Posts Tagged ‘Egypt’
Written by admin on 12 December 2012
Cairo, Dec 12 (IANS) Egypt will not run the referendum on its draft constitution in two rounds scheduled for Dec 15, the Al Jazeera TV reported Wednesday.
The announcement from the higher commission for elections comes after some newspapers reported that President Mohamed Morsi Tuesday issued a decree that it will be held in two stages on Dec 15 and Dec 22.
Egyptian expatriates Wednesday started casting their votes for the constitutional referendum in an electoral process set to end Saturday.
Egyptians at home are to take part in the referendum Saturday despite the opposition’s call for a nationwide protest, urging to postpone it until a consensus is reached.
Morsi has and called on the civilians to help maintain security for the referendum.
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Written by admin on 10 December 2012
Cairo, Dec 10 (IANS/EFE) The number of tourists visiting Egypt recently has fallen markedly due to the political instability in the country and the repeated protests in different provinces, Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said in a statement released Sunday.
Ibrahim lamented the decline in tourism on a trip he made Sunday to the National Museum in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria, which recently has been receiving no more than 50 visitors per day.
The minister said that some 2,000 people Saturday attended the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, located on central Tahrir Square, which currently is the site where tens of thousands of demonstrators are camped out and where they organize daily protests opposing the government.
In addition, 23,557 tourists last week visited the pyramids at Giza and another 340 went to the ruined temples at Abu Simbel, in southern Egypt, far below the number of tourists who in past years have been to those sites at this time of year, the minister said.
Egypt has been experiencing a period of political and social turmoil since Nov 22 when President Mohammed Mursi issued a controversial decree protecting the work of the constituent assembly drafting the new constitution from judicial interference, thereby immunizing his actions from any legal challenge.
Opposition members have also criticized the holding of a constitutional referendum, scheduled for Dec 15, since they feel that the new constitution is being drafted without the input or consent of all groups.
–IANS/EFE
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Written by admin on 09 December 2012
Cairo, Dec 9 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has agreed to delay the referendum on a new draft constitution and make amendments to his constitutional declaration, Prime Minister Hisham Qandil said Saturday.
“President Morsi and the country’s political forces are discussing legal ways to delay the referendum. The president does not object to a postponement of the vote,” Qandil said.
Morsi is meeting with leaders of several opposition political parties in his residence. The sides are discussing ways out of the current political crisis in the country as part of a national dialogue the president called for Thursday.
“The country’s political forces and the president, who gathered on Saturday to hold a national dialog, have agreed to establish a commission to amend the constitutional declaration,” Qandil said.
Morsi’s Nov 22 constitutional declaration expanded his executive authority by barring the courts from challenging his decisions.
The country’s highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, earlier called Morsi’s move “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings”.
Opposition groups have been rallying against the constitutional declaration and Morsi’s decision to hold a nationwide referendum on the new Constitution Dec 15, which they described as too hasty.
The postponement of the referendum is one of the Egyptian opposition’s key demands.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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Written by admin on 08 December 2012
Cairo, Dec 8 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Egypt’s National Salvation Front, a coalition of the country’s largest liberal-democratic parties and movements, has officially rejected talks proposed by President Mohamed Morsi.
Morsi addressed Egyptians Thursday urging a national dialogue between all political forces, but the opposition said the president had not offered enough concessions.
Instead, Morsi’s opponents said they would take to the capital’s streets to protest the president’s recently expanded powers, Saudi-owned news channel Al Arabiya reported.
Two other opposition groups said they would also boycott the talks, BBC reported citing state media.
Morsi’s Nov 22 constitutional declaration expanded his executive authority by barring the courts from challenging his decisions. Egypt’s highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, earlier called Morsi’s move “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings”.
Opposition groups have been rallying against the constitutional declaration and Morsi’s decision to hold a nationwide referendum on the new Constitution Dec 15, which they described as too hasty.
Earlier this week, violent clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents left five people dead and hundreds injured.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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Written by admin on 04 December 2012
Cairo, Dec 4 (IANS/EFE) Two lion statues dating back more than 2,000 years were found on the outskirts of a temple in an oasis, the Egyptian antiquities ministry said Monday.
The statues, which show lions sitting, were discovered west of the Temple of Soknupayus, the god of the Dima al Seba area in Fayoum, located 150 km southwest of Cairo.
The limestone figures, which date back to the Ptolemaic period (332 B.C. to A.D. 30), are 1.6 meters tall and nearly one meter wide, but they have different physical appearances and details on their bodies.
The statues were used to decorate the temple, which was built in the Greco-Roman and Ptolemaic period, the antiquities ministry said.
–IANS/EFE
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Written by admin on 02 December 2012
Cairo, Dec 2 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has halted its work “indefinitely” after protesters prevented justices from getting to their offices Sunday morning.
The court building is being blockaded by protesters supporting President Mohamed Morsi and his Nov 22 “Constitutional Declaration”.
The justices were not able to get into the court building and do their job because of the massed people blocking the way and shouting threats (against them), the court said in a statement announced on Egyptian television.
The halt indefinitely postpones a court decision on whether to dissolve both the commission that drafted the new Constitution and the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament.
Morsi’s controversial Constitutional Declaration prohibits the nation’s courts, including the constitutional court, from making any ruling concerning the work of the commission or the Shura Council.
Morsi has called for a nationwide referendum on the new constitution to be held Dec 15.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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Written by admin on 28 November 2012
Cairo, Nov 28 (IANS) Seven fugitive Egyptians were Wednesday sentenced to death in absentia for crimes related to unity and independence of Egypt following the release of a film that allegedly insulted Islam, state media reported.
