Coptic activist: Large number of Christians reject the coup

Friday, 27 September 2013

Coptic political analyst and founder of Anti-Coup Christians, Rami Jan has affirmed that there are many Christian Egyptians who reject the army's bloody coup and its crimes and massacres committed against unarmed protesters.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Jan said that, despite having many differences, a lot of Christians still support Mohammed Morsi. He affirmed that these Christians are against a military solution for the crisis, which has strengthened the power of the security forces over the people.

He severely criticized the army's crackdown on those Egyptians refusing the coup. "Their only crime was that they took to the streets to peacefully express their refusal of the coup," he said.

Jan added: "We are the grandsons of Makram Obaid, a Christian rebel in the middle of last century who denied the accusations against Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, that he was a terrorist."

He said that Obaid was the first one to take part in Al-Banna's burial, defying strict measures imposed on taking part in that event.

Candidly, Jan criticized the stance of the Church in Egypt, which kept silent regarding the massacres carried out in Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Squares, as well as the crimes committed later on.

He explained how this stance contradicted that of the Church regarding the killing of 18 Christians by military forces after January revolutions. The Church rejected the violence then, "However, we see that it is supporting the violence today," he said.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/7562-coptic-activist-large-number-of-christians-refuse-the-coup.

Egypt's central bank confirms economic achievements under President Morsi

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

The Egyptian Central Bank announced on Tuesday that net transfers from Egyptians working abroad increased during the past fiscal year to reach a record high of $18.7 billion. During the previous year, transfers totaled $18 billion.

The bank said in a statement that capital and financial transactions achieved a net influx of $9.7 billion compared with about only one billion USD during the previous year.

In addition, the Balance of Payments achieved an overall surplus of $237 million compared with a deficit of $11.3 million the previous year.

In Egypt, the fiscal year starts on 1 July and concludes on 30 June, thus these economic successes were all achieved under the government of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

According to the Bank, the deficit was also reduced by 45 per cent to $5.6 billion, compared with $10.1 billion during the previous fiscal year. The bank noted a considerable retreat in the deficit of the trade balance of 7.6 per cent.

Regarding investment in Egyptian stocks, the statement said that it achieved a net inflow of $1.5 billion compared with a net outflow of $5 billion during the previous year.

Meanwhile, the net income from the Suez Canal recorded a slight decrease of 3.4 per cent, down to $5 billion compared with $5.2 billion the previous year.

Payments from investment income also retreated by 11.6 per cent after foreign companies working in Egypt decreased their number of transactions.

However the tourism industry fared much better. The Anadolu news agency cites official Egyptian figures indicating that during the first half of this year, the number of tourists to Egypt had increased by 13 per cent. The same source also cited today the minister of industry and trade as confirming that exports from the agricultural sector increased by 20% during the financial year 2012-13, which coincided with Morsi's rule.

Economists remarked that these results reflect Egypt's economic success under the government of Hisham Qandil and President Morsi.

On 3 July, the Egyptian army carried out a coup against President Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, justifying their actions on the grounds that Egypt's economy could not survive and flourish under President Morsi.

And despite the unprecedented economic success of Morsi's government, on Tuesday US President Barack Obama candidly announced his support for the military coup, accusing President Morsi of failing to achieve the goals of the Egyptian revolution.

Although the bank recognized these accomplishments, they failed to attribute them to Morsi and his administration.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/7525-egypts-central-bank-confirms-economic-achievements-under-president-morsi.

Egypt shutters offices of Brotherhood newspaper

September 25, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian security forces on Wednesday shuttered the office of the newspaper of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party and confiscated furniture and documents, journalists from the Freedom and Justice daily said.

In a statement Wednesday, the journalists appealed to Egypt's press syndicate to take action against the closure in Cairo's Manial district, where the office is now sealed. The closure comes two days after a court ordered the group outlawed and its assets seized. Egypt's interim government however said Tuesday that it would not ban the group until the ruling is upheld by a higher tribunal.

