It is not just Egypt’s politicians and experts who are keeping a close eye on loan talks with the International Monetary Fund: ordinary Egyptians suffering the squeeze of a devastating economic crisis are also watching with concern. Sami Mohammed, a 49-year-old civil servant, has been struggling with soaring inflation and says he fears the
Dear Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, Maybe the "B-2 Bomber" message President Obama and Defense Secretary Hagel tried to send to you was a little too subtle and something got lost in translation. OK, so, I'll try to make it clearer for you. The B-2 bombers that flew all the way from Whiteman AFB
The US Embassy in Cairo deleted a controversial tweet about attacks on freedom of expression in Egypt following complaints by President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. The embassy temporarily shut down its account and deleted the tweet, which had linked to a clip by popular US funnyman Jon Stewart denouncing the arrest of
Hamas, a former ally of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, is now training the rebel Free Syrian Army in eastern Damascus, according to a report Friday in the British Times. Diplomatic sources told the newspaper that members of Hamas’s Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were training FSA units in the rebel-held neighborhoods of Yalda, Jaramana and Babbila.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu present a map for a future Palestinian state before any peace talks can resume, an aide told AFP on Friday. Abbas "wants to know, through a map to be presented by Benjamin Netanyahu to (U.S. Secretary of State John) Kerry, what the
A Cairo court turned down on Saturday a suit filed by a Muslim Brotherhood lawyer demanding that a popular Egyptian satirist’s TV show be banned for allegedly insulting the president and excessive sexual innuendo. Judge Hassouna Tawfiq said that the lawsuit against Bassem Youssef’s “El-Bernameg,” or “The Program,” was dropped because the plaintiff did
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the movement’s North African arm, said French statements that its forces had killed the group’s leader in the Sahara were “blatant fallacy”, a monitoring website said on Saturday. AQIM, as the group is known, did not name the leader but it appeared to be referring to Abdelhamid Abou Zeid,
Five Egyptians were killed and eight wounded during clashes between Christians and Muslims in a town near Cairo, security sources said on Saturday. Four Christians and one Muslim were killed when members of both communities started shooting at each other in Khusus outside the Egyptian capital, the sources said. They said the violence
Students at Egypt’s al-Azhar University surrounded the religious institution on Wednesday, demanding that Grand Mufti Ahmed al-Tayeb, the country’s top cleric, step down. Protests demanding his resignation, and that of the university’s principal Osama al-Abed, began earlier in the week after alleged food poisoning struck more than 500 students. The top cleric dismissed
Israel launched its first airstrike on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday since the Egyptian-mediated truce ended November’s eight-day bout of fighting. “Occupation planes bombarded an open area in northern Gaza, there were no wounded,” the Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed there had been a strike in
