Cairo but also three other cities in Egypt have been the scene Tuesday 25 January of thousands of protesters, mainly peaceful until late afternoon, marching against the iron grip the government has over politics and power. Security forces reportedly sent 20,000 police onto the streets to keep order among an expected 100,000 people calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down, but Egyptian daily al-Ahram in Cairo reports numbers to be closer to 20,000. Reports of violence breaking out at the end of the afternoon vary widely, reflecting the difficulty of many of the eyewitnesses to gain a perspective on the situation in the face of limited reliable or official information.
Mubarak had declared 25 January “police day” in hopes of raising support. His interior minister, General Habib Adli told al-Ahram Tuesday, reports YNet News, “that 19 Arabs suspected of links to al-Qaeda were arrested last month in Egypt en route to Iraq. The suspects were planning to carry out terrorist attacks against various places of worship in Egypt, he said.”
Links to other sites: CNN, CS Monitor, Guardian
A bomb that went off as Christian church-goers left a New Year’s service Saturday 31 December in Alexandria, Egypt, killed 17 people and possibly more, while injuring dozens, Egyptian interior ministry officials say. Initial reports said that a car bomb was responsible for the blast, and the number of dead listed was higher, but conflicting reports are now citing foreign ministry officials, with one version saying that the explosion was probably the work of a suicide bomber who died along with his victims. Egypt has a majority of Muslims but 10 percent of the population is Christian, according to Reuters. The blast was followed by thousands of Christians taking to the streets in protest.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, Reuters
Violent winds and freezing rain wreaked havoc in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt 11 and 12 December, as fishing boats were smashed by 10m waves along the Lebanese coast, small planes were tossed about at area airports, and sandstorms blew over Egypt. A Moldovan freighter sank off the coast of Israel but all 11 crew members were rescued. In northern Lebanon a woman was crushed in her car by a falling tree and Egyptian authorities blamed the storm on the collapse of a factory, which killed three workers.
The heavy rains turned to snow in the mountains along the coast, trapping drivers in their cars, and shipping through the Suez Canal was disrupted as most Egyptian ports were closed due to the heavy winds.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, NPR
Alexandria, Egypt is about to enforce old regulations: no smoking in public buildings. The move is the first step in a two-year plan to ban smoking completely in the city. Egyptians consume 19 billion cigarettes a year, making them “the biggest Arab consumer of cigarettes”, according to the BBC.
Sion, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Valais woman who was training to beat the women’s world record for scuba diving has died in Egypt. Brigitte Lenoir, 40, of Monthey, was training at Dahab when the accident occurred Friday 14 May, at -147 metres, as she was surfacing after a dive to -200m. Her body has not been found. A faulty valve is suspected to have caused the accident, but details are still sketchy. She was planning to attempt the record-breaking dive in August. The current freshwater record is -221m.
Luanda, Angola (GenevaLunch) – The match was off to a slow start and the score remained low, but in the end what mattered was the one goal that gave Egypt a 1-0 win over Ghana for the title of the Africa Cup of Nations.It is the seventh time Egypt has taken the title, and it is the first time in any major football tournament that a team has won three successive titles. The winning goal came only five minutes before the end of an otherwise unexciting match, with substitute Mohamed Nagui coming “almost out of nowhere”, reports allAfrica, which notes that it was his fifth goal of the tournament, making him the top scorer despite not starting in a single game.
Links to other sites: allAfrica photo essay, BBC photos, GhanaWeb
Violent clashes broke out along the Gaza-Egyptian border Wednesday 6 January when an aid delivery from the movement Viva Palestina was delayed in an Egyptian port. An Egyptian soldier died and scores of people were reportedly wounded, with CNN being told by one official that at least two people were in critical condition. The convoy of sedan cars was led by British Parliament Member George Galloway and has sparked some controversy.
Links to other sites: CNN, CS Monitor
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has benefited from an outpouring of nationalist fervour following the Egyptian soccer team’s loss to Algeria after two qualifying matches 14 and 18 November. The fallout from the football matches has included Egyptians being attacked in Algiers, Algeria, and a rupture in diplomatic ties between the two countries. Mubarak addressed the country’s parliament Saturday 21 November and vowed to protect the dignity of Egyptian citizens living abroad, to loud applause.