Islam Tawfiq, an editor with the Freedom and Justice daily and a member of the Brotherhood, said the newspaper will continue to be published, and its edition for Thursday is ready for print. He said the newspaper staff had evacuated the office in June, days before mass protests against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, under threat of attack.

The staff has been working elsewhere, he said, and only furniture, electrical appliances, and some documents were confiscated from the office. An order to ban the publication was issued a day after Morsi was ousted on July 4, he said, amid a crackdown on pro-Brotherhood media. The Brotherhood's TV channel, Misr25, has been off the air since then and was later banned by a court order.

But the state-owned Al-Ahram printers continued to publish the paper, he said, on condition it reduce its pages by half and print circulation down to 10,000 from 100,000. The orders came from security authorities, he said.

The shuttering of the newspaper appears to be part of an extensive crackdown on the Brotherhood since Morsi's ouster, after millions took to the streets demanding his resignation. Tawfiq said the newspaper staff was informed by press syndicate officials that the office, which served as the historic headquarters of the Brotherhood under now deposed President Hosni Mubarak, was closed not as a political party property but as a property of the Brotherhood.

He said however that the ownership had changed following the official registration of the political party in 2011. The paper was informed, he said, on Wednesday that prosecutors ordered the closure late last month, nearly three weeks before a court decision to ban the group and seize its assets.

A security official couldn't immediately explain the discrepancy between the two claims. He added that the paper had only rented parts of the building as its office. The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Senior Brotherhood Member Says Ban is Political

24 September 2013

A Muslim Brotherhood member described a court ruling that banned all of the group’s activities on Monday as a political decision in the form of a judicial verdict.

A Cairo court banned all of the Muslim Brotherhood's activities as well as the activities of other groups supporting it, affiliated to it or receiving funding from it earlier on Monday.

Ibrahim Moneir, a member of the Brotherhood’s guidance office residing in London, told the Freedom and Justice Party's official website that "the fascist decision was made on July 3, not today," referring to the day that the army ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi from power in response to mass demonstrations across the country.

The court has also ordered that all of group's assets be confiscated until a government committee is formed to deal with them after legal proceedings.

A member in the Dameer Front that groups several Islamist movements also agreed that the ruling was of political nature and is another move to pressure the Brotherhood.

He added that the ruling is meaningless because it came at a time where the group's headquarters have already been destroyed and Brotherhood leaders are mostly behind bars.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309240703.html.

Mursi Supporters Protest Outside UN Office

24 September 2013

Supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi will hold a demonstration by the United Nations headquarters under the slogan "the coup does not represent Egypt" on Tuesday.

The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, that groups Mursi's supporters, said on its official Facebook page on Sunday that the demonstration is to express "the Egyptian people's rejection of the coup and its institutions and committees."

The protest comes in response to Egypt's interim President Adli Mansour asking Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy to head a delegation at the 68's general assembly of the UN this month.

Mursi's supporters have been holding demonstrations since the Islamist president's ouster.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309241288.html.

Ukraine sees largest anti-govt protest since 2004

December 08, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Ukraine's capital on Sunday, toppling a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and blockading key government buildings in an escalating standoff with the president over the future of the country.

The biggest demonstration in the former Soviet republic since Ukraine's pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004 led the government to fire back. It announced an investigation of opposition leaders for an alleged attempt to seize power and warned the demonstrators they could face criminal charges.

The West pressed for a peaceful settlement. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flooded the center of Kiev, the capital, to demand President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster after he ditched ties with the European Union in favor of Russia and sent police to break up an earlier protest in the nearly three-week standoff.

"Ukraine is tired of Yanukovych. We need new rules. We need to completely change those in power," said protester Kostyantyn Meselyuk, 42. "Europe can help us." Packing Independence Square as far as the eye could see, Ukrainians waving EU flags sang the national anthem and shouted "Resignation!" and "Down with the gang!" in a reference to Yanukovych's regime.

