Strong quake in Indonesia's Aceh province kills 22

July 03, 2013

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Soldiers, police and volunteers fanned out across an earthquake-damaged region of western Indonesia on Wednesday, scouring the debris of fallen homes and landslides for possible victims of a temblor that killed at least 22 people and injured hundreds.

The magnitude-6.1 quake struck Tuesday afternoon at a depth of just 10 kilometers (6 miles) and was centered on the far western tip of Sumatra island in Aceh province. Twelve people were killed and 70 others were injured by a landslide or collapsing buildings in Bener Meriah district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. He added Wednesday that the number of houses and buildings damaged in the district is still being counted.

In neighboring Central Aceh district, 10 people were killed, 140 were injured and about 1,500 houses and buildings were damaged, Nugroho said. The quake also triggered landslides and caused hundreds of people to be evacuated to 10 temporary shelters.

Rescuers and other assistance teams have arrived in Bener Meriah, while the air force have dispatched a helicopter and a CN-235 aircraft to the region, Nugroho said. "We are now concentrating on searching for people who may be trapped under the rubble," said Rusli M. Saleh, the deputy district chief of Bener Meriah.

He said at least 25 of the injured in his district were hospitalized in intensive care. As the quake hit, villagers in the area ran out of their homes in panic and screamed for help. "I see many houses were damaged and their roofs fell onto some people," Bensu Elianita, a 22-year-old resident of Bukit Sama village in Central Aceh district, said shortly after the quake hit. "Many people were injured, but it is difficult to evacuate them due to traffic jams."

The quake also caused concern among officials attending a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Medan, the capital of neighboring North Sumatra province. They were escorted from the second-floor meeting room by security officers.

Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Ocean. In 2004, a magnitude-9.1 earthquake off Aceh triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 14 countries.

Algiers host AU Security Council meeting

2013-06-30

Foreign ministers from African Union Security Council member states gathered on Saturday (June 29th) in Algiers for a meeting on national reconciliation and development, APS reported.

Representatives of the United Nations, the EU, and the Arab League attended the event, as well as top-level AU officials. The participants underlined the importance of the national reconciliation in the resolving of the conflicts in Africa and for the fight against terrorism and the organized crime.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2013/06/30/newsbrief-03.

Rights group says Emirati gov't at low point

July 3, 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 3 (UPI) -- Most of the government critics sentenced to jail in the United Arab Emirates were isolated from legal counsel for nearly a year, Human Rights Watch said.

A high court in the United Arab Emirates convicted 69 people of plotting to overthrow the government. A report from Amnesty International released Tuesday said it appeared the convictions were politically motivated. The prosecution of suspected al-Qaida members in April sparked similar criticism.

Human Rights Watch said Wednesday nearly all of the accused were held in isolation at undisclosed locations for more than a year. Deputy director of Middle East programs Joe Stork said the convictions are a low point for the Emirati government.

"These unfair verdicts and the U.A.E.'s efforts to shut down criticism should be a wake-up call to U.A.E.'s international allies," he said in a statement from Beirut.

Prison sentences for the defendants ranged from seven to 15 years. Human Rights Watch said most of them were likely targeted for their affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative Sunni political organization.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/07/03/Rights-group-says-Emirati-govt-at-low-point/UPI-15501372857495/.

Tunisian rulers bemoan 'military intervention' in Egypt

July 04, 2013

TUNIS: Tunisia, birthplace of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings, criticized Thursday the Egyptian army’s removal of elected president Mohammad Mursi as “a coup against legitimacy” and urged Cairo to guarantee his safety.

Mursi rose to power after autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a 2011 uprising inspired by the popular revolt against dictatorship in Tunisia a few weeks before. Moderate Islamists were subsequently elected to govern Tunisia.

“Military intervention is totally unacceptable and we call on Egypt to ensure that Mursi is physically protected,” President Moncef Marzouki said.

“We view what is happening in Egypt with concern – the arrests of journalists and politicians.”

Tunisia’s ruling Ennahda party denounced also what it called a “coup against legitimacy” in Egypt.

“Ennahda rejects what happened and believes legitimacy is represented by President Mursi and no one else,” Ennahda said in a statement.

It said it feared “this coup will fuel violence and extremism” and induce despair in the value of democracy.

Mursi was ousted after mass protests exceeding the size of those that toppled Mubarak.

Critics said Mursi fell because his Muslim Brotherhood, despite a limited electoral mandate, focused on seizing total control of the state rather than tackling myriad problems of economic breakdown and poor governance.

At a joint news conference with Marzouki, visiting French President Francois Hollande declined to speak of a coup in Egypt, saying merely that “the democratic process has stopped and must return.”

“What going on here in Tunisia is a transition that is controlled and organized,” he said. “What is clear is there is also an obligation for you to succeed because you are an example, you give many people in the Arab world hope.”

The role of Islam has grown in Tunisian society and been enshrined in a new constitution since Ennahda’s election in 2011, but religious-secular divisions are seen as less severe and volatile than in Egypt.

Highlighting how Mursi’s ouster has influenced Tunisia, a movement called Tamarod has launched a petition to have Tunis’ National Assembly dissolved, one of its organizers said Thursday.

In Egypt, the grassroots movement Tamarod (Rebel) was the group that mobilized anti-Mursi protests.

“We don’t want any support from the political parties to protect our credibility,” Mohammad Bennour told AFP.

His comments came shortly after the head of the ruling Islamist party, Rached Ghannouchi, dismissed suggestions that the massive protests in Egypt might be repeated in Tunisia.

“We have taken a serious strategy based on consensus especially between the Islamist and modernist movements, which has saved our country from the risk of divisions,” Ghannouchi told the pan-Arab daily Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat.

But Bennour, who called himself a “rebel,” and said he was “employed in a business,” claimed that 180,000 signatures had been gathered in the past three days for the anti-government petition, “essentially by going from door to door around Tunisia.”

The claim could not be verified, but the group’s Facebook page has less than 4,500 members and the online petition has less than 10,000 signatures.

The National Assembly was elected in October 2011, months after the popular uprising that toppled veteran strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and touched off Arab Spring revolutions across the region.

Tunisia has failed to adopt a new constitution, due to a lack of consensus among MPs, with the first reading of the draft charter Monday degenerating into chaos.

The National Assembly has also been repeatedly criticized for its inefficiency and the nonattendance of members.

Last March, Ennahda responded to pressure from the secular opposition and accepted the appointment of independent ministers to deflect accusations that it aimed to control all aspects of the state and stifle social freedoms.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Jul-04/222570-tunisias-islamists-slam-flagrant-coup-in-egypt.ashx.

Tunisians protest political exclusion bill

2013-06-30

Several thousand members of the Union for Tunisia, a coalition of opposition parties led by Nidaa Tounes, gathered in front of Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly on Saturday (June 29th) to protest the controversial political isolation law, RFI reported.

"No one has the right to deprive Tunisian citizens from exercising their civil rights. Tunisia is for all Tunisians," AFP quoted Nidaa Tounes Secretary-General Taieb Baccouche as saying.

On Thursday, Tunisian lawmakers decided to postpone discussions and a final vote on the bill until after the debate on a new constitution, which begins Monday.

The president of the League for the Protection of the Revolution, Mounir Ajroud, vowed to sabotage the upcoming elections if the law was not passed.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2013/06/30/newsbrief-01.