The incidents surrounding the arrival of the Algerian football team in Cairo, Egypt 14 November for a World Cup qualifying match with arch-rivals Egypt are to be investigated by the disciplinary committee of the world football regulatory body, Fifa announced 19 November. The bus carrying the Algerian team was beset by rioters and stoned as it moved from the airport to the hotel.
Irina Bokova, a diplomat from Bulgaria, has been named director-general of Unesco, the first woman to hold the post. She is currently Bulgaria’s ambassador to France and Monaco. Bokova was selected by Unesco’s executive board over Egypt’s culture minister, Farouk Hosny, after five rounds of ballots in September 2009. The organization’s general conference voted to confirm her appointment Thursday evening 15 October. She studied at Moscow State Institute of International Relations in Russia and the University of Maryland and Harvard in the US, and she is fluent in five languages. Libya, just days before the election, had threatened to boycott Unesco if she were elected, because of the case of Bulgarian nurses and a doctor who found guilty in Libya of intentionally infecting children with HIV/Aids.
Links to other sites: Bokova’s personal web page, Sofia Echo, Unesco, Xinhua
Bulgarian Irina Bokova withstood five rounds of voting in Paris, France Tuesday 22 September to become the new director-general of Unesco, the UN agency for education, culture and science, the first woman to do so. She beat out her Egyptian challenger, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who was favourite to win at the outset, and supported by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. A career diplomat and mother of two, Bokova has been on the Unesco executive council since 2007. Libération
US Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, arrived in Cairo, Egypt for talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak 27 July, after stops in Syria and Israel. It was Mitchell’s second visit to Damascus, Syria in two months. Talks were “candid and positive.” In Israel, Mitchell met Defense Minister Ehud Barak. After talks in Cairo, Mitchell is to see Palestinian President Abbas, and Israeli leaders 28 July. This is part of a concerted effort by the Obama administration to move the Middle East peace process along. Other senior US administration officials are expected in the region later this week. Al-Jazeera, BBC, Jerusalem Post
Parliamentary elections in Lebanon Sunday 7 June reinforced the government’s position and handed the pro-Western 14-March coalition 71 seats. Their opponents, a coalition led by Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, won 57 seats. A big loser in the vote was former General Michel Aoun, a Christian who had aligned himself with Hezbollah. He has stated that he will work with the majority.
Some saw President Obama’s conciliatory speech in Cairo, Egypt last week as an important factor in voters’ decisions, denying hardliners the possibility to demonize the United States, according to the New York Times. NYT, Le Monde, Now Lebanon
Hesham Talaat Moustafa, former chairman of the Talaat Moustafa Group and a politician in Egypt, has been sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim at her home in Dubai. The security guard who carried out the killing was also sentenced to death. The trial’s proceedings in Cairo, Egypt were gagged by the court when it provoked huge media interest in September 2008. The Talaat Moustafa Group is a major construction company. The singer and Moustafa had had an affair for three years, reports Al Jazeera, that ended several months before her murder, and she had recently married another man.
CNN reports that on the eve of an Arab summit in Kuwait the Arab world is being pulled in a tug of world that has Egypt and other countries who want to broker a peace between Israel and Hamas pitted against nations like Qatar who are more sympathetic to Hamas and its goals. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the ICRC‘s latest update on the humanitarian aid situation says it was “a devastating blow” when renewed fighting 12 January knocked out recently repaired power supplies from Israel to Gaza, essential for hospitals and other parts of the civilian infrastructure.
The United Nations says the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to over 500 people as France and Egypt push for a diplomatic end to the 10-day-old Israeli offensive that has now cut Gaza in two. Reuters
A packed bus near the city of Minya went into an irrigation canal, when it swerved to avoid an oncoming truck, and overturned, killing 57 people. Minya is 214 km south of Cairo. International Herald Tribune
Five German toursts, among the 11 Europeans kidnapped along with their Egyptian guides, in the desert in Egypt, arrived home Wednesday. They were taken hostage by a group that appears to belong to the Sudanese Liberation Movement, a group fighting the Sudanese government. CNN
Germany is taking the lead to try to obtain the release of 11 European tourists, five of them German, and eight Egyptians who were kidnapped in the Egyptian desert and taken to Sudan. German authorities say they are working with the Sudanese government for the release. CNN
