Gavin Jones edited by Janet Lawrence | Vatican City | April 27

Reuters - Pope Benedict on Sunday appealed to the world not to forget the "tragic" conflicts in Somalia, Darfur and Burundi and called on authorities to honour their commitments to bring an end to the violence. "The news from several African countries continues to give reason for deep suffering and acute concern," the Pope told the crowd in St Peter's square after his weekly Sunday address.

He said violence in Somalia was making the situation "more and more dramatic" for a population which has "been oppressed for too many years under the weight of brutality and misery". Darfur, despite some brief hopes of peace, "remains a tragedy without end for hundreds of thousands of defenceless and abandoned people," Benedict said.

Open Letter to HRH, Hamad Bin Khalifa al Thani, Emir of Qatar, on Abyssinia (Fake ´Ethiopia´)

Your Highness,

As your government expressed astonishment at the ´Ethiopian´ decision to break off diplomatic ties with your country, I am writing to express my indignation for the improper and inconsistent attitude of the tyrannical administration of Meles Zenawi.

Before expanding on the real reasons hidden behind the undiplomatic manner and the uncivil language used in the email statement diffused by the ´Ethiopian´ government, I find the occasion propitious to express my profound admiration for the constructive role played by your government in various regions, Africa, Middle East, and the Gulf to name a few, and my great esteem for Qatar´s worthwhile commitment to the diffusion of the lofty values of Islam, the fundamental principles of the modern democratic societies, and the universal standards of the Human Rights.

Michael Slackman | Cairo | April 13

IHT - Egyptians in this capital city say it is harder and harder to be heard and to have a voice, but they are not talking politics. Well, not only politics.

What they are talking about, or rather yelling about, is noise, the incredible background noise of a city crammed with 18 million people, and millions of drivers who always have one hand on the horn and a rules-free way of thinking.

"Whenever I talk to people, they always say, 'Why are you screaming?' " said Salah Abdul Hamid, 56, a barber whose two-chair shop is on the corner of a busy street on the north side.

Hamid was, of course, screaming.

March 25

BBC - A US container ship approaching the Suez Canal has opened fire on a small Egyptian motorboat, killing one man and wounding two others, reports say.

The Global Patriot, carrying used US military equipment, was in the Gulf of Suez when it was approached by a motorboat selling local merchandise. Its crew apparently fired after the boat failed to heed warnings to stop when asked, the US navy said.

It added that it was in contact with Egypt through the US embassy in Cairo.

It is not clear why those on board the Global Patriot opened fire.
Al-Qaeda militants have in the past used small motorboats to attack US military and other foreign vessels in waters off the coast of Yemen.

Nidal al-Mughrabi | Cairo | March 6

Reuters - Egypt launched talks on Thursday with Hamas and Islamic Jihad on a truce between the Palestinian militant movements and Israel, officials in the groups said.

An end to rockets attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip and suspension of Israeli raids into the Hamas-run territory would make it easier for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to continue to negotiate peace with the Jewish state.

What did this little chat cost us?: U.S. waived congressional restriction on Egypt aid

Cairo | March 4

Reuters - The Bush administration has released $100 million in military aid to Egypt after telling the U.S. Congress the money was necessary for national security reasons.

At a joint news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Cairo, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters she had waived the congressional restrictions that had withheld the amount.

"I have exercised on behalf of the United States the waiver in terms of Egyptian assistance ... The Bush administration sought to have that flexibility. We believe that this relationship with Egypt is an important one and that the waiver was the right thing to do," Rice said.

Congress had withheld the sum until the administration certified Egypt had done enough to protect the independence of the judiciary, curb police abuses and put a stop to arms smuggling from Egypt to Gaza.

But it also gave the administration an option to waive the restrictions "in the national security interest of the United States".

Why do we have a Congress? Watch for the FISA cave today too

February 21

Al Jazeera from Agencies - Morocco authorities say a network, rounded up by police this week, had planned a spate of political assassinations and carried out crimes internationally. The government also outlawed al-Badil al-Hadari, a small Islamist party, on Wednesday after the police linked its leader to the alleged "terrorist network". Mustapha Moatassim, the party's secretary-general, was among 32 people arrested on Monday and Tuesday. The arrests, including Islamist politicians regarded as law-abiding, have sparked astonishment in Morocco, according to local newspapers. The detainees are accused of planning to kill senior army officers, government ministers and some Moroccan Jews, Chakib Benmoussa, the interior minister, announced on Wednesday.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg | Accra, Ghana | February 21

New York Times - Traveling across Africa this week, President Bush has been a little like Santa Claus, a benevolent figure from another land handing out gifts — American foreign aid — and generating smiles wherever he goes. But here in the capital of Ghana on Wednesday, the smiles stopped for a moment as Mr. Bush confronted skepticism about American military policy and his AIDS initiative.