On Sep 11, thousands of Egyptians surrounded the US embassy in Cairo protesting the movie that reportedly insulted Prophet Mohammad. Clashes between protesters and security forces left one dead and more than 200 people injured.
The Cairo Criminal Court Wednesday sentenced to death the seven defendants, who are Egyptian immigrants to the US, Xinhua reported.
They were accused of committing crimes related to unity and independence of the country.
The seven defendants have also been put on the watch list of the Cairo International Airport.
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Written by admin on 28 November 2012
Cairo, Nov 28 (IANS) Egyptian judiciary has rejected a request made for transfering country’s former president Hosni Mubarak from prison hospital to a military hospital, Xinhua reported.
Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib al−Adli are serving life sentence in prison over charge of ordering to kill protesters during the uprising last year.
The country’s Cairo Administrative Court refused Tuesday the appeal to transfer Mubarak from the hospital of Tora prison to a military hospital, according to official news agency MENA.
Mubarak’s lawyers had filed a suit to transfer him to a military hospital because of his deteriorated health, noting that the Tora prison hospital is lack of suitable medical equipment for his condition. They also said that forensic reports towards Mubarak’s health are discordant.
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Written by admin on 26 November 2012
Cairo, Nov 26 (IANS) Renowned Egyptian singer Iman El Bahr Darwish was the guest of honour at an event “Glimpses of India” held here to commemorate the birth anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Jawaharlal Nehru.
The prize distribution function for the annual painting competition for the year 2012 was held recently at the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture, the Indian embassy in Cairo said in a statement.
Around 4,500 children from 437 schools took part in the competition, and over 100 winners in different categories were awarded prizes and certificates.
Camellia Sobhi, first undersecretary at Egypt’s ministry of culture, and Mohamed Naguib El Babli, art education counsellor at the ministry of education were also present.
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Written by admin on 26 November 2012
Cairo, Nov 26 (IANS) Egyptian presidency has announced the constitutional declaration issued by President Mohamed Morsi Thursday is temporary and not permanent, state−run TV reported Sunday.
According to the new constitutional declaration, all laws, decrees and constitutional declarations issued by President Morsi since he came into office June 30 are final and unchallengeable by anybody.
Morsi’s Thursday−declaration caused a new round of violence and protests across Egypt, for it would enable him to dominate the political arena, Xinhua reported.
As to the Constitutional Assembly, the declaration noted the new draft constitution would be formed within a maximum period of eight months, instead of six, from the date of assembly’s formation, which meant the new declaration extended the period of drafting for another two months, until February 2013.
No judicial body is entitled to dissolve the Shura Council (upper house) or the Constituent Assembly, the declaration stated.
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Written by admin on 22 November 2012
Cairo, Nov 22 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Iran supplied Gaza militants with weapons, Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Islamist group Hamas, has said.
“The weapons of Palestinian resistance were partially manufactured inside the Gaza Strip, and the rest were supplied by certain countries, including Iran,” Meshaal told journalists in Cairo after a ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Hamas.
The Hamas leader said Tehran had supported Gaza militants with arms “even despite differences between Iran and Hamas on issues connected with the conflict in Syria”.
Meshaal said the Palestinians will now seek to unite their ranks and management structures in Gaza and on the West Bank.
An Egyptian−brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect at 7.00 p.m. Wednesday. Both the Israel Defence Forces and the Islamist group praised the deal, in line with which, Israel has to end hostilities and targeted killings in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas has to stop launching rockets into Israel.
The Israel defence forces said they have completed objectives for its Operation Pillar of Defense against the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave of 1.7 million that has been governed by Hamas since 2007.
The operation started Nov 14 with an airstrike that eliminated the head of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari. The airstrike came after a reported surge in rocket attacks on Israeli border towns from Gaza.
About 160 Palestinians have died in Israel’s eight−day air and naval attack on Gaza. Five Israelis have been killed in the conflict.
−−IANS/RIA Novosti
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Written by admin on 22 November 2012
Cairo, Nov 22 (IANS) Israel and Gaza militant groups have agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr announced after the deal was brokered by Cairo.
According to the ceasefire agreement, the two sides will stop airstrikes and rocket attacks starting 9 p.m. Gaza time Wednesday (1900 GMT), Xinhua reported.
Appreciating the efforts made by the UN, the Arab League, Qatar and Turkey, Amr said Egypt was committed to its historical role in the Palestinian issue, and that his countryy believes in the necessity of a fair solution.
“Egypt calls the whole world to follow what has been achieved under the Egyptian mediation, to guarantee that both sides are committed to the agreement,” he was quoted as saying.
Amr announced the ceasefire at a press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after their meeting in Cairo.
Clinton arrived in Cairo Wednesday to hold meetings with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and other officials.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that a ceasefire agreement has been reached with the Palestinian militant groups in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had spoken Tuesday with US President Barack Obama and assured him that Israel would “give the Egyptian ceasefire agreement a chance”.
By accepting the truce offer, Israel is “giving a chance to stabilize the region before there is a need to execute excessive force”, the prime minister’s office said.
“Netanyahu has repeatedly said and stressed that Israel will take any step necessary to protect its citizens,” it said.
The understandings related to the ceasefire agreement include:
1. Israel stops all aggressive actions on Gaza, from the sea, the ground and the air, including incursions and targeted killing of people.
2. Palestinian factions and armed wings stop all aggressive actions from the Gaza Strip on Israel, including rockets and attacks on the borderline between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
3. Opening crossing points and facilitating the movement of individuals and goods, and not restricting the movement of residents or targeting them near border areas. This should be implemented after 24 hours of the agreement becoming valid.
4. Each side would be committed not to carry unilateral action to violate these understandings. In case there are any observations, Egypt, as the sponsor of this agreement, shall be noted to follow up.
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