Pakistan tennis suffered a setback when the International Tennis Federation (ITF) asked Pakistan to play their Davis Cup home tie in Hong Kong. The ITF was not satisfied with the security

CAIRO - Egypt has substantial reserves to avoid an external payments crisis but these could be seriously depleted within weeks if political protests continue, while its banks may struggle to cope with a rush of withdrawals. In the two working days after the protests erupted on Tuesday, which was a bank holiday, Egyptians and foreign investors transferred hundreds of millions of dollars out of Egypt, currency traders estimated.
The government had $36 billion in foreign reserves at

CAIRO - Egypt's all-powerful army on Monday said the people's demands were legitimate and vowed not to fire on them as protesters, who are demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, prepared a general strike and million-strong marches. In what is seen as a sop, a new cabinet line-up was announced in which widely hated interior minister Habib al-Adly and the previous finance and culture ministers were axed.
But protesters massed in downtown Cairo vowed they would only be

ISLAMABAD - All Pakistanis in Egypt are safe and if needed, they will be rescued from the troubled country, said the Foreign Office here on Sunday.
The Foreign Office spokesman, Abdul Basit, in a statement, said there were at least 150 Pakistani families in Egypt and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassy in Cairo were in close contact.
He said the government of Pakistan would take every possible step to ensure the wellbeing and safety of Pakistani citizens.

CAIRO - The US, Turkey, India and Iraq on Sunday started organising the evacuation of their nationals from Egypt as an angry anti-government revolt raged into a sixth day amid increasing lawlessness and mass jail breaks.
"The US embassy in Cairo informs US citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the department of state is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Europe," an embassy statement said, as other countries issued travel warnings and

JERUSALEM - Israel's leaders anxiously watched events in Egypt on Sunday as analysts warned that if a new leadership was dominated by Islamists it could threaten 30 years of peace between the two neighbours.
As the wave of unprecedented protests continued to engulf Egypt, Israeli officials have been nervously eyeing the developments and assessing the likely impact on ties with the Jewish state. "We are attentively following what is going on in Egypt and in our region," Israeli

CAIRO - At least 73 people have been killed across Egypt and thousands injured in anti-government riots since Friday, according to medics. At least 62 people were killed on Friday and 11 on Saturday, and thousands injured in clashes between protesters and police, in unprecedented rallies demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Condemning the violence, President Mubarak sacked the cabinet but made clear he intended to stay in power. The president went into crisis talks

CAIRO/LONDON/WASHINGTON - Embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called out the army and declared a nationwide curfew on Friday, as tens of thousands of protesters rampaged through the streets of major cities demanding his ouster. A curfew in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez kicked in at 6pm and was supposed to run until 7am, state television reported but later it said the curfew had been extended to cover all 28 governorates in the country.
Mubarak "has asked the armed forces, in

CAIRO - Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of Sanaa on Thursday to demand a change of government, inspired by the unrest that has ousted Tunisia's leader and spread to Egypt this week. Reuters witnesses estimated that around 16,000 Yemenis demonstrated in four parts of Sanaa in the largest rally since a wave of protests rocked Yemen last week, and protesters vowed to escalate the unrest unless their demands were met.
Meanwhile, Egyptian police fought protesters in two

DAVOS - Human Rights Watch (HRW) fears that Egypt's army may open fire on protesters during demonstrations planned for Friday, the head of the New-York based group said on Thursday.
Police in Cairo have already fought thousands of Egyptians who defied a government ban on Wednesday to protest against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old rule, firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowds and dragging away demonstrators.
"We are enormously fearful that the army would

CAIRO - Egypt's general prosecutor has charged 40 protesters with trying to "overthrow the regime", al-Arabiya television reported on Thursday, as anti-government protests across the country entered a third day.
Demonstrations demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981, have raged across several cities, including Cairo and Suez. Security sources contacted by Reuters were unable to immediately confirm the report.

CAIRO - Egyptian activists called for a second day of street action on Wednesday as authorities vowed to prevent further protests following huge anti-government rallies in which four people died. The pro-democracy youth group April 6 Movement, the driving force behind Tuesday's protests - the largest and most significant in Egypt since bread riots in 1977 - urged people to head back to Cairo's main square Wednesday.
"Everyone needs to head down to Tahrir Square to take over the

ISMAILIA - Protesters in Suez set a government building on fire and tried to burn down a local office of Egypt's ruling party late on Wednesday, security sources and witnesses said. Protesters threw petrol bombs at the National Democratic Party office but failed to set it alight.
Police fired teargas to push the demonstrators back, they said. Officials in the city in Egypt's northeast ordered that shops be closed after incidents of looting were reported. Clashes with police left

CAIRO - Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said on Sunday that a Palestinian group was behind the New Year's church attack in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria that killed more than 20 people.
"The Palestinian Islamic Army, which has links to Al Qaeda, is behind the attack on the al-Qiddissin church in Alexandria," Adly said in a speech to mark Police Day, carried live on state television. President Hosni Mubarak took to the stage to congratulate the police "for finding

CAIRO - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said on Saturday that a deadly church attack in Alexandria on New Year's Eve targetted the whole country and not just its Coptic Christians.
The bombing outside the church that killed 21 people emerging from mass was "directed at Egypt and Egyptian unity and to weaken the national fabric," Abul Gheit said after talks with visiting French counterpart Michele Alliot-Marie. "The Egyptian people, Christians and Muslims, had the

CAIRO - Two men set themselves ablaze in Egypt on Tuesday, security officials said, bringing to 10 the number such cases in the Arab world, including a Tunisian whose action sparked a revolution. An Egyptian security official said a 25-year-old unemployed man suffering mental problems set himself ablaze in the northern city of Alexandria on Tuesday, suffering third degree burns. Another man set himself alight outside Egypt's government headquarters in Cairo, an official reported