"I am convinced that after these events, dictatorship will never survive in our country," world boxing champion and top opposition leader Vitali Klitschko told reporters. "People will not tolerate when they are beaten, when their mouths are shut, when their principles and values are ignored."

As darkness fell, the conflict escalated further with protesters blockading key government buildings in Kiev with cars, barricades and tents. The protests have had an anti-Russian component because Russia had worked aggressively to derail the EU deal with threats of trade retaliation against Ukraine.

About half a mile (1 kilometer) from the main square, one group of anti-government protesters toppled the city's landmark statue of Lenin and decapitated it Sunday evening. Protesters then took turns beating on the torso of the fallen statue, while others lined up to collect a piece of the stone. The crowd chanted "Glory to Ukraine!"

"Goodbye, Communist legacy," Andriy Shevchenko, an opposition lawmaker, wrote on Twitter. The demonstrations erupted last month after Yanukovych shelved a long-planned treaty with the 28-nation European Union to focus on ties with Russia. They were also galvanized by police violence and fears that Yanukovych was on the verge of bringing his country into a Russian-led economic alliance, which critics say could end Ukraine's sovereignty.

"It's not just a simple revolution," Oleh Tyahnybok, an opposition leader with the national Svoboda party, told the crowd in a fiery speech from a giant stage. "It's a revolution of dignity." Yet a solution to the crisis appeared elusive, with the government making no concessions and the opposition issuing contradictory statements on how to proceed.

Heeding the opposition's calls, thousands of protesters blocked the approach to key government buildings in Kiev by erecting barricades, setting up tents and parking vehicles, including a giant dump truck.

"We are extending our demonstration. We are going to fight until victory. We will fight for what we believe in," opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk told protesters on Independence Square, which was drowning in a sea of flags.

The West, meanwhile, scrambled to avoid violence and urged dialogue. In a phone conversation with Yanukovych, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stressed "the need for a political" solution and dispatched EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to Kiev next week to mediate a solution. Yanukovych also discussed the crisis with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Valery Chaliy, head of the Razumkov Center think tank in Kiev, said the West must help resolve the crisis and prevent more violence. "It is evident that without international mediation this will not be solved in a peaceful way," Chaliy said in a telephone interview.

The protest Sunday in sub-zero December temperatures took place on Independence Square, known as the Maidan, in an echo of the Orange Revolution. Those protests annulled Yanukovych's fraud-tainted presidential victory in 2004, and ushered his pro-Western opponents into power. Yanukovych returned to the presidency in the 2010 vote.

During a huge demonstration a week ago, several hundred radical protesters hurled stones and attacked police as they tried to storm the presidential office. That prompted a violent breakup by the authorities in which dozens were beaten and injured, including peaceful protesters, passers-by and journalists.

Maria Danilova contributed to this report.

Ukraine capital braces for massive protest

December 08, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of Ukrainians angered by police violence and the president's turn away from Europe headed for the center of the capital on Sunday, in what was expected to be the largest rally since mass protests started three weeks ago.

President Viktor Yanukovych's meeting on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised fears among the opposition that Ukraine is on the verge of entering a Russian-led customs union that critics say would recall the Soviet Union.

Authorities have said police won't take action against peaceful demonstrators, but concerns persist that some opposition activists may be goaded into violence. The opposition branded Sunday's demonstration the "march of a million," calling on Ukrainians to protest police brutality and any deals that Yanukovych makes with Russia. The protest was to take place on the landmark Independence Square, known as the Maidan, and which was the site of the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution.

"Go to the Maidan!," the opposition party of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko wrote on Twitter. "We will chase him (Yanukovych) until he falls." The demonstrations began after Yanukovych shelved the signing of an agreement to deepen ties with the European Union in order to focus on Russia, which worked aggressively to derail the EU deal.

During a huge demonstration a week ago, several hundred radical protesters hurled stones and attacked police as they tried to storm the presidential office, prompting a violent break-up by the authorities, in which dozens were injured, including peaceful protesters, passersby and journalists.