Egypt closes Gaza border after clashes in Sinai

July 05, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian official says the country's border crossing with Gaza Strip in northern Sinai has been closed indefinitely, citing security concerns.

The decision comes hours after suspected Islamic militants attacked four sites in northern Sinai, targeting two military checkpoints, a police station and el-Arish airport, where military aircraft are stationed.

The military and security forces responded to the attacks. One soldier was killed and three were wounded. Gen. Sami el-Metwali said Rafah passage was shut down on Friday. He didn't say when it would be reopened. Some 200 Palestinians were turned back to the Gaza Strip after the order.

The clashes came two days after the military's ouster of President Islamist Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Some Islamist elements have pledged to fight the military's move.

Top Brotherhood figures seized in Egypt sweep

July 05, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's military moved swiftly Thursday against senior figures of the Muslim Brotherhood, targeting the backbone of support for ousted President Mohammed Morsi. In the most dramatic step, authorities arrested the group's revered leader from a seaside villa and flew him by helicopter to detention in the capital.

With a top judge newly sworn in as interim president to replace Morsi, the crackdown poses an immediate test to the new army-backed leadership's promises to guide Egypt to democracy: The question of how to include the 83-year-old fundamentalist group.

That question has long been at the heart of democracy efforts in Egypt. Hosni Mubarak and previous authoritarian regimes banned the group, raising cries even from pro-reform Brotherhood critics that it must be allowed to participate if Egypt was to be free. After Mubarak's fall, the newly legalized group vaulted to power in elections, with its veteran member Morsi becoming the country's first freely elected president.

Now the group is reeling under a huge backlash from a public that says the Brotherhood and its Islamist allies abused their electoral mandate. The military forced Morsi out Wednesday after millions of Egyptians nationwide turned out in four days of protests demanding he be removed.

Adly Mansour, the head of the Supreme Constititonal Court, with which Morsi had repeated confrontations, was sworn in as interim president. In his inaugural speech, broadcast nationwide, he said the anti-Morsi protests that began June 30 had "corrected the path of the glorious revolution of Jan. 25," referring to the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak.

To cheers from his audience, he also praised the army, police, media and judiciary for standing against the Brotherhood. Islamists saw those institutions as full of Mubarak loyalists trying to thwart their rule.

Furious over what it calls a military coup against democracy, the Brotherhood said it would not work with the new leadership. It and harder-line Islamist allies called for a wave of protests Friday, dubbing it the "Friday of Rage," vowing to escalate if the military does not back down.

There are widespread fears of Islamist violence in retaliation for Morsi's ouster, and already some former militant extremists have vowed to fight. Suspected militants opened fire at four sites in northern Sinai, targeting two military checkpoints, a police station and el-Arish airport, where military aircraft are stationed, security officials said. The military and security responded to the attacks, and one soldier was killed and three were injured, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Multiple officials of the Brotherhood firmly urged their followers to keep their protests peaceful. Thousands of Morsi supporters remained massed in front of a Cairo mosque where they have camped for days, with line of military armored vehicles across the road keeping watch.

"We declare our complete rejection of the military coup staged against the elected president and the will of the nation," the Brotherhood said in a statement, read by senior cleric Abdel-Rahman el-Barr to the crowd outside the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo.

"We refuse to participate in any activities with the usurping authorities," the statement said, urging Morsi supporters to remain peaceful. The Rabia al-Adawiya protesters planned to march Friday to the Ministry of Defense.

The Brotherhood denounced the crackdown, including the shutdown Wednesday night of its television channel, Misr25, its newspaper and three pro-Morsi Islamist TV stations. The military, it said, is returning Egypt to the practices of "the dark, repressive, dictatorial and corrupt ages."

A military statement late Thursday appeared to signal a wider wave of arrests was not in the offing. A spokesman, Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, said in a Facebook posting that that the army and security forces will not take "any exceptional or arbitrary measures" against any political group.

The military has a "strong will to ensure national reconciliation, constructive justice and tolerance," he wrote. He spoke against "gloating" and vengeance, saying only peaceful protests will be tolerated and urging Egyptians not to attack Brotherhood offices to avert an "endless cycle of revenge."

The army's removal of Morsi sparked massive celebrations Wednesday night among the crowds of protesters around the country, with fireworks, dancing and blaring car horns lasting close to dawn. The constitution, which Islamists drafted and Morsi praised as the greatest in the world, has been suspended. Also, Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, the Mubarak-era top prosecutor whom Morsi removed to much controversy, was reinstated to his post and immediately announced investigations against Brotherhood officials.

Many of the Brotherhood's opponents want them prosecuted for what they say were crimes committed during Morsi's rule, just as Mubarak was prosecuted for protester deaths during the 2011 uprising. In the past year, dozens were killed in clashes with Brotherhood supporters and with security forces.

But the swift moves raise perceptions of a revenge campaign against the Brotherhood. The National Salvation Front, the top opposition political group during Morsi's presidency and a key member of the coalition that worked with the military in his removal, criticized the moves, saying, "We totally reject excluding any party, particularly political Islamic groups."

The Front has proposed one of its top leaders, Mohammed ElBaradei, to become prime minister of the interim Cabinet, a post that will hold strong powers since Mansour's presidency post is considered symbolic. ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate who once headed the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, is considered Egypt's top reform advocate.

"Reconciliation is the name of the game, including the Muslim Brotherhood. We need to be inclusive," Munir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, a leading member of the group, told The Associated Press. "The detentions are a mistake."

He said the arrests appeared to be prompted by security officials' fears over possible calls for violence by Brotherhood leaders. There may be complaints against certain individuals in the Brotherhood "but they don't justify the detention," he said, predicting they will be released in the coming days.

Abdel-Nour said the Front intends to ensure the military has no role in politics. He added that the Front is hoping for the backing of ultraconservative Salafis for ElBaradei's bid for prime minister. Some Salafi factions have sided with the new leadership. He noted that the constitution was not outright canceled, in a gesture to Salafis.

Morsi has been under detention in an unknown location since Wednesday night, and at least a dozen of his top aides and advisers have been under what is described as "house arrest," though their locations are also unknown.

Besides the Brotherhood's top leader, General Guide Mohammed Badie, security officials have also arrested his predecessor, Mahdi Akef, and one of his two deputies, Rashad Bayoumi, as well as Saad el-Katatni, head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, and ultraconservative Salafi figure Hazem Abu Ismail, who has a considerable street following.

Authorities have also issued a wanted list for more than 200 Brotherhood members and leaders of other Islamist groups. Among them is Khairat el-Shater, another deputy of the general guide who is widely considered the most powerful figure in the Brotherhood.

The arrest of Badie was a dramatic step, since even Mubarak and his predecessors had been reluctant to move against the group's top leader. The ranks of Brotherhood members across the country swear a strict oath of unquestioning allegiance to the general guide, vowing to "hear and obey." It has been decades since any Brotherhood general guide was put in a prison.

Badie and el-Shater were widely believed by the opposition to be the real power in Egypt during Morsi's tenure. Badie was arrested late Wednesday from a villa where he had been staying in the Mediterranean coastal city of Marsa Matrouh and flown by helicopter to Cairo, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk the press.

Mahmoud, the top prosecutor, said he was opening investigations into the killings of protesters during Morsi's rule. He ordered el-Katatni and Bayoumi questioned on allegations of instigating violence and killings, and put travel bans on 36 others, a sign they too could face prosecution. He also took steps toward releasing a prominent activist detained for insulting Morsi.

