"I'm ready to become a suicide bomber": Chilling confession of 7/7 attacker's widow
Fugitive wife of Jermaine Lindsay reveals horrific plan in online poem where she says she is “breathing Jihad”
The fugitive widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay is preparing to end her own life in a suicide attack.
Samantha Lewthwaite revealed her horrific plan in a chilling poem she posted online which tells how she is tired of life on the run and is “breathing Jihad”.
She writes: “I’d rather be receiving my martyrdom, think I’ll get ready... and buy a vest.”
The threat comes as police step up their search for Lewthwaite, 28, known as the White Widow, who has been missing for nearly a year.
The four Christians accusing their employers of discrimination
Four Christians who believe that they have suffered discrimination in the workplace because of their faith plan to take their legal fight to the European Court of Human Rights.
Nadia Eweida, 58, a check-in clerk at Heathrow Airport was sent home for wearing a small silver crossPhoto: HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY
Nadia Eweida, a British Airways check-in clerk, was suspended by BA in 2006 for breaching the company’s uniform code. Mrs Eweida, then 55, had been employed by BA for seven years when she was effectively forced to take unpaid leave after refusing to conceal the symbol.
BA said that Mrs Eweida was permitted to wear the cross if it was worn concealed underneath her uniform, as stated in its uniform policy.
Mrs Eweida lost an initial appeal to her employer, but in 2007 BA caved to pressure and dropped its ban on wearing crosses.
Seeking to recoup money lost during the period of her unpaid leave, Mrs Eweida took BA to an employment tribunal alleging religious discrimination, which she lost. After two further failed appeals, Mrs Eweida will finally be heard by the European Court of Human Rights.
In this Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012 photo, a woman throws her waste in a street in Cairo. (AP Photo)
CAIRO -- The pile of trash overwhelmed the median divider on Ahmed Zaki Street and spilled into oncoming traffic – egg shells, rotten eggplants, soiled diapers, bottles, broken furniture, junked TV sets. Flies swarmed and the summer sun baked up a powerful stench.
Then Kawther Ahmed and her mom came out to add their plastic bag of household trash. The garbage collectors hadn't been by for two days, said Ahmed, 25, and the metal trash bins in the lower-income Cairo neighborhood, called Dar el-Salam or "House of Peace," had disappeared, probably sold for scrap metal. "What can we do?" she asked.
Egypt's newly elected president, Mohammed Morsi, is under growing pressure to answer that question.
Egypt's new president Mohamed Morsi is accused of stifling legitimate criticism of his regime.
Islam Afifi (left) and Tawfiq Okasha are facing trial after being arrested
Emma Hurd
Middle East Correspondent
Two Egyptian journalists are to stand trial accused of "inciting" against President Mohamed Morsi, in a sign of a growing crackdown against free speech.
Tawfiq Okasha, the host of a talk show on a privately owned TV station, is to face a charge of "incitement to murder" over his vocal opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood leader.
The editor-in-chief of the Al Dustour newspaper, Islam Afifi, will also face trial for "publishing false information" which was considered insulting to the President.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been accused by Egypt’s Journalists’ Syndicate of using the same repressive tactics as Hosni Mubarak’s regime to stifle the media and silence dissent.
Egypt President Mohammed Morsi picks a fall guy for Sinai attack
David Ignatius
IN firing Egypt's chief of intelligence for his alleged failings in Sinai, President Mohammed Morsi sacked a general who has won high marks from US, Israeli and European intelligence officials - and who, ironically, has been one of the Egyptians pushing for a crackdown on the growing militant presence in Sinai.
This week's shuffle is bound to raise concerns among US and Israeli officials about the security policies of Morsi's government, and its seeming mutual self-protection pact with the Egyptian generals who still hold considerable power through the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF.
British court found Pakistani parents guilty of honour killing daughter, sentenced to life
A court has sentenced a Pakistani-born couple, convicted of the "honour killing" of their 17-year-old daughter, to life imprisonment, remarking that they had sought to keep the teenager in the "sealed cultural environment" of rural Pakistan rather than modern Britain.