Mr. Bush used a news conference to address the widespread suspicion that the United States planned to establish military bases in Africa as it expanded its strategic role on the continent. And for the first time, he suggested that he might consider dropping a requirement that one-third of AIDS prevention dollars be spent on abstinence programs — but only if he was convinced that the approach was not working.

Daniel Williams | Cairo | January 3

Bloomberg - Farid Mesbaah, male belly dancer, hopped on a car in Cairo's Shobra district and strutted his stuff.

He clanged metal castanets, magically converted his hips into pistons and twirled his head around like a centrifuge. The crowd at tables lining a dirt alley clapped rhythmically. Young men in jeans jumped up to wiggle along.

Mesbaah was performing at the opening of the Old-Time Moon Cafe, a gig that -- along with weddings, birthdays, night clubs and circumcisions -- is typical for belly dancers. Untypical, at least in recent years, are performances by men.

Male belly dancing, a centuries-old Egyptian tradition, is making a comeback -- against the odds, considering its periodic suppression by government and religious officials. The problem for Mesbaah is that his craft has long been associated with homosexuality -- a taboo in Egypt.

Cairo | Dec 26

AFP - In a potential blow to themed resorts from Vegas to Tokyo, Egypt is to pass a law requiring payment of royalties whenever its ancient monuments, from the pyramids to the sphinx, are reproduced.

Zahi Hawass, the charismatic and controversial head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP on Tuesday that the move was necessary to pay for the upkeep of the country's thousands of pharaonic sites.

"The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of historic Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100-percent copies," he said.

"If the law is passed then it will be applied in all countries of the world so that we can protect our interests," Hawass said.

Heba Saleh | Cairo | Dec 26

BBC - Egypt has accused Israel of interfering in its relations with the US by causing Congress to suspend $100m (£50m) of its annual military aid.

The accusation came as Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak visited Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak.

They were discussing how to stem the flow of smuggled weapons through tunnels under Egypt's border with Gaza.

Congress has frozen some of the aid while US officials check Egypt is making efforts to stop the smuggling.

A spokesman for the Egyptian president said Cairo was exerting every effort to stop weapons smuggling to Gaza but it could not, as he put it "guarantee 100% results".

Officials accompanying the Israeli defence minister to Egypt denied the accusations of interference.

Cairo | December 24

AP - At least five people were killed when a 12-story building collapsed Monday in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, police officials and witnesses said.

At the scene Monday, rescue workers were busy sieving through the rubble. An old woman was pulled out alive from under the debris, a police official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said residents were still believed trapped under piles of bricks and concrete slabs of the building in the eastern Al-Raml district of the city.

The police could not immediately explain the reasons for the collapse of the building, said to have been built in 1978.

The police official said the building originally had seven stories but that the five additional ones were built in recent years.

Algiers | December 11

CNN - Two bombs ripped through the Algerian capital Tuesday, reportedly killing 47 people, in what appeared to be targeted attacks on government and United Nations buildings.

One explosion was outside the constitutional court in the Algiers neighborhood of Ben Aknoun and the other was in the residential area of Hydra, state-run television network ENTV reported.

Celestine Bohlen | Dec 10

Bloomberg - Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to Paris for a five-day visit, stepping up the French president's Middle East diplomatic efforts.

Qaddafi, who pitched a Bedouin-style heated tent in the gardens of Baron Gustave de Rothschild's one-time mansion, has two meetings set with Sarkozy. He'll sign about $15 billion of contracts before leaving on Dec. 15, Sarkozy told reporters today in Paris.

Jeffrey Fleishman | Menzel Bourguiba, Tunisia | Nov 30

LAT - Decades of stifled religious and political freedoms have ignited two trends: an underground radicalism producing militants willing to wage jihad in Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe, and a more moderate, yet potent, religious yearning that can be seen in the increasing numbers of beards and head scarves in cafes and on university campuses.

The Nasri brothers and thousands of young Tunisians like them epitomize the intersection of ideological currents and technological wizardry fueling Islamic extremism across North Africa. Raised under the repression that has long defined their nation, and outraged by the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the brothers turned to satellite television and the Internet, where they found provocative mullahs and subversive websites beyond the reach of government censors.

The BBC writes:

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has acknowledged that his troops cannot withdraw from the conflict in Somalia.