Yanukovych has been reluctant to free Tymoshenko, his top opponent. The EU condemned her jailing as political and demanded her release for the signing of the treaty.

France tries to rewrite its role in Africa

December 08, 2013

PARIS (AP) — France is coming to the rescue again, deploying soldiers in a former African colony to help stave off catastrophe — dirty work that Paris says it doesn't really want. France has its eyes on a dynamic new Africa that is creating jobs, not conflicts.

But the image of France as the gendarme of Africa is hard to erase. French troops deployed to deal with the deadly chaos in Central African Republic just as some 40 leaders from Africa, including the Central African Republic's transitional prime minister, met in Paris on Friday and Saturday.

The summit made progress toward creating a French-trained African rapid reaction force to enable the continent to meet its own security needs — while allowing France to maintain ties to the region that may pay off economically in the longer term.

France's idea of itself as a one-time colonial master cannot be easily shaken off. The French empire unraveled in the 1960s, but a half-century later, African leaders routinely call for help, and the calls don't often go ignored.

Since 2011, under two presidents from opposing political camps, France has intervened in four African countries: in Ivory Coast, on a joint mission in Libya, in Mali, and now Central African Republic.

In January, France sent in 5,000 troops to Mali to quash al-Qaida and other radicals in the north seen as a terrorist threat to countries around the region. That dwarfs the mission in Central African Republic, where President Francois Hollande says 1,600 French troops will help some 6,000 African troops secure the nearly lawless country, where sectarian strife has grown after Muslim rebels ousted the president in March.

In both Mali and Central African Republic, Paris obtained African and international backing via the U.N. Security Council. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Saturday he's "grateful to all the countries contributing with soldiers ... and in particular to France for boosting its military support."

Yet Hollande doesn't want France to be the first, and sometimes only, responder to emergencies in Africa. France tried over several months to not intervene in Central African Republic. Hollande announced a push to change France's role as savior to assistant at an African Union summit in Ethiopia in May, saying it is Africans who must assure their own security. Many African officials agree on the concept, though details of the plan are still being worked out.

France is pushing for the AU's rapid reaction force to be put in place in the coming months, and promised at the weekend summit to provide equipment and train up to 20,000 African troops a year. The U.N. would fund peacekeeping operations once it's fully operational. Until then, Hollande said the EU should pitch in money "because the two continents are linked."

Hollande is not the first president to try to disassemble a heavy heritage, or profit from a continent whose image is changing from one of endless conflict to a burgeoning hub for investment. Even the symbols of war are getting softer. The French move into Central African Republic is dubbed Operation Sangaris, after a local butterfly. The 1979 intervention to depose Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Central African Republic dictator and self-proclaimed emperor accused of cannibalism, was called Operation Barracuda.

Extricating France from its colonial past, without abandoning traditional partners in time of need, can be complex. The paternalistic partnerships Paris cultivated for decades with former colonies lined the pockets of dictators and dealers, and encouraged dependency. Today, the unwritten policy known as Franceafrique is officially disdained.

But Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita says that both sides remain bound to each other. "France, alas, has a historic duty" to its ex-colonies, Keita said in an interview with the daily Le Monde. "When you have traveled the road together, as painful as it sometimes may have been, something remains. .... We are condemned to walk together."

France's government insists it doesn't want to interfere in internal African affairs. But Hollande expressed open distaste Saturday for the rebel-leader-turned-president of Central African Republic: "I don't want to point fingers, but we cannot keep in place a president who was not able to do anything, or even worse, who let things happen," Hollande said on France-24 television, urging elections "as fast as possible."

Aline Leboeuf, a security and development specialist at the French Institute for International Relations, said that a decade from now France won't be able to intervene as it is today. For one thing, budget squeezes won't allow it to replace aging equipment.

"So there are many small gaps in terms of capacity," she said. And, she added, "There's a big gap between the vision France has of itself as a global power and as a power that can intervene." The real question, she said, is: "Can you intervene in the right way, and when do you leave?"