Mansour, the 67-year-old interim president, is a Mubarak appointee like nearly every judge. He had been the deputy head of the court for more than 20 years. He was elevated to the chief justice position only three days ago, when his predecessor reached mandatory retirement age.

Mansour was among the judges who ruled against a political isolation law in 2012 that would have barred many Mubarak-era officials from politics. As a result, Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, was able to run against Morsi.

In his speech, Mansour said the massive street demonstrations "brought together everyone without discrimination or division," and were an "expression of the nation's conscience and an embodiment of its hopes and ambitions."

But he made no sign of outreach to the Brotherhood in his address. He suggested Morsi's election had been tainted, saying, "I look forward to parliamentary and presidential elections held with the genuine and authentic will of the people."

The revolution, he said, must continue so "we stop producing tyrants."

Abbas rejoices, Hamas goes quiet after Egyptian president's fall

By Noah Browning and Nidal al-Mughrabi
RAMALLAH/GAZA | Thu Jul 4, 2013

(Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas praised Egypt's military on Thursday for toppling President Mohamed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological ally of Abbas's Hamas rivals.

The fall of Mursi's government deprived Hamas of a sympathetic neighbor, and may strengthen Abbas's chances of nudging Hamas toward a long-delayed reconciliation and power-sharing pact.

By intervening to remove Mursi, the Egyptian army had prevented Egypt's "slide toward an unknown fate", Abbas said.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top official in the Palestine Liberation Organization headed by Abbas, said: "This is a historic day for Egypt, and we are learning a lesson from the Egyptian example. Hamas should take note of what popular will can achieve."

Palestinians are riven by political and cultural splits that mirror Egypt's. A Hamas victory in 2006 parliamentary polls led to a short civil war which left the Islamists ruling Gaza, while Abbas's Fatah faction holds sway in the West Bank.

Hamas officials largely shunned the media on Thursday, and the movement took no position on the sudden removal of Mursi.

"We pray to God to preserve the security and the stability of Egypt and its people and to prevent bloodshed," a Hamas spokesman, Ehab Ghussein, told Reuters.

The group had seen its star rise in the Arab world following a tide of uprisings in 2011 that swept religious-inspired governments to power in Tunisia and Egypt.

The leader of influential oil-rich Gulf state Qatar, a major backer of both the Brotherhood and Hamas, visited Gaza in October bearing hefty aid gifts. Egypt's prime minister, along with an Arab League delegation, came to the territory last November, even as Hamas and Israel fought an eight-day war.

BORDER CRACKDOWN

Hamas's muted response may signal its caution at upsetting an Egyptian military that controls Gaza border lifelines.

"It would be wrong to say relations won't be affected. Relations could become cold for a period," said Hamas official Mustafa Assawaf, who stressed he was speaking as a political analyst about future ties with Egypt's new government.

Hamas leaders and supporters greeted Mursi's election last year with delight, believing his leadership would usher in the beginning of the end of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza and a near-total international diplomatic quarantine.

But the Brotherhood, buffeted by Egypt's internal storms and exercising little authority over the security forces, furnished Hamas with few concrete advantages.

In recent weeks, Egypt's army, citing security concerns as it confronts Islamist militants in the Sinai desert, has stepped up a crackdown on border tunnels with Gaza through which food, fuel and weapons are smuggled.

The campaign has dismayed Hamas and pushed up prices in the impoverished coastal enclave.

Gaza residents say that dozens of Egyptian troops have reinforced the border areas since mass protests calling for Mursi's ouster began on June 30. The army also controls the Rafah border terminal, Gaza's main link to the outside world.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/04/uk-egypt-protests-palestinians-idUKBRE9630LM20130704.

Mursi backers to protest after overthrow, arrests

By Alastair Macdonald and Alexander Dziadosz
CAIRO | Fri Jul 5, 2013

(Reuters) - Islamist supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Mohamed Mursi, will rally on Friday to express their outrage at his overthrow by the army and to reject a planned interim government backed by their liberal opponents.

Dozens of people were wounded in clashes in Mursi's home city on Thursday, raising fears of more of the violence in which several dozen have died in the past month. There were also militant attacks in the restive Sinai peninsula, next to Israel.

How the army deals with trouble will help determine future support for Cairo from the United States and other international powers. Concern that the generals have carried out a military coup against Egypt's first-ever freely elected leader has left Washington reviewing the $1.5 billion in military and civilian aid it annually gives Egypt.

The planned protests have the slogan "Friday of Rejection".

A military source said: "We will continue to secure the places of protest with troops, and jets if necessary, to make sure the pro- and anti-Mursi demonstrators don't confront each other. We will let them demonstrate and go where they want."

Mursi's political opponents insist there was no coup. Rather, the army heeded the "will of the people" in forcing the president out. Millions rallied on Sunday to protest at a collapsing economy and political deadlock, in which Mursi had failed to build a broad consensus after a year in office.

After a busy day of diplomacy by concerned Obama administration officials interrupting their Independence Day holiday in Washington, the Egyptian armed forces command issued a late-night statement guaranteeing rights to protest and free expression and pledging not to pursue arbitrary measures against any political group.

The uncontroversial phrasing belied a busy 24 hours since the military chief suspended the constitution, detained Mursi and oversaw the swearing in of the chief justice of the constitutional court as Egypt's interim head of state.

In addition to Mursi, the country's first freely elected leader, several senior figures in his Muslim Brotherhood were arrested, security sources said. Prosecutors were investigating various charges, including incitement to violence and, in the case of Mursi himself, insulting the judiciary.

Television channels owned by or seen as sympathetic to the Brotherhood were unceremoniously taken off air. The state printer did not run off its party newspaper on Thursday.

In Zagazig, the Nile Delta city where Mursi has a family home, 80 people were injured. Witnesses said the army moved in to seal the area after an attack on pro-Mursi protesters by men on motorcycles led to clashes with sticks, knives and bottles.

For a movement that has been banned and politically oppressed for most of its 85-year history, such developments have reinforced impressions among the Islamists that a "deep state", once loyal to fallen autocrat Hosni Mubarak and his army-backed predecessors, is still determined to crush it.

U.S. CONCERN

The armed forces' longtime U.S. sponsor - which provides $1.3 billion in annual military aid - has voiced concern for human rights, but also for the stability of the biggest Arab nation. Egypt's peace with Israel and control of the Suez Canal give it a strategic importance for many beyond its 84 million people.

Washington, along with Middle Eastern allies from Israel to Saudi Arabia, are not lamenting the Brotherhood's stunning reversal. The organisation has long represented many Arabs' hopes for a better society but was found gravely wanting during Mursi's year of missteps and rancorous division.

The White House has avoided condemning Mursi's ouster as a "coup", a distinction that could trigger legal U.S. obstacles to aid. Some on Obama's national security team had contacted Egyptian officials "to convey the importance of a quick and responsible return of full authority to a democratically elected civilian government", it said.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the Egyptian military command said: "Wisdom, true nationalism and constructive human values that all religions have called for, require us now to avoid taking any exceptional or arbitrary measures against any faction or political current."

That appeared to be a response to concern internationally that, following Mursi's overthrow, there was a campaign of arrest and intimidation against the Brotherhood.

Egypt's caretaker Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had expressed concern during a telephone call on Thursday for human rights:

"He was worried about the status of human rights," Amr said. "Understandably. I assured him there is no retribution, no acts of vengeance, that nobody will be treated outside the law."