By: Anugrah Kumar
For the convicts, 52-year-old Iftikhar Ahmed and his 49-year-old wife Farzana, their fear of losing "honour" in their community was greater than their love for their daughter Shafilea Ahmed, Britain's Telegraph daily quoted Chester Crown Court judge Roderick Evans as saying.
The Ahmeds tortured their westernized daughter for years. And then one day in 2003, when she refused to give in to their demand to get married, the couple stuffed a plastic bag into her mouth in front of their four other children at her home in Warrington, Cheshire. Her dismembered body was found on a riverbank in February 2004.
The trial went for nine years for lack of evidence until the victim's sister Alesha spoke up against her parents in court. Alesha told the court she couldn't speak the truth earlier as she feared for her life, too.
The parents will serve at least 25 years in prison, as per the sentencing.
The judge said the parents' expectation that she live in a "sealed cultural environment separate from the culture of the country in which she lived was unrealistic, destructive and cruel."
"You wanted your family to live in Pakistan in Warrington," the judge said. "Although she went to local schools, you objected to her socialising with girls from what has been referred to as the white community," he added. "You objected to her wearing western clothes and you objected to her having contact with boys. She was being squeezed between two cultures, the culture and way of life that she saw around her and wanted to embrace, and the culture and way of life you wanted to impose on her," the judge added.
Victim's close friend Melissa Powner said she hoped the conviction and sentencing of the Ahmeds would send out a strong message to others. "If there is one thing that we pray will come from this, it is that her beautiful face and tragic story will inspire others to seek help and make them realise that this kind of vile treatment, no matter what culture or background they are from, is not acceptable and there is a way out," she was quoted as saying.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi (photo credit: Amr Nabil/AP)
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Islamist president swore in his first new government Thursday, led by a devout Muslim and including five members of his Muslim Brotherhood in unglamorous but ideal ministries for a group whose long-term aim is to Islamize the most populous Arab nation.
The Cabinet is a far cry from the inclusive administration that President Mohammed Morsi has repeatedly promised. No other political factions came on board to join. Women and Christians received only token representation, and figures from the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak last year were left out.
US Lawmakers Clash Over Middle East Religious Minorities Bill
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) ripped into Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) on Thursday for holding up legislation to protect religious minorities that has bipartisan support.
Wolf's bill to create a special envoy to promote religious freedom of religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia despite the State Department's objection sailed through the House on a 402-20 vote one year ago and has been lingering in the Senate since January. After hitting an impasse with Webb, the co-chairman of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission publicly castigated him by publicly sharing a letter he'd sent to the senator Wednesday night.
Supreme court issues ruling that overturns President Morsi's decision to reconvene parliament until a constitution is ratified
Egypt's highest court cancelled a decree by the country's Islamist president to restore parliament on Tuesday.
The supreme constitutional court issued a ruling that overturned President Mohamed Morsi's decision to reconvene parliament until a constitution is ratified and fresh elections are held.
(Reuters) -
Egypt's new president on Sunday ordered a parliament dominated by his
Islamist party to reconvene, challenging the authority of the generals
who had dissolved the assembly in line with a court order.
President Mohamed Mursi's
decree appeared to catch off guard the generals who handed power to him
on June 30. State media said the army's supreme council held an
emergency meeting and a council member, declining to be named, told
Reuters the generals had not been given prior warning.
Lord Alton addresses Washington Conference on plight of Egypt's Copts
Respect for religious liberty and minorities - the hallmarks of a civilised society was the title of a speech delivered by Lord Alton yesterday at the Washington Conference on the Plight of Egypt's Copts held in the Capitol building of the American Congress yesterday, 28 June.
(Prof Lord Alton of Liverpool is Hon President of the UK Copts Association).