Mr Meles said he had expected to withdraw his soldiers earlier in the year, after Islamists had been driven out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

But he said divisions within the Somali government had left it unable to replace the Ethiopians, while not enough peacekeepers had arrived.

Some 60% of Mogadishu residents have fled clashes in the city, the UN says...

...He has always said the Ethiopians would pull out when a peacekeeping force was deployed.

But only 1,600 Ugandans have arrived, from a planned 8,000-strong African Union force.

All of this was predicted at the Agonist at the time of the Ethiopian invasion and occupation at the behest of the US, UN, and a "government" so weak it couldn't even locate itself in Mogadishu. (Except it's even worse than I expected in humanitarian terms.) The Islamic Courts Union (ICU)reopened the port and airport for the first time in over a decade, provided law and order (somewhat medieval law and order) and appeared to be supported by the majority of the population.

This humanitarian disaster would very likely not have happened if the United States, which provided air support and hysterical accusations of al-Qaeda presence, had not pushed for it. It was always obvious that odds of a "peacekeeping" force taking over were minimal. It was always obvious that the "government" was a complete sham. It was always obvious that smashing the ICU in open field battles would just mean that a guerilla war would flare up as a strategy meant to blunt Somalia's superiority in conventional warfare.

Miret el Naggar | Cairo | Nov 29

McClatchy - The self-styled enforcers of religious law issued frequent reprimands to Rasha el Kholy for not wearing a head scarf.

Sometimes her co-workers spoke to her as "concerned friends," and one colleague at the Cairo clothing factory where she worked gave her a CD of a sermon that emphasized the virtues of wearing the veil.

When that failed, the de facto morality squad lectured her on how to stand during prayers, on the need to pray more than the required five times a day and how she should limit her contact with Christian co-workers, Kholy said.

Self-appointed enforcers of Islamic law are becoming more common in Egypt, a Sunni Muslim nation with a population well above 70 million. Unlike the state-sanctioned morality police of conservative theocracies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, Egypt's enforcers are ordinary people who take it upon themselves to offer religious "advice," often to strangers.

Ellen Knickmeyer | Tripoli | Nov 6

WaPo - Brother Leader Moammar Gaddafi still exhorts his people to greatness from billboards, banners and murals. But these days a different kind of command is driving Libya's transformation as the newly opened country taps into oil wealth: "izala," Arabic for "raze it to the ground."

Surveyors are spraying the word in red paint up and down Libya's Mediterranean coast. The orange-vested road crews are tagging for demolition the old Libya -- low-rise, stucco Libya, sleepy under decades of Gaddafi's socialist economy and international sanctions.

To rise in its place, Gaddafi's officials say: the increasingly capitalist Libya, with new buildings for the country's new stock exchange. Airports to ferry in and out a dreamed-of annual flow of 30 million oil workers, tourists and other travelers. The world's second-largest port after Singapore. Railways. Highways. Hospitals. Schools. Luxury beachfront hotels.

Libyans and Westerners here cite a statement attributed to Gaddafi: Libya must destroy in order to rebuild.

The lifting of international penalties and the ensuing exploitation of its oil fields are changing Libya from a stunted pariah state to a courted oil giant. Libya has Africa's largest proven oil reserves; expanded investment would make this nation one of the world's top 10 oil producers, industry experts say.

United Nations | Oct 17

AP - Libya — a former pariah state condemned by the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism — won a seat on the U.N. Security Council Tuesday without opposition from the Bush administration.

The U.S. decision not to support a rival African country for the seat angered families of victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland — some of whom watched the vote in the U.N. General Assembly from the visitors gallery. They said the United States should have done more to prevent Libya from getting a seat on the U.N.'s most powerful body.

Dan Cohen of Cape May Court House, N.J., who lost his 20-year-old daughter Theodora, said the vast majority of Lockerbie victims were Americans. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi "has more American blood on his hands than any other surviving dictator in the world," he said.

"It is a disgrace that the United States would not even put up a fight and try to defeat Libya," he said. "America just hasn't stood up on this issue at all. ... And the Libyan government is working diligently to get the one person convicted in this case out of jail in Scotland."

Flamanville, France | Oct 14

AFP - On a strip of France's Channel coast, cranes, trucks and cement silos are hard at work preparing the world's most powerful nuclear reactor and showcase of French atomic savoir-faire.

In two months, workers in Flamanville will pour the first concrete for the third-generation EPR, or European Pressurized Reactor, touted as the safest and cleanest addition to France's network of 58 nuclear reactors.

With more than 80 percent of its electricity generated by nuclear plants, France sees itself as a model for successfully putting the atom at work toward producing carbon-free and relatively cheap power.