Amr, a career diplomat who tended his resignation to Mursi after Sunday's anti-government protests, said he had spent the day calling international counterparts and briefing ambassadors with the message that there had been no "military coup" in Egypt. The army had merely heeded the popular will.

Of his conversation with Kerry, he said: "I told him that the main aim of the military now is to maintain security.

"There will be no acts of violence, no acts of exclusion. Everybody will be included. The idea is to have everybody participating in the transitional process."

"USURPERS"

Those were also sentiments expressed by Adli Mansour, the constitutional court chief justice sworn in as interim head of state. But a senior Brotherhood official said it would not work with "the usurper authorities".

Another of its politicians said Mursi's overthrow would push other groups, though not his own, to violent resistance.

The armed forces' statement also contained a warning to those Islamists planning to demonstrate on Friday. It said: "Peaceful protest and freedom of expression are rights guaranteed to everyone, which Egyptians have earned as one of the most important gains of their glorious revolution."

That was a reference to fall of Mubarak, a key U.S. ally, in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprisings across the region.

But it added: "Excessive use of this right without reason could carry some negative implications, including blocking roads, delaying public benefits and destroying institutions, posing a threat to social peace, the national interest and damaging the security and economy in our precious Egypt."

Washington has been urging Egyptian leaders to resolve their differences quickly so that unrest which has sapped tourist revenue and investment ends and the economy can recover.

The Brotherhood renounced violence decades ago. Even among its allies who were engaged in armed struggle against Mubarak in the 1990s and beyond, there seems little appetite to resume it.

But Egypt does have troubles with militancy, not least in the largely empty Sinai peninsula, where radical Islamists with links to al Qaeda have become more active since Mubarak fell.

SINAI ATTACKS

Early on Friday, security sources and state television said Islamist gunmen opened fire on El-Arish airport, close to the border with the Gaza Strip and Israel and at three military checkpoints. A police station in Rafah on the Gaza border was hit by rockets, wounding several soldiers.

It was not clear whether the coordinated attack on several army positions was in response Mursi's overthrow.

Mursi's dramatic exit was greeted with delight by millions of jubilant people on the streets of Cairo and other cities on Wednesday evening, but there was simmering resentment among Egyptians who opposed the military intervention.

Following the swearing in of Mansour as interim head of state, the next step in the army's road map back to democracy is the formation of an interim government in the next few days. One state newspaper said it should be ready on Sunday.

After that, a panel is to revise the constitution in order to hold parliamentary and presidential elections.

Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister, head of the Arab League and now liberal party leader, told Reuters he expected the full transition to elected institutions to take no more than 12 months and possibly just six. "This is doable," he said.

Analysts at Stratfor consultancy, however, highlighted tensions among the Brotherhood's opponents, whose fragmentation helped the movement defeat them in elections last year.

"It will be difficult," it said, "For the disparate blend of liberal, secular and Islamist parties united in their shared desire to see Morsi deposed to maintain their cohesion."

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif, Mike Collett-White, Alexander Dziadosz, Seham El-Oraby, Shaimaa Fayed, Maggie Fick, Alastair Macdonald, Shadia Nasralla, Tom Perry, Yasmine Saleh, Paul Taylor, and Patrick Werr in Cairo, Abdelrahman Youssef in Alexandria and Yursi Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Philip Barbara)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/05/us-egypt-protests-idUSBRE95Q0NO20130705.

Security Forces Arrest FJP Leader, Brotherhood Leader

4 July 2013

A well-informed security source told MENA on Wednesday 3/7/2013 that police forces have arrested leader of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party Saad el-Katatni and the group's deputy leader Rashad Bayumi.

The source added that police forces exert more effort to arrest other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood over charges of violence instigation and threatening safety and security of Egyptian people.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201307041524.html.

Egypt: Nation Swears In New President

By John Allen
4 July 2013

Cape Town — Egypt's new leader took office on Thursday as leading Islamists were imprisoned in the wake of the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned administration.

Aswat Masriya reported that the head of the country's Constitutional Court, Adli Mansour, was sworn in as interim president pending the holding of early elections.

At the same time, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, Saad al-Katatni, and the deputy to the Brotherhood's spiritual guide, Mohamed Rashad Bayoumi, were jailed in Torah Prison.

In another report, Aswat Masriya said a court had also ordered the arrest of spiritual guide, Mohamed Badie, businessman Khairat al-Shater and five others on charges of inciting the killing of opponents of deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

In Washington, President Barack Obama has announced that he has ordered a review of American aid to Egypt, and called on the Egyptian armed forces “to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically-elected civilian government as soon as possible...”

Morsi was Egypt's first democratically-elected president.

In Addis Ababa, the African Union chairperson, Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma, noted in a statement issued before Morsi's overthrow that the AU was in principle opposed to “unconstitutional changes of government.”

She called for “all Egyptian stakeholders to work towards a resolution of the current crisis through dialogue, in order to find an appropriate response to the popular aspirations within the framework of legality and Egyptian institutions.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reports military, political and diplomatic sources as saying opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was being tipped to lead a transitional government.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201307041069.html.

Sudan Reacts Uneasily to Ouster of Egypt's Morsi From Presidency

4 July 2013

The Sudanese government sought to strike a neutral tone following the move by the Egyptian army today to overthrow Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after unprecedented multi-million strong demonstrations against him over the weekend that killed nearly 50 people.

Morsi's own defense minister, armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced Morsi's removal on TV on Wednesday night drawing wild jubilation from of protesters who have camped out on the streets of Cairo for days.

The powerful military had issued a 48-hour deadline on Monday for Morsi to meet the "people's demands", a day after protesters took to the streets calling for him to resign.

Sisi laid out details of the roadmap for a political transition, saying the Islamist-drafted constitution would be frozen and presidential elections held early, without specifying when.

Egyptian security forces also arrested key Muslim Brotherhood (MB) figures including the group's deputy leader Rashad Bayoumi and Saad al-Katatni, who heads the MB political arm.

Warrants were also issued for the arrest of a total of 300 MB officials, state media said.

The Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement today that that recent developments in Egypt are an "internal affair" that concerns its people, national institutions and political leadership.

It also called on all parties to give priority to preserving stability and security of Egypt and to deny "predators" the opportunity to undermine the country.

Khartoum's reaction contrasted sharply with that of its Arab peers such as United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Syria which expressed joy at Morsi's ouster mainly over its deep opposition to the MB.

A year ago, Sudan lauded the election of Morsi and president Omer Hassan al-Bashir flew to Cairo in September 2012 to congratulate him in person.

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) had expressed hope that a regime with a similar ideology, in the Arab world most populous country, would prove a strong ally against hostile local, regional and international forces.

The NCP vice chairman Nafie Ali Nafie made that clear during his visit to Cairo last March when he slammed opposition in both Egypt and Sudan.

"Opponents of the national dialogue in Sudan and Egypt are not for democracy and they want to establish a veto against the will of people in Sudan and Egypt. If the elections bring [a regime with] Islamic orientation in Egypt then it is rejected and if it brings the National Congress [Party] in Sudan then [polls] are rigged which represents an undemocratic trend of these forces which are not relying on a popular base," Nafie said at the time.

"They [opposition] know that free and transparent elections will not bring them [to power]. They are bubbles that will not find an echo [positive response from the people] that runs [only] from the media," he added.