At the beginning of 2011, just after the carnage after Midnight Mass at the Coptic Church of the Two Saints in Alexandria, Amira Nowaira, a Muslim writing in The Guardian newspaper, described the changing nature of Egyptian society. She recounted two stories which sum up the alternative paths which Egypt can take – one is built on cultivating a civilised respect and tolerance of difference; the other rests on uncivilised intolerance, violence, and hatred of difference. One is about unfulfilled hope; the other about loss.
Another attack on freedom of belief and worship of Christians after the ascent of the Islamists to power
Copts in Basra village in Alexandria, Egypt fear for their Freedom to worship deepens after a new attack last Friday by Muslims Salafis who surrounded “Saint Wanas Church” during the prayer headed by Father Sawiris the priest of the Church demanding the immediate expulsion of the Copts visiting the Church even before the completion of the prayer.
Muslims threatened to burn the Church if the Priest did not respond to their demands to expel the visitors immediately and to prevent any outside trips to the Church.
The Priest of the Church called the Police Department whose reply to the Priest was: “Solve the problem and prevent any outside visitors to come to the Church!!!”
Coptic Solidarity Hosts Policy Conference on Egypt
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Coptic Solidarity will be holding a Policy Education Day at the U.S. Capitol building on June 28, 2012, only days after the major upheaval created by the election of an Islamist, who ran on a Shari'a implementation agenda, to be President of Egypt. The Policy Day is now even more important in light of the high level of uncertainty that the new president and his party will protect human and minority rights.
The focus of the Policy Day is "U.S. National Security and Advancing Human and Minority Rights in Egypt: Is there a policy connection?" with a special focus on policy imperatives, and U.S. foreign policy responses to the rise of extremism in the Middle East.
In addition to remarks by several Members of Congress, a number of prominent politicians, academics, human rights experts, and policymakers will share their views. Speakers include: Lord David Alton, Member of the UK House of Lords; Jim Karygiannis, MP, Canadian House of Commons; Commissioner Katrina Lantos Swett, Chair of the USCIRF; Nina Shea, Director, Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute; Fred Grandy, Vice President of the Center for Security Policy; Walid Phares, Advisor to the Anti-Terrorism Caucus in the U.S. Congress; Emilie Kao Esq., previously at the Office of International Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State; Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy; Fr. Filopater, a leader of the Maspero Youth Movement, Egypt; and Tawfik Hamid, Chair for the Study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.
The stand-off between Egypt’s military and the Muslim Brotherhood escalated on Friday as the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces accused the country’s largest political party of raising tensions by claiming victory in last week’s presidential election ahead of the official result, which is still pending.
In a televised statement issued as tens of thousands of Brotherhood protesters poured into Tahrir Square in central Cairo, SCAF warned that the military and police would respond “firmly” to attempts to “harm public and private interests”.
The Muslim Brotherhood is convinced that its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, won but fear that the military intends to hand victory to his rival, Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander who also served in the regime of the ailing former president Hosni Mubarak.
former prime minister ahmed shafik to be named president on Sunday, Semi-official Alahram say
Egypt remains on edge during wait for election results
By the CNN Wire Staff
Former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik is claiming victory as Egyptians await presidential election results.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Speculation increases on who won presidential runoff
The military says all should abstain from acts that spur chaos
The military criticizes the announcement of unofficial results
Ahmed Shafik and Mohamed Morsi both have claimed victory
Cairo (CNN) -- As Egypt's generals warned of potential chaos, thousands of civilians jammed Tahrir Square late Friday, eager to learn results of last week's runoff election and see the country move away from military rule.
A military court adjourned Thursday evening the trial of three soldiers accused of killing protesters in front of the Maspero state television building last October to 31 May. The court will continue hearing defense witnesses at that time.
Nearly 30 protesters were killed and hundreds were injured on 9 October when military forces violently broke up a Coptic-led demonstration in front of Maspero. At least 14 people were crushed by armored military vehicles, which were seen mowing protesters down in videos spread on the internet.