More than two decades after Chernobyl shook the world's faith in nuclear power, France is vying to lead a worldwide revival of the nuclear industry as worries about global warming and rising energy prices have brought fission back in fashion.

"France is willing to help any country which wants to acquire civilian nuclear power. An energy source for the future should not be the preserve of western countries and out of reach of eastern countries," Sarkozy declared.

Cairo | Oct 7

dpa - An angry Bedouin mob from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula stormed government buildings and clashed with police on Sunday after riots erupted overnight against police inaction in a local clan feud, witnesses said.

Crowds stormed the local offices of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party in the Mediterranean town of al-Arish, 380 kilometres northeast of Cairo, witnesses said.

Crowds also threw stones at the local office building of the ministry of the interior and burned cars belonging to the local council, the witnesses said.

Protestors clashed with police, who fired shots and teargas to break up the protest. All roads have been closed, security sources said.

Earlier Sunday, thousands of Bedouin took to the streets of and burned tyres, witnesses said.

Jill Carroll | Tunis, Tunesia | September 28

CSM - The release of Mohammed Abbou gives human rights advocates hope, and perhaps a formula for more political freedoms in the North African nation.

Lawyer Mohammed Abbou, Tunisia's most famous political prisoner, became a free man this summer thanks in part to home-grown activists who are finding new ways around government restrictions on dissent.

This tiny community of opposition groups, which runs the ideological gamut from conservative Islamists to liberal democrats, normally count their mere existence an accomplishment. So when Mr. Abbou was released from prison the day before Tunisia's Republic Day in July, along with 21 other political prisoners, it was a rare tangible victory.

Jill Carroll | Cairo | Sept 20

CSM - Concern grows over use of a secret, unrecognized 'urfi' marriage that many couples feel allows them to be alone and to engage in sexual activity.

Khalid and Amira grew steadily closer as friends in college. Then one day, they sat a little too close in class. Khalid took what he saw as the next step: a temporary marriage.

So the two entered into a secret urfi, or temporary, marriage. Their "contract" allowed them, they felt, to be alone unchaperoned and to engage in sexual activity, given strict cultural barriers against such behavior outside of marriage.

"In my whole life, I hadn't even kissed a girl, but I felt that I needed her," says Khalid, clad in shorts and knock-off Gucci shoes at a beachfront cafe in Alexandria.

Millions of Egyptians – usually college students – are following suit, with many couples hoping it's a step toward a traditional marriage. But most such arrangements end within two years, according to a 2004 Cairo University report. And the growing frequency of such informal "marriages" – unheard of 20 years ago – has alarmed both government and religious officials, spawning campaigns to warn of its dangers particularly to women, who will carry the brunt of any social fallout.

Michael Slackman | Kafr al Manshi Abou Hamar, Egypt | September 19

IHT - The men in this poor farming community were seething. A 13-year-old girl had been brought to a doctor's office to have her clitoris removed, a surgery considered necessary here to preserve chastity and honor. The girl died, but that was not the source of the outrage. After her death, the government shut down the clinic, and that got everyone angry.

Circumcision, as supporters call it, or female genital mutilation, as opponents refer to it, was suddenly a ferocious focus of debate in Egypt this summer.

Though the practice is common and increasingly contentious throughout sub-Saharan Africa, among Arab states the only other place where this practice is custom is in southern Yemen, experts here said. In Saudi Arabia, where women cannot drive, cannot vote, cannot hold most jobs, the practice is viewed as abhorrent, a reflection of pre-Islamic traditions.

Dan Murphy | Cairo | Sept 18

CSM - The arrest of Ibrahim Eissa and three other opposition journalists is the latest signal of tightening government control, reflecting anxiety over presidential succession.

Ibrahim Eissa, an Egyptian editor and columnist whose newspaper, Al Dustour, has become a byword for the kind of journalism that courts controversy and attacks government limits on free speech, doesn't look like a man facing a year in prison.

He's smiling and almost jolly in his downtown Cairo office as he attacks the verdict against him – for the crime of defaming President Hosni Mubarak – and predicts he'll lose his appeal.

"If you make the decision to be an opposition journalist here, you have to have the demeanor to carry yourself through all sorts of situations," he says. "But am I hearing that there's some kind of deal out there to keep me out of jail? No. The regime has given up on me. The regime is panicking and sees anyone that writes the truth about them as dangerous."

The jail terms for Mr. Eissa and three other antigovernment journalists are the latest in a cascade of repressive measures by the Egyptian security state in the past year seemingly designed to tighten the government's control as speculation grows over who will succeed President Mubarak.