But the massive anti-Morsi protests showed that the MB had not only alienated liberals and secularists by seeking to entrench Islamic rule, notably in a new constitution, but had also angered millions of Egyptians with economic mismanagement.

Morsi had traveled to Khartoum last April in a highly publicized visit for talks with Bashir and other government officials.

A video was released during the visit showing Bashir and Morsi reciting the Holy Quran together in a mosque before Friday prayers which was seen by observers as a demonstration of how seriously they take their Islamic values.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201307040322.html?viewall=1.

Turkish political parties condemn Egypt military coup in joint statement

4 July 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL

A statement from Parliament's Human Rights Commission on Thursday was signed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and opposition Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

“The ruling power that was usurped by unauthorized powers should be given back to the [Egyptian] people. All democratic individuals and institutions across the world should stand against such moves, which have the potential for human rights violations,” the statement said.

The Egyptian armed forces ousted Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, on Wednesday after just a year in power, installing a temporary civilian government, suspending the constitution and calling for new elections. President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood blasted the action as a "full coup" by the military.

The Turkish political parties' statement highlighted that executions, torture, lengthy detentions, unjust arrests and many other human rights violations take place during times of coups, adding that elected governments in democracies can only be changed in accordance with the law."

"All interventions, apart from this, are against democracy, the law and human rights," the statement said, noting that the coup in Egypt is just one of dozens of coups around the world that destroyed democracy, supremacy of law and human rights.

Millions of anti-Morsi protesters around the country erupted in celebration after the televised announcement by the army chief on Wednesday evening. Fireworks burst over crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where men and women danced, shouting "God is great" and "Long live Egypt."

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu earlier condemned the Egyptian military's overthrow of elected President Morsi and said he expects the swift return of democracy to the country.

“Military coups are unacceptable. I hope democracy will return to the country as soon as possible,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu's remarks came during a meeting with administrators and businessmen from the Middle East Trade and Industry Center (OSTİM) in Ankara on Thursday morning.

“We see that those who think democracy is only composed of ballot boxes are mistaken. There is something called pluralism. Those who are ruling the country need to lend an ear to everyone's demands.

“Remaining deaf to their demands and saying things like ‘I received the majority of the vote, I can do anything,' is not valid in today's world. Military coups are never acceptable,” he said.

When asked about the effects of the military coup in Egypt on Turkey, Kılıçdaroğlu said he believes Turkish democracy is more advanced and that no segment of the public would favor a coup in Turkey.

He said the basic problem in Turkey is the patronizing attitude of the government and accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of dividing the country into camps.

Quarrel in Parliament

In the meantime, there were heated moments in Parliament on Wednesday when CHP deputy Kamer Genç made remarks warning Prime Minister Erdoğan of facing the same fate as Morsi.

“Do you think, Erdoğan, that the 5,000 policemen you employed will protect you? You have seen what happened to Morsi. There were also policemen around him. … There are some realities in this country that you cannot comprehend,” Genç said.

Genç's remarks drew harsh reactions from members of Parliament. Deputy Parliament Speaker Sadık Yakut said he condemned Genç for making a call for a military coup.

AK Party deputy group chairman Mustafa Elitaş also criticized Genç, saying that his pro-coup remarks do not befit him as a member of the party that established the Turkish Republic.

“If the CHP claims that it is not a party that has the habit of coming to power after military coups, it should have prevented its deputy from speaking this way. But it seems that they are in agreement,” Elitaş said.

Genç's remarks also drew negative reactions from the ranks of his party. CHP deputy group chairman Engin Altay said the CHP has been against coups throughout its political life.

Source: Today's Zaman.
Link: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-319962-turkish-political-parties-condemn-egypt-military-coup-in-joint-statement.html.

UAE: 'Satisfaction' in fall of Egyptian Islamists

July 04, 2013

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Gulf Arab states with sharply contrasting views on Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday acknowledged the country's new military-led government after the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi.

The United Arab Emirates, one of the Arab world's most outspoken critics of the Muslim Brotherhood, noted its "satisfaction" at the turn of events in Egypt, according to the official news agency WAM. Gulf ally Qatar, however, was a main backer of Morsi's government and had pledged up to $21 billion in investment and economic aid over the next five years. The plans are now thrown into question with Morsi's downfall after days of massive street protests in Cairo and elsewhere.

But Qatar's new emir, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, send a message of congratulations to Egypt's new, interim President Adly Mansour, the official Qatar News Agency reported. The UAE claims Islamist groups backed by the Muslim Brotherhood have sought to topple its Western-backed ruling system. Earlier this week, 69 people were convicted on coup plotting charges. Another 30 suspects, including Egyptians, await trial for alleged links to Brotherhood networks.

In neighboring Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah also sent a congratulations message. In Kuwait, which has a strong branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, some supporters denounced Morsi's toppling as a dangerous precedent.

"Egypt's democracy and the outcome of its decent, free elections, its freedoms and liberties are all under question after some people supported the army coup against democracy," said a Muslim Brotherhood member and former parliament member in Kuwait, Faisal al-Meslim.

Egypt's Princess Fawzia dies at 92

July 03, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Princess Fawzia, a member of Egypt's last royal family and the first wife of Iran's later-deposed monarch, has died, Iranian opposition groups said. She was 92.

Fawzia died Tuesday in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the Paris-based opposition groups said, but no cause of death was immediately known. She was the daughter of Egyptian King Fuad I, who ruled until 1936. Her brother and nephew later rose to the throne before the monarchy was toppled in 1953.

In 1939, Fawzia married Iran's then-crown prince, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They divorced in 1945 after having one daughter. Fawzia remarried in 1949 to an Egyptian army officer.

She was to be buried Wednesday in Cairo.

Al-Jazeera Station Raided, 3 Others Shut in Egypt

4 July 2013

New York — Authorities in Egypt's new military-run government raided Al-Jazeera's Egyptian station today, disrupting its service, and shut down at least three stations supportive of Mohamed Morsi in a worrying series of moves that seemed designed to cut off coverage of pro-Morsi events, according to news accounts.

Al-Jazeera reported that security forces raided the Cairo offices of its Egyptian station, Al-Jazeera Mubashir, late today, interrupting service, and detaining several people. The raid came during a live broadcast, the station said. Reuters also reported the raid, citing an account from a station journalist who said coverage of a pro-Morsi rally had also been obstructed.

Misr25, the Muslim Brotherhood's television station, went off the air minutes after Gen. Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian defense minister, announced Morsi's ouster, state media reported. A live feed from Misr25 that was being carried by Al-Jazeera English suddenly went black, as did the outlet's live YouTube feed. Misr25 had carried news and commentary that directly reflected the Muslim Brotherhood's political perspective.

The state-run Al-Ahram and the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said two other pro-Morsi channels, the Salafi-affiliated Al-Hafiz and Al-Nas, also went off the air at that time. Al-Ahram said police entered the Media Production City offices of all three stations.

As CPJ reported earlier today, military units entered the state media newsroom today to monitor content and ensure the military's messages were broadcast.

"We are concerned by reports that authorities are shutting down television coverage based on political perspective," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa Coordinator. "We urge the military not to deprive Egyptians of information sources at this important juncture."

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201307040232.html.

Egypt's army ousts Morsi, who calls it a 'coup'

July 04, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's first democratically elected president was overthrown by the military Wednesday, ousted after just one year in office by the same kind of Arab Spring uprising that brought the Islamist leader to power.