CAIRO -- An Egyptian court on Thursday found 14 policemen not guilty in the killing of protesters during last year's popular uprising, the latest verdict in what activists claim to be a pattern of acquittals for police blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people during the revolt.
The men are among nearly 200 security officers and former regime officials – including former President Hosni Mubarak himself – who face trial for the deaths of nearly 850 protesters during the revolt. A verdict in Mubarak's case is expected next month.
Many in Egypt accuse authorities of failing to bring to account those responsible for the deaths, and the cause of the "martyrs" has been a rallying crying by protesters who say that Egypt's new leaders are dragging their feet in meting out justice against responsible for the deaths. They accuse the authorities have of being reluctant to punish the culprits.
Egyptian Policeman Sentenced to Death for Killing Christians
(UCGB: This is the third convection for killing Christian on identity in the past 30 years and the second since the revolution...is justice started to come to Copts?)
(AINA) -- Yesterday an Egyptian court in Minya sentenced a Muslim man to death for the killing and wounding of six Christians. Judge Mahmoud Salama pronounced the sentenced against 29-year-old policeman Amer Ashour Abdel-Zaher. During its previous session, the court had referred the case to the Egyptian Grand Mufti, as is usual with a death penalty verdict, who supported the court's decision. Yesterday's court session was to pronounce the verdict.
In December, 2010 Abdel-Zaher, who worked as a policeman at the Bani Mazar police investigations unit, went on a train bound for Cairo from Assiut in the upper Egyptian town of Samalut and fired his gun at six Copts after chanting "Allahu Akbar" (AINA 1-12-2011).
Former Prime Minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq talks during a news conference in Cairo, May 14, 2012. Voting starts on May 23-24 in an election to choose a new president after Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year. MP Essam Sultan of the Wasat Party has accused Shafiq of exploiting his previous position as head of Egypt's Young Air Force Officers Association by selling thousands of acres of state land in Ismailia earmarked for the association at reduced prices to figures associated w
CAIRO: A leading Egyptian presidential candidate has lashed out at an Islamist lawmaker who accused him of graft, treating voters to a new spectacle in an already unprecedentedly heated campaign.
CAIRO: A leading Egyptian presidential candidate has lashed out at an Islamist lawmaker who accused him of graft, treating voters to a new spectacle in an already unprecedentedly heated campaign.
These are the first competitive presidential elections in the country's modern history, and in the last week of the campaign period the candidates are facing a level of public scrutiny rarely seen before in Egyptian politics - including televised debates, interviews and legal challenges.
Christians in the Middle East and North Africa are facing increasing insecurity as their countries undergo huge changes in their political structures.
It's a time of great opportunity for all those nations caught up in the Arab Spring, and as Andrew Boyd, press officer for "Release International" says, "nobody is going to stand up and say three cheers for hardline dictators who've kept their countries repressed for years. It's fundamental that there should be a move towards democracy in these nations, but at the same time, because the lid has been taken off - nation after nation - in that world, what we are seeing is an increasing tension beteween secular factions who want democracy, and islamist factions who want to see in one form or another, a form of islamic law brought into these nations".
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party supporters protesting. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
Western governments have been encouraging Egypt's nascent political powers to consider offering the military generals currently running the country immunity against prosecution, according to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) has been in control of the country since the toppling of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, with the junta's rule marked by continued violent confrontations between revolutionaries and security forces, including allegations that they have ordered the shooting of unarmed protesters.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (right) speaks with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. 'It’s no secret that they have been terrified of the prospect of the Egyptian 'contagion' spreading to their societies.' Photograph: Reuters
While protesters were fighting street battles with the military police in Cairo last week, Egyptian officials were bowing courteously before King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asking forgiveness for the unruly behaviour of demonstrators outside his embassy in Cairo.