That's a question that has particularly haunted France since its failure to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where 800,000 people were killed. French troops were in the country when the massacre of minority Tutsis by Hutu militias began.

Rwanda has sometimes accused French troops of participating in the killings — which France flatly denies. But it acknowledges that it shares responsibility with the international community for not stopping the slaughter.

Meanwhile, Paris also wants a piece of the economic pie in a rising Africa, where average growth is above 5 percent. At the Africa summit, French officials reached a deal aimed at doubling trade with the continent by 2020.

"We can sell Airbuses, food. We can invest," Fabius said Sunday on France-3 television. "The interest of Africa and the interest of Europe, notably France, is to move closer together. ... Our future is with the Africans."

Sylvie Corbet and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.

South Africans of all faiths pray for Mandela

December 08, 2013

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — In death, Nelson Mandela unified South Africans of all races and backgrounds Sunday on a day of prayer for the global statesman — from a vaulted cathedral with hymns and incense to a rural, hilltop church with goat-skin drums and barefoot dancing.

Mandela was remembered in old bedrocks of resistance to white domination as well as former bastions of loyalty to apartheid. "May his long walk to freedom be enjoyed and realized in our time by all of us," worshipers said in a prayer at the majestic St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, where the first white settlers arrived centuries ago aboard European ships.

South Africa's reflection on Mandela's astonishing life was a prelude to a massive memorial in a Johannesburg stadium Tuesday that will draw world leaders and luminaries. They will gather to mourn, but also to salute the achievements of the prisoner who became president and an emblem of humanity's best instincts.

The extended farewell — a bittersweet mix of grief and celebration — ends Dec. 15, when Mandela is to be buried in his rural hometown of Qunu in Eastern Cape province. The anti-apartheid campaigner wanted to die in those modest, traditional surroundings; instead, he died Thursday at age 95 in his home in an exclusive Johannesburg area. He was surrounded by family after months of a debilitating illness that required the constant care of a team of doctors.

Family friend Bantu Holomisa told The Associated Press that Mandela wasn't on life support in his final hours. He appeared to be sleeping calmly but it was obvious that he was finally succumbing, added Holomisa, who said he saw Mandela about two hours before his death.

"I've seen people who are on their last hours and I could sense that he is now giving up," said Holomisa, who is the leader of the United Democratic Movement in parliament. "You could see it is not Madiba anymore," Holomisa added, using Mandela's clan name.

The government and Mandela's family have revealed few details about Mandela's death. Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life in prison with Mandela in 1964, said he was informed shortly before Mandela's death that his old friend had little time left.

Kathrada said Graca Machel, Mandela's wife, conveyed the message to him through another person that Mandela "will be leaving us that night" and "the doctors have said, 'Anytime.'" The death still came as a shock to many South Africans, so accustomed to the enduring presence of the monumental fighter, even when he retired from public life years ago and became increasingly frail.

"He was more than just an individual soul. He was the exposition of the African spirit of generosity," said the Rev. Michael Weeder, dean of St. George's Cathedral. But he cautioned that the country still has so much to do.

"The strength of the new South Africa will be measured in the distance that the poor and the marginalized travel from the periphery to the center of our society," Weeder said. In Johannesburg, hundreds swayed and sang at the Regina Mundi Church that was near the epicenter of the Soweto township uprising against white rule in 1976 and served as a refuge from security forces who fired tear gas around the building and whose bullets have pockmarked the outside walls.

The Rev. Sebastian J. Rossouw compared Mandela to the biblical figures Isaiah and John the Baptist as men who led in dark times, calling him "that moonlight in the dark night." God "sent us this man to show us the depths of the human heart, he sent us this man to show us that despite what was going on at the time, light could shine," Rossouw said. He warned of the flaws of modern life in South Africa, preaching against the "corruption and crime" that plague the country.