The armed forces announced they would install a temporary civilian government to replace Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who denounced the action as a "full coup" by the generals. They also suspended the Islamist-drafted constitution and called for new elections.

Millions of anti-Morsi protesters around the country erupted in celebrations after the televised announcement by the army chief. Fireworks burst over crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where men and women danced, shouting, "God is great" and "Long live Egypt."

Fearing a violent reaction by Morsi's Islamist supporters, troops and armored vehicles deployed in the streets of Cairo and elsewhere, surrounding Islamist rallies. Clashes erupted in several provincial cities when Islamists opened fire on police, with at least nine people killed, security officials said.

Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood party, said Morsi was under house arrest at a Presidential Guard facility where he had been residing, and 12 presidential aides also were under house arrest.

The army took control of state media and blacked out TV stations operated by the Muslim Brotherhood. The head of the Brotherhood's political wing was arrested. The ouster of Morsi throws Egypt on an uncertain course, with a danger of further confrontation. It came after four days of mass demonstrations even larger than those of the 2011 Arab Spring that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptians were angered that Morsi was giving too much power to his Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists and had failed to tackle the country's mounting economic woes. Beyond the fears over violence, some protesters are concerned whether an army-installed administration can lead to real democracy.

President Barack Obama urged the military to hand back control to a democratic, civilian government as soon as possible but stopped short of calling it a coup d'etat. He said he was "deeply concerned" by the military's move to topple Morsi's government and suspend Egypt's constitution. He said he was ordering the U.S. government to assess what the military's actions meant for U.S. foreign aid to Egypt — $1.5 billion a year in military and economic assistance.

The U.S. wasn't taking sides in the conflict, committing itself only to democracy and respect for the rule of law, Obama said. On Monday, army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi had given Morsi an ultimatum to find a solution to meet the demands of anti-government demonstrators in 48 hours, but the 62-year-old former engineer defiantly insisted on his legitimacy from an election he won with 51.7 percent of the vote in June 2012.

Any deal was a near impossibility, however, making it inevitable the military would move. As the deadline approached, el-Sissi met with pro-reform leader Mohammed ElBaradei, top Muslim cleric Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb and Coptic Pope Tawadros II, as well as opposition activists and some members of the ultraconservative Salafi movements. The consultations apparently were aimed at bringing as wide a consensus as possible behind the army's moves.

The Brotherhood boycotted the session, according to its political arm the Freedom and Justice Party. In a last-minute statement before the deadline, Morsi again rejected the military's intervention, saying abiding by his electoral legitimacy was the only way to prevent violence. He criticized the military for "taking only one side."

"One mistake that cannot be accepted, and I say this as president of all Egyptians, is to take sides," he said in the statement issued by his office. "Justice dictates that the voice of the masses from all squares should be heard," he said, repeating his offer to hold dialogue with his opponents.

"For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let's call what is happening by its real name: Military coup," Morsi's top foreign policy adviser Essam al-Haddad wrote on his Facebook page. After the deadline expired, el-Sissi went on state TV and said the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour, would step in as interim president until new elections are held. Mansour was appointed to the court by Mubarak but elevated to the chief justice post by Morsi and will be sworn in Thursday by judges of his court.

Flanked by Muslim and Christian clerics as well as ElBaradei and two opposition activists, el-Sissi said a government of technocrats would be formed with "full powers" to run the country. He promised "not to exclude anyone or any movement" from further steps. But he did not define the length of the transition period or when presidential elections would be held. He also did not mention any role for the military.

The constitution, drafted by Morsi's Islamist allies, was "temporarily suspended," and a panel of experts and representatives of all political movements will consider amendments, el-Sissi said. He did not say whether a referendum would be held to ratify the changes, as customary.

ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, said he hoped the military plan "is the beginning of a new launch for the Jan. 25 revolution when people offered their dearest to restore their freedom, dignity and social justice for every Egyptian."

Also appearing with el-Sissi was Mahmoud Badr, one of two representatives of Tamarod, or Rebel — the youth opposition movement that engineered the latest wave of protests. He urged protesters "to stay in the squares to protect what we have won."

After the speech, fireworks burst over crowds dancing and waving flags in Cairo's Tahrir Square, epicenter of the 2011 uprising. Now it was one of multiple centers of a stunning four-day anti-Morsi revolt that brought out the biggest anti-government rallies Egypt has seen.

"Don't ask me if I am happy. Just look around you at all those people, young and old. They are all happy," said 25-year-old Mohammed Nageh, shouting to be heard in Tahrir. "For the first time, people have really won their liberty."

A statement from Morsi's office's Twitter account quoted Morsi as saying the military's measures "represent a full coup categorically rejected by all the free men of our nation." The army insisted it is not carrying out a coup, but acting on the will of the people to clear the way for a new leadership. El-Sissi warned that the armed forces, police will deal "decisively" with violence.

Some of Morsi's Islamist backers, tens of thousands of whom took to the streets in recent days, have vowed to fight to the end, although he urged everyone "to adhere to peacefulness and avoid shedding blood of fellow countrymen."

"Down with the rule of the military!" some of them chanted after el-Sissi's speech, reviving a chant used by leftist revolutionaries during the nearly 17 months of direct military rule that followed Mubarak's removal.

El-Sissi warned that the armed forces and police will deal "decisively" with violence. The army deployed troops, commandos and armored vehicles around the country. In Cairo, they were stationed on bridges over the Nile and at major intersections. They also surrounded rallies being held by Morsi's supporters — an apparent move to contain them.

After the military's 9:20 p.m. announcement, the Brotherhood's TV station went black. Islamist TV networks that have been accused of inciting violence also went off the air and some of their prominent anchors have been arrested, according to security officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Security forces stormed the studio of Al-Jazeera Misr Mubasher and detained the staffers. The station, a branch of Qatari-run Al-Jazeera TV, has maintained a generally pro-Morsi line. Travel bans were imposed on Morsi and top figures from the Muslim Brotherhood including its chief Mohammed Badie and his powerful deputy Khairat el-Shater. Officials said security forces had surrounded Badie inside a tourist compound where he had been staying in the Mediterranean coastal city of Marsa Matrouh, near the Libyan border.

A security official said Saad el-Katatni, the head of the Freedom and Justice Party, and Rashad Bayoumi, one of two deputies of the Brotherhood's top leader, were arrested early Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

El-Haddad, the Brotherhood party's spokesman, said a list has been drawn up of hundreds of Brotherhood members believed wanted for arrest, including himself. "We don't know the details. The army is not giving details," he told The Associated Press. "It is a full-fledged coup and it is turning into a bloody one too. They are arresting everybody."

Police shot dead six Islamists who opened fire on Marsa Matrouh's police headquarters as they drove past. Morsi supporters tried to storm a police station in the southern city of Minya, but where battled back by police, killing three, while other Islamists destroyed cars and shops and threw stones at a church in the nearby city of Deir Mawas, while police fired tear gas at them. Police and armed Morsi supporters also battled in the southern city of Assiut, another Islamist stronghold.

Nearly 50 people have been killed in clashes between Morsi supporters and opponents since Sunday. Morsi took office vowing to move beyond his roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, but his presidency threw the country into deep polarization. Those who took to the streets this week say he lost his electoral legitimacy because he tried to give the Brotherhood and Islamist allies a monopoly on power, pushed through a constitution largely written by his allies and mismanaged the country's multiple crises.

