A car bomb killed 17 people near an important Shia shrine in Syria yesterday, putting a chink in the government’s reputation for keeping the country under lock and key and raising fears of sectarian spillover from Iraq.
Egypt’s National Theater caught fire last night. Three firefighters were killed. The damage looks bad . Considering the Shura Council fire was only a month ago, it’s easy to see why some see both disasters as symptoms of decay .
A disaster in the making? Al-Masry al-Youm reports that residents of Istable Antar, a slum in the shadows of Cairo’s Moqattam cliffs, are putting gas tanks and sulfuric acid on their roofs. According to the newspaper, they’re threatening to blow themselves up if the government proceeds with its plans to demolish the neighborhood and move the inhabitants out to the desert for fear of another Manshayat-Nasser -style disaster.
But can we believe Al-Masry al-Youm anymore? The paper has become more and more u...
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HRW on Ahmed MaherFrom: elijahzarwan.net
Post Date: 2008-05-11 10:25:12
Human Rights Watch has called for the investigation and prosecution of those who beat Facebook activist Ahmed Maher in detention late last week ( English and Arabic ):
(Cairo, May 10, 2008) – Egyptian authorities should immediately investigate and prosecute those security officials responsible for beating Ahmed Maher Ibrahim, Human Rights Watch said today. Maher, a 27-year-old civil engineer, used the social-networking site Facebook to support calls for a general strike on...
more Darfur Rebels Attack KhartoumFrom: elijahzarwan.net
Post Date: 2008-05-10 18:34:07
Between a natural catastrophe of unimaginable proportions in Burma, Hizballah’s politics by other means , and Obama’s victory in the U.S. Democratic primaries, I almost didn’t notice that the JEM attacked a suburb of Khartoum today. This is huge news on its own right. But I was also interested to see this detail at the bottom of the Reuters story :
There were signs that Egypt was showing ready to offer support for Khartoum on Saturday. One witness said he saw three E...
more May 4 Facebook Activist ‘Beaten in Custody’From: elijahzarwan.net
Post Date: 2008-05-08 08:31:07
I’ve just heard from a friend that Ahmed Maher, a 27-year-old engineer quoted in the Western press as a May 4 Facebook activist, is alleging that he was beaten in State Security custody. Details are still sketchy, but apparently State Security called him in for a “friendly” coffee earlier this week. When he didn’t go, my friend tells me, State Security took him from his home in the middle of the night, beat him, and released him with the warning that they were “j...
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