Monthly Archives: June 2013

Egypt opposition opens to former autocrat’s party

By | 2013-06-22T20:47:08-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|News|

    Egypt’s largest opposition bloc on Saturday reached out to former members of the deposed president’s party, ahead of mass protests on June 30 demanding the ouster of his successor.   The opposition’s move came a day after some 100,000 supporters of current President Mohammed Mursi, an Islamist and the country's first elected leader,

Egypt opposition leader ElBaradei urges Mursi to quit

By | 2013-06-22T20:36:40-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|News|

  Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei on Saturday urged President Mohammed Mursi to step down ahead of planned anti-Mursi protests calling for the Islamist president’s resignation.   During a press conference, ElBaradei said Mursi’s resignation will mark a new era, where another constitution is to be drafted to replace a current one drafted by Islamists.

Iran Wants 200 Nuclear Bombs, Not Two

By | 2013-06-22T20:14:48-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|News|

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned the international community not to be fooled by Iran’s new "moderate" president.   Speaking to the Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth on Thursday, Netanyahu said that the elections in Iran “reflect a deep dissatisfaction of the Iranian people with its regime. Unfortunately, this result doesn’t have the power to change Iran’s

Syrian army renews offensive on Damascus opposition fighters

By | 2013-06-22T18:50:30-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|News|

Syria activists reported a military offensive by regime forces against rebel strongholds in northern and eastern Damascus. “The district of Qaboon in (northeastern) Damascus is being intensely shelled by regime forces,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said according to AFP.   Rebels were battling troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad on the edges of

Egypt airports on high alert ahead of June 30 protests

By | 2013-06-22T18:23:48-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|News|

  Egypt’s airports will raise their alert level to “high” ahead of June 30 when opposition-backed protesters plan to demonstrate against President Mohamed Mursi, security officials said on Saturday.   “An emergency plan will be put in place from June 28 until July 1,” the head of Cairo airport security, General Magdy al-Yussri, told reporters.

Turkish protesters see themselves protecting freedoms

By | 2013-06-22T18:02:21-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|News|

    Protesters in Turkey say they are safeguarding liberties that are increasingly threatened under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.   “This protest is very important,” said Asgi, a leftist activist who joined the protests in Taksim Square. Like other activists, Asgi has been sleeping at the protest epicenter for days, and is ready to stay

Darfur desert sands bear witness to a troubled region

By | 2013-06-22T17:43:42-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|News|

Arab militiamen, government soldiers, rebels and villagers displaced by the fighting... all have traversed the arid orange-brown desert sands of Shangil Tobaya in Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur.   Its problems were evident beneath the wide open skies of this area between Darfur’s two main towns of El Fasher and Nyala, as foreign diplomats

Islamic Preacher: Protesting Against Morsi is a ‘Rebellion’

By | 2013-06-22T11:03:11-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|Islam|

A radical Islamic preacher has warned that participation in the protests scheduled for June 30 against Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is forbidden, the Egyptian-based Al Bawaba reports.   The preacher, Wagdy Ghoneim, reasoned his warning in the fact that Morsi is a legitimately elected president. Those who will join the protests, he warned, are “disbelievers”

Egyptian PM warns violent protesters in tense countdown to June 30

By | 2013-06-22T10:52:39-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|News|

  Ahead of opposition protests planned for June 30, marking Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi’s first anniversary in power, the country’s prime minister said late Friday he was concerned by mounting calls for violence.   Hisham Qandil, speaking in a midnight television program on state TV, warned that no one was above the law, while saying

Fight or flight? Saudi cleric heads to London after call for Jihad in Syria

By | 2013-06-22T10:38:17-04:00 June 22nd, 2013|Islam|

  A Saudi cleric has been criticized for currently spending time in London, only weeks after he urged Muslim youth to join Jihad in Syria.   Sheikh Mohamed al-Arifi, a leading Saudi preacher, called for jihad in Syria “in every possible way” during a high-level meeting of Muslim scholars in Cairo on June 14.