Tag: Egypt

CAIRO - An Egyptian state security court on Sunday sentenced a Muslim man to death for killing six Coptic Christians and a Muslim police officer in a drive-by shooting on Coptic Christmas Eve in January 2010.
Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, 39, known as Hamam Kamouni, had been charged with the "premeditated murder" of the Christians and the police officer and with "intimidating citizens" in Nagaa Hamady in southern Egypt after mass on the eve of Coptic Christmas.
The judge said

LONDON - Coptic Christians around the world are on alert for possible copycat attacks ahead of their Christmas on Friday after Islamist radicals hailed a deadly church bombing in Egypt apparently inspired by Al Qaeda.
Coptic communities point to messages on websites maintained by Islamist extremists calling for attacks on Coptic churches in various countries and a surge in sectarian anti-Christian rhetoric in statements by Al Qaeda offshoots in recent months.
The Jan. 1

CAIRO - Egyptian rights groups said on Tuesday the government's mishandling of sectarian rifts in the country created an environment that allowed attacks such as the New Year's Day church bombing.
The attack, in which a suicide bomber apparently detonated his explosives outside a church killing 21 people, led to three days of rioting and clashes between Copts and police.
It came after two years of mounting sectarian tensions that began with the January 2009 killing of six

RAFAH - Around 100 pro-Palestinian activists, part of an aid convoy from Asia, crossed into the Gaza Strip from Egypt early Monday, an AFP photographer said. The convoy's aid cargo is expected to arrive in Gaza later on Monday, after travelling separately from Syria to Egypt by boat, Indian organiser Feroz Mesberola said.
An Egyptian security official told AFP that around 20 Iranians and some, though not all, of the Jordanians travelling with the convoy had been denied visas to

DUBAI - An Al Qaeda website had identified in December the church in Alexandria, Egypt, which was bombed on New Year's Day as being among Coptic places of worship designated as targets.
Al-Qiddissin (The Saints) church, where 21 people were killed and 79 wounded in Saturday's bombing, was on a list posted by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shumukh al-Islam website of 50 Coptic churches across Egypt. Coptic churches in several European countries, including France, Germany and Britain, also

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict on Sunday condemned a bomb blast outside a church in Egypt which killed at least 21 people, the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in the Middle East and Africa.
"This vile gesture of death, like that of putting bombs near to the houses of Christians in Iraq to force them to leave, offends God and all of humanity," the pope said after his weekly angelus blessing.
The car bomb explosion outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria on

CAIRO - Christians prayed Sunday at a church targeted by a suicide bomber who killed 21 people as Egypt pointed the finger of blame at international terrorism and fears of sectarian violence mounted.
"With our soul and our blood we will redeem the Holy Cross," the grieving congregation chanted at the Coptic Al-Qiddissin church in Alexandria at Sunday mass a day after the bombing. Bloodstains from Saturday's attack were still visible on the facade of the church where 21 people

LAHORE - The Pakistan Hockey Federation is considering change in the dates of Pakistan and Egypt hockey test series to avoid clash with the Cricket World Cup. The PHF and its Egyptian counterparts have agreed to hold a hockey series and as the plan goes, it was to be held in February-March on a reciprocal basis in which Pakistan would first visit Egypt and then they would make a return visit in March.
However, the dates and number of matches are yet to be finalised but before

LAHORE - The Pakistan Hockey Federation plans to organise a reciprocal hockey series with Egypt early next year, it was announced on Tuesday.
PHF secretary Asif Bajwa said that Pakistan will tour Egypt in February and Egypt will give a return tour in March. He said that the annual calendar of the PHF laid more emphasis on the team's international exposure and the plan is to begin the efforts with a series against Egypt.
He said that the dates and number of matches will be

BAGHDAD - Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said in Baghdad on Sunday that Cairo hopes for a quick accord with Iraq on the hundreds of millions of dollars of Saddam-era debt.
"We have indications that there is confirmed intention (by Iraq) to resolve this issue, and we hope to reach a quick settlement," Abul Gheit said at a joint news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Egypt has put the figure at double Iraq's estimate of the amount.
Mufid Shehab,

CAIRO: Egypt's foreign minister said a break-up of Sudan looked inevitable because northern and southern officials had made no real effort to keep Africa's biggest country united. A referendum on independence for south Sudan, promised under a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended decades of civil war, is due to take place on Jan. 9, but preparations are falling behind schedule.
"Since the signing of the CPA there have not been real or serious efforts from either

CAIRO: Egypt's Islamist and secular opposition said on Wednesday they may pull out of a runoff after a crushing defeat by President Hosni Mubarak's party in weekend polls marred by alleged fraud and violence.
Such a move would leave barely any opposition contesting the second round and deal another blow to the credibility of the elections after Egypt came in for heavy criticism from its ally the US and human rights groups. Official figures showed Mubarak's National Democratic

CAIRO: Egypt on Tuesday awaited the final results of a parliamentary election that are set to deliver sweeping gains for President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party and all but demolish the Islamist opposition. Rights groups say the vote was marked by widespread violence and fraud, while the United States has voiced concern over "intimidation by security forces" on election day.
According to government daily Al-Ahram, the National Democratic Party (NDP) won more than 170 of 508

DOHA: Iran should keep out of the internal affairs of Arab countries in the Gulf and not meddle in Iraq and Lebanon, Egypt's foreign minister said on Friday in a Qatari newspaper.
"Iranian interventions in the internal affairs of the Gulf must not be allowed," Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told Al-Sharq newspaper. "We say to our brothers in Iran ... Iraq must be left alone and Lebanon must be left alone. And Iran should not intrude in Bahrain in any way," said Abul Gheit.