Mandela's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, joined one of his grandsons, Mandla Mandela, and South African President Jacob Zuma in a prayer service in Johannesburg. Inside a church behind Mandela's property in the eastern village of Qunu, where he will be buried, about 50 people held a raucous, celebratory service. A robed man banged on a drum. Clapping men huddled as women danced on the concrete floor.

The Rev. Joshua Mzingelwa, the leader of Morians Episcopal Apostolic Church, delivered a loud, throaty sermon. "There is still hope in the hardship that you are facing daily," Mzingelwa told the congregation.

In an affluent, predominantly white suburb of the capital, Pretoria, parishioners prayed for Mandela at what was once a worship center for pro-apartheid government and business leaders. A picture of Mandela was beamed onto the wall above the pulpit, highlighting the enormous changes in South Africa, which elected Mandela as its first black president in an all-race vote in 1994.

The Rev. Niekie Lamprecht, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church of Pretoria East, said Mandela was the driving force behind changes of attitude in the congregation's overwhelmingly white parishioners. "He said, 'Let's forgive,' and he forgave. That created a space for people to feel safe ... at a time when the expectation was that there was going to be a war," Lamprecht said.

Foreign dignitaries began arriving Sunday, and the government said more than 50 heads of state were expected. Those attending include U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

After the stadium memorial on Tuesday, Mandela's body will lie in state at the Union Buildings, the seat of government in Pretoria, from Wednesday to Friday, followed by the burial in Qunu.

Torchia reported from Cape Town, Gambrell from Johannesburg, Straziuso from Qunu, and Clendenning from Pretoria. Ray Faure in Johannesburg also contributed to this report.

Central African leader: I can't control fighters

December 08, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The rebel-leader-turned-president of Central African Republic acknowledged Sunday that he doesn't have total control over former allies who are accused of killing scores of civilians. He said even "an angel from the sky" could not solve all his country's problems.

Violence in just the past few days has killed some 400 people, prompting a U.N.-sanctioned French military intervention aimed at preventing the former French colony from descending further into sectarian bloodshed. French troops are set to try to disarm fighters on Monday.

In the latest abuse allegations, officials from two relief agencies told The Associated Press on Sunday that Muslim fighters from the former Seleka alliance that brought President Michel Djotodia to power had attacked a hospital in Bangui, pulling out at least nine wounded young men who were accused of being part of a Christian militia and killing them.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by Seleka fighters, said the wounded men were removed from Amitie Hospital in front of horrified medical staff and that the victims' bodies were found just outside the building.

The victims were suspected of being members of a Christian militia that attacked the capital on Thursday, unleashing retaliatory violence across the city. At a news conference, Djotodia acknowledged the difficulties of controlling the ex-Seleka fighters, who came from several different northern rebel groups with the common goal of ousting President Francois Bozize from power in March after a decade in office.

"There are allegations that I cannot control my men. ... I only know those who are with me," said Djotodia, who has traded his former rebel fatigues for a presidential gray suit and black tie. "Those who aren't — how can I control them? I am not God, I hope. I am a man like you. And this country is vast — 623,000 square kilometers."

"You could bring an angel from the sky to govern this country and there would still be problems," he added. Djotodia has formally dissolved the Seleka alliance of rebel groups, and his fighters now consider themselves soldiers in the national army. As hundreds of French troops have arrived, Djotodia has urged his ex-Seleka fighters to get off the streets. On Sunday, the president reiterated that national forces would remain in their barracks.

However, the ex-rebels' spray-painted pickup trucks bounced Sunday over rutted roads around Bangui, particularly in several predominantly Muslim neighborhoods. Half a dozen ex-Seleka fighters sat near Communautaire Hospital in the capital Sunday with a pickup truck full of rocket-propelled grenades.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said 394 people were killed over just three days, and the local Red Cross said nearly 400 bodies had been collected as of late Saturday. Dozens of unclaimed corpses lay Sunday under white plastic sheeting in a cement courtyard outside Communautaire Hospital. The buzz of flies was deafening and the stench of death overwhelming to passers-by. Officials expected the death toll to rise further.