Liberals, Islamists tussle over Egypt constitution
By Shaimaa Fayed
CAIRO | Tue Mar 27, 2012 2:35pm BST
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian liberals and leftists wary of Islamist dominance of an assembly drafting a new constitution said on Tuesday they would write their own, deepening a row overshadowing a major element of the transition from President Hosni Mubarak's rule.
Liberals who have quit the 100-member assembly in protest at its make-up were among those who signed a statement that pledged to write an alternative constitution to the one being drafted by the official body, which was formed at the weekend.
"We shall undertake this duty from outside the official assembly in collaboration with all the segments of society and experts that should have been included from the beginning," said the statement, released at a news conference where one speaker after another accused the Islamists of seeking to dominate.
Senior generals promise to cede power to new president by 30 June – a pledge regarded by many Egyptians with suspicion
Major General Mokhtar al Molla (left) and Major General Mohammed al-Assar at the news conference in Cairo. Photograph: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
Egypt's ruling generals have launched an aggressive defence of their record in power since the country's revolution last year and denied any involvement in the deaths of up to 20 protesters killed in violent clashes outside the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday.
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Islamists looked poised Saturday to dominate a key lever of power that will help determine the country's political future as parliament selected a panel to draw up the country's new constitution. Liberal lawmakers denounced the process as a "farce" and walked out in protest.
The constitution, which will be written by the 100-member committee, will determine the balance of power between Egypt's previously all-powerful president and parliament, and define the country's future identity, including the role of religion and minority rights. With so much at stake, the question of who should sit on the panel has sparked fierce debate in Egypt.
Actor Adel Imam attends the Awards Show and Closing Night Red Carpet and Screening of 'The First Grader' during the 2010 Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Doha October 30, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Mohammed Dabbous
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Adel Imam, the Arab world's most famous comic actor, had a conviction and three-month prison sentence for insulting Islam in his films and plays overturned on appeal, a state newspaper reported on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia jails Egyptian lawyer for defaming king
Egypt's foreign ministry is trying to secure the release
of an Egyptian lawyer detained in Saudi Arabia on charges of defaming King
Abdullah.
Ahmed al-Gizawi was arrested last week as he arrived in Jeddah to undertake
Umra, the lesser pilgrimage to Mecca.
Unknown to Mr Gizawi, a Saudi court had earlier sentenced him in absentia to
a year in prison and 20 lashes. He is due to receive the lashes on Friday.
Mr Gizawi's case has aroused widespread anger in Egypt.
Gloomy economic forecast puts Egypt in the doldrums
Gloomy economic forecast puts Egypt in the doldrums
Young Egyptian students stand in front of their home after returning from school in the poor area of al-Zabbalin in Cairo (AFP Photo / Khaled Desouki)
More than a year after the revolution in Egypt, high hopes of a better life for everyone have faded with its faltering economy. Expectations for the civilian rulers who will take over in June are high, but the cost of failure may be higher.
The declared transition to democracy is a messy process in Egypt.
Despite the public’s great expectations, living conditions for the average Egyptians remain poor in the wake of the revolution.
Ultraconservative, Hazem Abu Ismail, became a frontrunner in the presidential race
With his signature smile and long, whitish beard, Hazem Abu Ismail, can still be seen on posters all across Cairo - on cars, roadsides and even on the walls of some schools and government buildings.
His short-lived presidential campaign, unambiguously calling for a tighter application of Sharia, or Islamic law, quickly gained appeal among ordinary Egyptians.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Christians gathered on Sunday to pay final respects to Pope Shenouda III, who sought to soothe sectarian tension in his four decades atop Egypt's Orthodox Church but saw increasing flareups in the majority Muslim nation in the last months of his life.
Friction has worsened since President Hosni Mubarak, who suppressed Islamists, was ousted last year. Since then Shenouda, who died on Saturday aged 88, often called for harmony and regularly met Muslim and other leaders.
