By Heba Fahmy CAIRO: Members of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the campaign supporting former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said they were interrogated and threatened by security forces in a bid to prevent them from participating in planned nationwide protests on Jan. 25. “A large number of officials in the Brotherhood’s administrative offices in …
By Heba Fahmy CAIRO: Lawyer Marwa Hodhod, coordinator of a campaign supporting President Hosni Mubarak as the next president of Egypt, said that 500,000 posters and 250,000 t-shirts supporting Mubarak have been printed to counter the call for nationwide protests on Jan. 25. “Posters [supporting President Mubarak] are being hung all around Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Qena …
By Tamim Elyan CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) said they will participate “symbolically” in protests organized by a number of opposition powers and youth movements on Jan. 25. Local activists called for nationwide protests against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment for Tuesday, inspired by Tunisia’s overthrow of its autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. “The …
By Tamim Elyan CAIRO: Al-Wafd, Al-Tagammu and other political parties have distanced themselves from a Tunisia-inspired call for demonstrations on Jan. 25. They said their members can participate as individuals, but shied from officially joining planned protests. Confirmed participants are mainly opposition movements — the Kefaya Movement for Change, the April 6 Youth Movement, Youth for …
By Heba Fahmy CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood said Thursday it’s reconsidering its refusal to participate in the demonstration on Jan. 25 titled “the Egyptian Day of Uprising”.. Prominent MB leader Essam El-Erian had earlier told El-Dostor website that the group wouldn’t participate in the demonstration because it was a public call launched through a Facebook group …
By Tamim Elyan and Abdel-Rahman Hussein CAIRO: One outcome of the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia has been the expectancy that similar civil revolts might be replicated throughout the region, as the autocratic rule and economic ills that spurred protest in Tunisia are very much apparent in various other Arab countries. Following Tunisia’s recent revolution, Egypt …
By Tamim Elyan CAIRO: A 50-year-old set himself on fire Tuesday in front of the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center in downtown Cairo. The man was identified as Mohamed Hassan, a resident of Sayyeda Zeinab district. He was transferred to Mounira Hospital and found to have superficial burns on his right leg with 5 …
By Marwa Al-A’asar CAIRO: A 50-year old man reportedly set himself on fire Monday morning outside the People’s Assembly (PA) building in downtown Cairo. “At about 9 am I saw flames near the parliament. But I could not figure out how the situation was like from where I was standing,” an eye witness who works …
By Heba Fahmy CAIRO: Two Ain Shams University law students were prevented from taking their second mid-year exam on Sunday — despite having obtained a court order permitting them to complete the exams — as a penalty for distributing flyers on campus that called for political change and reform. “We will file lawsuits calling for …
By AFP SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Sunday downplayed fear that a Tunisian-style popular revolt could spread to other Arab countries, calling it “nonsense.” “The talk about the spread of what happened in Tunisia to other countries is nonsense. Each society has its own circumstances,” Aboul Gheit told reporters on the …
By Hamza Hendawi /AP CAIRO: An Egyptian man set himself on fire Monday outside the country’s parliament building in central Cairo in an apparent protest, security officials said. The incident appeared to be an attempt to copy the self-immolation last month of a 26-year-old Tunisian, whose death triggered the protests that have toppled Tunisia’s authoritarian …
By Farah Yousry CAIRO: As jokes comparing the Egyptian regime with its Tunisia counterpart abounded on the streets, serious open discussion of a potential revolution in Egypt was harder to find. Cautious happiness was the best description of the most prevalent sentiment on Egypt’s streets after Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia’s president for over …
By Marwa Al-A’asar CAIRO: Police forces prevented Sunday dozens of former MPs, activists and opposition leaders from reaching the Tunisian embassy in the central Zamalek neighborhood. Following a press conference held at Al-Wafd opposition party that announced the formation of a public parliament, dozens of opposition leaders and activists headed to Zamalek in a bid …