"We're sending out five more teams today, as we are still finding bodies several days later," said Jean-Moise Modessi-Waguedo, head of emergency operations for the local Red Cross. He spoke through a mask covering his face.

French forces fanned out across Bangui on Sunday and also had made their way north to the highly volatile town of Bossangoa, where some 40,000 Christians are seeking refuge at a Catholic mission and more than 7,000 Muslims have also fled their homes amid the rising sectarian violence.

In a delicate operation seen as key to restoring durable calm, French troops are going to start Monday trying to disarm fighters, said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. "The period of impunity is over," he said on RTL radio Sunday. "First, we will ask them nicely. If they don't respond, we will force them to."

French President Francois Hollande announced Saturday that France was raising its Central African Republic deployment to 1,600 troops from about 400. Hollande's office said African Union nations also had agreed to increase their total deployment to 6,000 troops for the Central African nation — up from about 2,500 now.

The European Union announced that it's sending in humanitarian aid flights starting Monday to ferry goods and personnel into the country to help the displaced and needy. In a sign of the tensions, regional peacekeepers stood guard outside Sunday Mass at Paroisse St. Paul along the Ubangui River. The church set up loudspeakers to broadcast the service as an overflow crowd gathered for the service.

As the sermon calling for peace echoed across the lawn outside, women ground manioc with large sticks and sold papaya and dried fish to the hundreds of displaced people camping on the site. "We are asking Christians to pursue peace and forgiveness, to not seek vengeance or commit reprisal attacks," said Bangui Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga.

One of the world's poorest countries, Central African Republic has been wracked for decades by coups and rebellions. At the time of the March coup by Seleka, religious ideology played little role in the power grab.

Seleka are blamed for scores of atrocities since taking power, even tying civilians together and throwing them off bridges to drown and burning entire villages to the ground. Anger over such abuses has fanned a backlash against Muslim civilians, who make up only about 15 percent of the population.

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Thai PM dissolves Parliament, calls elections

December 09, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's prime minister announced Monday she will dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call early elections in an attempt to calm the country's deepening political crisis. The surprise move came as 100,000 protesters vowing to overthrow her government marched through the streets of Bangkok for a "final showdown."

It was not clear if Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's move would satisfy protesters who say they will not settle for her ouster but instead want to rid Thailand of her politically powerful family's influence.

Yingluck appeared emotional and her voice shook as she spoke in a nationally televised address Monday morning. "After listening to opinions from all sides, I have decided to request a royal decree to dissolve Parliament," Yingluck said, breaking into regular programing. "There will be new elections according to the democratic system."

She said the Election Commission would set a date "as soon as possible" and that she would remain in a caretaker capacity until the election of a new prime minister. As a formality, the king must approve the dissolution after which elections must be held within 60 days.

Thailand has been plagued by political turmoil since the army toppled Yingluck's brother Thaksin in a 2006 coup. The protesters accuse Yingluck of serving as a proxy for her brother who lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai to avoid jail time for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated.

In broad terms, the conflict pits the Thai elite and the educated middle-class against Thaksin's power base in the countryside, which benefited from populist policies designed to win over the rural poor.

Protest leaders called for a peaceful march Monday but many feared the day could end violently when demonstrators converge from nine locations on Yingluck's office at Government House. More than 60 Thai and international schools in Bangkok have closed as a precaution.

As Yingluck spoke, long columns of protesters paralyzed traffic on major Bangkok boulevards. Police estimated that about 100,000 protesters were out on the streets of the Thai capital. Leaders of the movement made no immediate reaction to Yingluck's announcement but many protesters dismissed the development as insufficient.

"We will keep on protesting because we want her family to leave this country," said Boonlue Mansiri, one of tens of thousands who joined a 20-kilometer (12-mile) march to Yingluck's office. The sentiment was the same across town, where protesters filled a major four-lane road in the city's central business district, waving flags, blowing whistles and holding a huge banner that said, "Get Out Shinawatra."