"Now we want a president who would really be the president of all Egyptians and will work for the country," according to Said Shahin, a 19-year-old protester in Tahrir. He fell to the ground to pray as soon as el-Sissi spoke.

Badr, the Tamarod movement spokesman, praised the crowds in the streets saying, they succeeded in "putting your revolution back on track." "Let's start a new page, a new page based on participation," he wrote on his Twitter account. "Our hand is extended to all."

Morsi and his allies say the opposition never accepted their appeals for dialogue — seen by opponents as empty gestures — and that Mubarak loyalists throughout the government sabotaged their attempts to bring change.

Rizk Gamil, a 44-year-old driver, brought his wife to Tahrir to celebrate after el-Sissi announcement. "Today is a day of joy. Today is the day we liberated Egypt from Brotherhood occupation," he said.

A major question now is whether the Brotherhood and other Islamists will push back against the new, military-installed system or can be drawn into it.

Associated Press reporters Tony G. Gabriel and Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.

Key events in Egypt's revolution and upheaval

July 03, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt is bracing for a showdown Wednesday as a military deadline looms for embattled President Mohammed Morsi to meet the demands of millions of protesters or face intervention by the army. With the clock ticking down, thousands of Egyptians are taking to the streets as they have since Sunday to call for Morsi's ouster, while the president's supporters are also staging mass rallies as they vow to defend him.

Here are some key events from more than two years of turmoil and transition: Jan. 25-Feb. 11, 2011 — Egyptians stage nationwide demonstrations against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Hundreds of protesters are killed as Mubarak and his allies try to crush the uprising.

Feb. 11 — Mubarak steps down and turns power over to the military. The military dissolves parliament and suspends the constitution, meeting two key demands of protesters. March 19 — In the first post-Mubarak vote, Egyptians cast ballots on constitutional amendments sponsored by the military. The measures are overwhelmingly approved.

Oct. 9 — Troops crush a protest by Christians in Cairo over a church attack, killing more than 25 protesters. Nov. 28, 2011-Feb 15, 2012 — Egypt holds multistage, weekslong parliamentary elections. In the lawmaking lower house, the Muslim Brotherhood wins nearly half the seats, and ultraconservative Salafis take another quarter. The remainder goes to liberal, independent and secular politicians. In the largely powerless upper house, Islamists take nearly 90 percent of the seats.

May 23-24, 2012 — The first round of voting in presidential elections has a field of 13 candidates. Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under Mubarak, emerge as the top two finishers, to face each other in a runoff.

June 14 — The Supreme Constitutional Court orders the dissolving of the lower house of parliament. June 16-17 — Egyptians vote in the presidential runoff between Morsi and Shafiq. Morsi wins with 51.7 percent of the vote.

June 30 — Morsi takes his oath of office. Aug. 12 — Morsi orders the retirement of the top Mubarak-era leadership of the military. Nov. 19 — Members of liberal parties and representatives of Egypt's churches withdraw from the 100-member assembly writing the constitution, protesting attempts by Islamists to impose their will.

Nov. 22 — Morsi unilaterally decrees greater powers for himself, giving his decisions immunity from judicial review and barring the courts from dissolving the constituent assembly and the upper house of parliament. The move sparks days of protests.

Nov. 30 —Islamists in the constituent assembly rush to complete the draft of the constitution. Morsi sets a Dec. 15 date for a referendum. Dec. 4 — More than 100,000 protesters march on the presidential palace, demanding the cancellation of the referendum and the writing of a new constitution. The next day, Islamists attack an anti-Morsi sit-in, sparking street battles that leave at least 10 dead.

Dec. 15, Dec. 22 — In the two-round referendum, Egyptians approve the constitution, with 63.8 percent voting in favor. Turnout is low. Dec. 29 — The Egyptian Central Bank announces that foreign reserves — drained to $15 billion from $36 billion in 2010 — have fallen to a "critical minimum" and tries to stop a sharp slide in the value of the Egyptian pound. It now stands at just over 7 to the dollar, compared to 5.5 to the dollar in 2010.

Jan. 25, 2013 — Hundreds of thousands hold protests against Morsi on the 2-year anniversary of the start of the revolt against Mubarak, and clashes erupt in many places. Feb.-March 2013 — Protests rage in Port Said and other cities for weeks, with dozens more dying in clashes.

April 7 — A Muslim mob attacks the main cathedral of the Coptic Orthodox Church as Christians hold a funeral and protest there over four Christians killed in sectarian violence the day before. Pope Tawadros II publicly blames Morsi for failing to protect the building.

May 7 — Morsi reshuffles his Cabinet. Officials say the changes aim to finalize long-stalled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a crucial $4.8 billion loan, which requires reductions to fuel and food subsidies. A deal on the loan has still not been reached.

June 23 — A mob beats to death four Egyptian Shiites in a village on the edge of Cairo. June 30 — Millions of Egyptians demonstrate, calling for Morsi to step down. Eight people are killed in clashes outside the Muslim Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters.

July 1 — Large-scale demonstrations continue, and Egypt's powerful military gives the two sides 48 hours to resolve their disputes, or it will impose its own solution. July 2 — Military officials disclose main details of their plan if no agreement is reached: replacing Morsi with an interim administration, canceling the Islamist-based constitution and calling elections in a year. Morsi delivers a late-night speech in which he pledges to defend his legitimacy and vows not to step down.

July 3 — Deadline for Morsi and opponents to come to agreement, or the military says it will impose its plan.

Defiant Egyptian president says he won't step down

July 03, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — His fate hanging in the balance, embattled President Mohammed Morsi vowed not to resign Tuesday, hours before a deadline to yield to the demands of millions of protesters or see the military suspend the constitution, disband parliament and install a new leadership.

The Islamist leader demanded that the powerful armed forces withdraw their ultimatum, saying he rejected all "dictates" — from home or abroad. Outside on the streets, the sense that both sides are ready to fight to the end sharpened, with clashes between his supporters and opponents that left at least 23 dead, most of them in a single incident of fighting outside Cairo University.

In an emotional speech aired live to the nation, Morsi, who a year ago was inaugurated as Egypt's first freely elected president, pledged to protect his "constitutional legitimacy" with his life. He accused loyalists of his ousted autocratic predecessor Hosni Mubarak of exploiting the wave of protests to topple his regime and thwart democracy.

"There is no substitute for legitimacy," said Morsi, who at times angrily raised his voice, thrust his fist in the air and pounded the podium. He warned that electoral and constitutional legitimacy "is the only guarantee against violence."

Morsi's defiant statement showed that he and his Muslim Brotherhood are prepared to run the risk of challenging the army. It also entrenches the lines of confrontation between his Islamist supporters and Egyptians angry over what they see as his efforts to impose control by his Muslim Brotherhood and his failures to deal with the country's multiple problems.

The crisis has become a struggle over whether a popular uprising can overturn the verdict of the ballot box. Morsi's opponents say he has lost his legitimacy through mistakes and power grabs and that their turnout on the streets over the past three days shows the nation has turned against him.

For a third day Tuesday, millions of jubilant, chanting Morsi opponents filled Cairo's historic Tahrir Square, as well as avenues adjacent to two presidential palaces in the capital, and main squares in cities nationwide. After Morsi's speech, they erupted in indignation, banging metal fences to raise a din, some raising their shoes in the air in a show of contempt. "Leave, leave," they chanted.