Egypt's military takes
bigger role in constitution
File Photo: Egyptian protesters sit by a banner that reads in
Arabic "The Constitution first" during a rally at Tahrir Square 27 May (PHoto-
AP)
Egypt's ruling military
council demand constitution be written before a president is appointed sparking
fears that the short timeframe may allow them to remain in power past the
handover deadline to civilian authority
Egypt's ruling military has inserted a new
element of confusion even as Egypt tries to sort out turmoil surrounding its
upcoming presidential elections. The generals now insist a new constitution be
written before a new president is seated, a rushed timeframe that some fear may
prolong their hold on power.
For weeks, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists sought to dominate the
writing of the country's first new constitution since the fall of President
Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago. But after Islamist domination of the process
sparked a backlash of criticism, the military has stepped back in to take a more
direct role.
A ship carrying a cargo of weapons with explosives en route from the USA to Egypt must not be allowed to offload because of a substantial risk the weapons will be used by Egyptian security forces to commit human rights violations, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
The organization has tracked the Dutch-flagged ship, MV Schippersgracht, for the past two months. It is currently in the Mediterranean Sea and due to arrive in Egypt early next week.
Mr Cameron will express his concern for the rights of millions of Christians, especially in Egypt, where the Coptic minority say they are facing increasing persecution
Muslims 'must embrace democracy' says David Cameron
Muslims must embrace democracy and respect the rights of Christians around the world, David Cameron will say.
Prime Minister David Cameron in Jakarta, IndonesiaPhoto: EPA
By Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent, in Jakarta
Speaking in Indonesia, the world’s largest Islamic country, the Prime Minister will urge young Muslims to abandon “the dead-end choice of dictatorship and extremism” by forcing their countries to hold elections.
He will claim it would be “the greatest defeat that Al Qaeda could ever suffer,” if more rebel and follow the lead of the young Muslims who sparked the Arab Spring.
Mr Cameron will express his concern for the rights of millions of Christians, especially in Egypt, where the Coptic minority say they are facing increasing persecution. In a strong rebuke to Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood party, Mr Cameron will demand it does not “deny the rights of religious minorities who do not share their specific religious views”.
An Egyptian military tribunal on Sunday acquitted an army doctor of a charge of public obscenity filed by a protester who claimed she was forced to undergo a virginity test while in detention.
Army doctor Ahmed Adel speaks to the media after being acquitted in Cairo Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany
The court denied the humiliating tests even took place, despite a ruling by another court and admissions by generals quoted by a leading rights group.
The ruling further infuriated the country's revolutionary youth movements, who have said claims of the virginity tests were the first sign that the generals who took over from deposed President Hosni Mubarak 13 months ago were carrying on his repressive practices.
An Egyptian court on Tuesday suspended a 100-member panel selected by MPs from the Islamist-dominated parliament and tasked with drafting the country's new constitution.
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Khairat al-ShaterPhoto: EPA
The ruling was a blow to the Islamists, who have catapulted into the centre of Egypt's political stage since the ouster 14 months ago of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
It followed complaints by political groups, secular politicians and constitutional experts over parliament's decision to give MPs half the seats on the panel.
The constitution will determine the influence of Sharia on Egyptian law and minority rights
A court in Egypt has suspended the 100-member assembly appointed last month to draft the country's new constitution.
Several lawsuits had demanded Cairo's Administrative Court block the decision to form the panel as it did not reflect the diversity of Egyptian society.
They said women, young people and minorities were under-represented.
This is from Ikhwan Web, in English only, why not in Arabic???
Freedom and Justice Party Supports Role of NGOs as Essential to Democratic Process
The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) today re-iterated its support for the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in supporting the democratic process, especially in nascent democracies. Under the previous, autocratic, regime, Egypt suffered many violations of civic and democratic rights
(20 February 2012- Cairo) The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) today re-iterated its support for the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in supporting the democratic process, especially in nascent democracies. Under the previous, autocratic, regime, Egypt suffered many violations of civic and democratic rights. NGOs played an important role during that time in exposing the many atrocities of the regime.