Asked about the dissolution of Parliament, one middle-aged woman in the crowd said, "It is too late" and "It's not enough." "At the end of the day, we are going to win," said the woman who identified herself as Paew. "What happens now? Don't worry. We will figure it out."

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said he would announce his reaction once his march reached Government House. Suthep has repeatedly said that calling fresh elections would not be enough to end the conflict. He has demanded that a non-elected "people's council" lead the country instead, an idea that has been criticized as utopian and undemocratic.

"We will rise up. We will walk on every street in the country. We will not be going home again," Suthep said Sunday. His supporters on Monday appeared to abandon the two places they had occupied for more than a week — the Finance Ministry and part of a vast government complex for more than a week. "The people who will be going home empty-handed are those in the Thaksin regime."

The country's political standoff deepened Sunday after the main opposition party resigned from the legislature en masse to join the anti-government demonstrations. The Democrats held 153 of the 500 seats in the legislative body, according to the latest figures on their website.

The minority Democrats — who are closely allied with the protesters — have not won an election since 1992, and some of their leaders appear to have given up on electoral politics as a result. Yingluck's government, by contrast, came to power in a landslide vote in 2011 that observers said was free and fair.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the leader of the Democrat Party and a former premier, led one of the marches through Bangkok on Monday. He declined to comment on whether the party would participate in the next election.

Since the latest unrest began last month, at least five people have been killed and at least 289 injured. Violence ended suddenly last week as both sides paused to celebrate the birthday of the nation's revered king, who turned 86 Thursday.

The crisis boiled over after Yingluck's ruling party tried to ram a controversial amnesty bill through the legislature. Critics say it was designed mainly to bring Thaksin home to Thailand a free man.

In a speech Sunday, Yingluck said again that she was not trying to cling to power and would be "happy to resign" and dissolve Parliament if that could ease the crisis. Yingluck also reiterated an offer to set up a national forum to find a way out of the crisis.

__ Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker, Grant Peck, Tim Sullivan, Jinda Wedel and Sinfah Tunsarawuth contributed to this report.

IRAN. Statement of unity between Hizbul Furqan and Harakat Al-Ansar in Baluchistan

6 December 2013

In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful!

Praise be to Allah, peace and prayer be upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions.

And then:

Allah Almighty says:

"And hold fast by the covenant of Allah all together and be not disunited, and remember the favor of Allah on you when you were enemies, then He united your hearts so by His favor you became brethren; and you were on the brink of a pit of fire, then He saved you from it, thus does Allah make clear to you His communications that you may follow the right way"
(The Holy Koran, Chapter 3. "The Family of Imran", verse 103)

And the Most High says:

"Surely Allah loves those who fight in His way in ranks as if they were a firm and compact wall".
(The Holy Koran, Chapter 61. "The Ranks", verse 4)

Nu'man bin Bashir (May Allah be pleased with them) reported:

Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever", narrated by Muslim, and in another narration: "Muslims are like one body of a person; if the eye is sore, the whole body aches, and if the head aches, the whole body aches".

Out of keenness on unity and rejecting division and disagreement, and to unite the rank and word, the Jihadi Harakat Al-Ansar with the mujahidin of Hizbul Furqan under the banner of (La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah) and jihad for the sake of Allah to topple the Iranian regime, and raise the word of Allah, and lift the injustice, and support the oppressed, and establish the Sharia of the Lord of the Worlds, and that our jihad be a brick for the Khilafah which our trustful prophet the best peace and blessings be upon him preached us of its return.

The two groups merged under the name of Jamaat Ansar Al-Furqan.

In conclusion we ask Allah Almighty guidance and success, and peace and blessings be on the messenger of Allah and his family and Sahabah and allies.

Shura of Jamaat Ansar Al-Furqan

Source: Islamic media

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2013/12/06/18641.shtml.