Morsi "doesn't understand. He will take us toward bloodshed and civil war," said Islam Musbah, a 28-year-old protester sitting on the sidewalk outside the Ittihadiya palace, dejectedly resting his head on his hand.

The president's supporters also moved out in increased marches in Cairo and other cities. Morsi's supporters have stepped up warnings that it will take bloodshed to dislodge him. While Morsi has stuck to a stance that he is defending democracy in Egypt, many of his Islamist backers have presented the fight as one to protect Islam.

"Seeking martyrdom to prevent the ongoing coup is what we can offer as a sign of gratitude to previous martyrs who died in the revolution," Brotherhood stalwart Mohammed el-Beltagy wrote Tuesday in his official Facebook page.

Political violence was more widespread on Tuesday, with multiple clashes between the two camps in Cairo as well as in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and other cities. A march by Morsi supporters outside Cairo University came under fire from gunmen on nearby rooftops.

At least 23 people were killed in Cairo and more than 200 injured, according to hospital and security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Most of the killings took place outside Cairo University located at Cairo's twin city of Giza. The official Al-Ahram website reported that the armed forces deployed armored vehicles to the area.

The latest deaths take to at least 39 the people who have died since the first day of protests, Sunday, many of them in shootings of anti-Morsi gatherings. Morsi went on TV hours after meeting with the head of the military, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, with the prime minister also present, in their second such meeting in as many days.

On Monday, the military gave Morsi an ultimatum to meet the protesters' demands within 48 hours. If not, the generals' plan would suspend the Islamist-backed constitution, dissolve the Islamist-dominated legislature and set up an interim administration headed by the country's chief justice, the state news agency reported.

The leaking of the military's so-called political "road map" appeared aimed at adding pressure on Morsi by showing the public and the international community that the military has a plan that does not involve a coup.

On his official Twitter account, Morsi urged the armed forces "to withdraw their ultimatum" and said he rejects any domestic or foreign dictates." In his 46-minute speech Tuesday, he implicitly warned the military against removing him, saying such action will "backfire on its perpetrators."

Fearing that Washington's most important Arab ally would descend into chaos, U.S. officials said they are urging Morsi to take immediate steps to address opposition grievances, telling the protesters to remain peaceful and reminding the army that a coup could have consequences for the massive American military aid package it receives. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Morsi adviser Ayman Ali denied that the U.S. asked Egypt to call early presidential elections and said consultations were continuing to reach national conciliation and resolve the crisis. He did not elaborate.

The army has insisted it has no intention to take power. But the reported road map showed it was ready to replace Morsi and make a sweeping change in the ramshackle political structure that has evolved since Mubarak's fall in February 2011.

The constitution and domination of the legislature after elections held in late 2011-early 2012 are two of the Islamists' and Brotherhood's most valued victories — along with Morsi's election last year.

A retired army general with close ties to the military confirmed the news agency report's version of the road map. Hossam Sweilam said a panel of experts would draft a new constitution and the interim administration would be a presidential council led by the Supreme Constitutional Court's chief justice and including the defense minister, representatives of political parties, youth groups, Al-Azhar Mosque and the Coptic Church.

He said the military envisioned a one-year transitional period before presidential elections are held. The military spokesman, Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, declined to confirm the details. "It is too early and we don't want to jump into conclusions," he said.

At least one anti-Morsi TV station put up a clock counting down to the end of the military's ultimatum, putting it at 4 p.m. Wednesday (1400 GMT, 10 a.m. EDT), though a countdown clock posted online by Morsi opponents put the deadline at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT, 11 a.m. EDT). The military did not give a precise hour.

Morsi also faced new fissures within his leadership. Three government spokesmen — two for Morsi and one for the prime minister — were the latest to quit as part of high-level defections that underscored his increasing isolation and fallout from the military's ultimatum. Five Cabinet ministers, including the foreign minister, resigned Monday, and a sixth, Sports Minister El-Amry Farouq, quit Tuesday.

One ultraconservative Salafi party, al-Nour, also announced its backing for early elections. The party was once an ally of Morsi but in recent months has broken with him. Among the opposition crowds outside the Qasr el-Qobba presidential palace, one protester said he believes Morsi will not go easily. "He will only leave after a catastrophe. Lots of blood. And the military is the only party that can force him out then," said Haitham Farouk, an oil company employee joining a protest for the first time.

He said the "epic" crowds showed how Egypt's public has turned against Morsi and his Brotherhood, which opponents claim is the real power behind the president. "This is everybody, not just the educated or the political," Farouk said of the protesters. "They came down because only the Brotherhood gained in the past two years.

Morsi may try half-measures to satisfy the army, he said, "but the people are not going back until he leaves. After what we have seen in the past year, we will not settle for less." In a significant move, opposition parties and the youth movement behind the demonstrations agreed that reform leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei would represent them in any negotiations on the country's political future. The move appeared aimed at presenting a unified voice in a post-Morsi system, given the widespread criticism that the opposition has been too fragmented to present an alternative to the Islamists.

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad said the opposition is to blame for its own woes, failing to perform well in the elections, and has now decided to "brush up to military power." "We can't keep running elections until (the Brotherhood) loses," he wrote in a Tweet. He said the opposition should "man up" to its responsibilities and come up with a better strategy "or accept democratic outcomes."

Despite heated rhetoric among many Islamists about standing up to the military, one cleric from the Salafi movement warned against repeating the scenario of Algeria, when the military negated elections that Islamists won in the 1990s, and the Islamists responded with a yearslong, bloody insurgency.

The result, Adel Nasr wrote on a Salafi website, was that "more than a hundred thousand were killed and ... their popularity went down," costing Islamists both political power and the power of their religious message.

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael, Sarah El Deeb, Tony G. Gabriel and Mariam Rizk in Cairo and Matthew H. Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Court annuls controversial Istanbul project

July 04, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A lawyer says an Istanbul court has annulled a government-backed redevelopment project that ignited widespread protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule last month.

However, lawyer Can Atalay said Thursday that the court's June decision is not final and is expected to be appealed at a higher administrative court. Atalay filed the lawsuit against the plans on behalf of a chamber of architects.

The demonstrations were sparked May 31 by a brutal police crackdown on an environmental sit-in against plans to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks at a park next to Istanbul's landmark Taksim Square and morphed into an unprecedented challenge against Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government.

In a concession to protesters, Erdogan promise to suspend redevelopment plans pending court rulings and a referendum.

Turkey signs Arms Trade Treaty

July 3, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey, July 3 (UPI) -- The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it expected its international counterparts to sign onto the United Nations' Arms Trade Treaty.

The U.N. General Assembly approved the international treaty on the global arms trade in April. The measure, which followed several years of diplomatic maneuvering, is aimed at preventing the spread of weapons.

The Turkish Foreign Minister said in a statement Wednesday its signature was added to the treaty by Turkish Ambassador to the United Nations Halit Cevik.

"For a speedy entry into force and eventual universalization, we expect all states to sign the treaty and complete their national ratification procedures as soon as possible," the ministry said in a statement.

More than 60 countries formally signed the treaty. It bans governments from transferring conventional weapons to other countries known to be engaged in war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The United States wasn't among those signing the treaty. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the government would likely join the measure later this year. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his support for the measure though the White House said there were minor issues stemming from the treaty's translation.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/07/03/Turkey-signs-Arms-Trade-Treaty/UPI-39461372866138/.