Monday, 19 August 2013
Merkel cancels election rally after hostagetaking
MUNICH (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to cancel an election rally in the southern German city of Ingolstadt on Monday after a man took several people hostage in the town hall hours before she was due to speak.
Police said they were in contact by telephone with the man who described himself as armed but had not made any demands. There was no sign of a connection with Merkel's visit, they added.
Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) issued a statement saying her pre-election rally with Horst Seehofer, head of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), had been called off. Germany holds a federal election on September 22 and Bavaria a regional vote one week before that.
"The reason for this is the hostage taking in Ingolstadt," the CDU said of the cancellation.
Authorities evacuated the town hall and closed off the immediate area. Television footage showed emergency vehicles waitingoutside the building.
According to the city's website the town hallis a 14th century building, home to the mayor, some administrative posts and the tourist office. Ingolstadt, a city of roughly 125,000 near Munich, is best known as the home of Audi, the luxury unit of German carmaker Volkswagen.
Sunday, 18 August 2013
Egypt cabinet debates Brotherhood's fate, death toll climb
Alistair Lyon and Tom Finn
1 hour ago
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed rulers met on Sunday to discuss their bloody confrontation with deposed President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood amid contrasting proposals for compromise and a fight to the death.
In a televised speech to military and police officers, army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to crack down on anyone using violence, but also struck an apparently inclusive note, telling Mursi's supporters: "There is room for everyone in Egypt."
The Brotherhood, under huge pressure since police stormed its protest camps in Cairo and killed hundreds of its supporters on Wednesday, staged several more marches across the country to demand the reinstatement of Mursi, ousted by Sisi on July 3.
Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, is grappling with the worst bout of internal bloodshed in its modern history, just 30 months after President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow was hailed as heralding democratic change across a region ruled by autocrats.
Seventy-nine people died and 549 were wounded in political violence around the country on Saturday, state news agency MENA said on Sunday, quoting the government. That pushed the death toll since Wednesday to 830, including 70 police and soldiers.
It was not immediately clear how Saturday's deaths had occurred. Previously only one person had been reported killed.
On Saturday, Mursi supporters exchanged fire with security forces who eventually cleared protesters from a central Cairo mosque where they had sought refuge from clashes the day before.
The clampdown has earned the military rulers criticism from Egypt's major ally, the United States, and the European Union, but support from wealthy Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, which fear the spread of Brotherhood ideology to the Gulf monarchies.
Before the cabinet met, the liberal deputy prime minister, Ziad Bahaa el-Din, had floated a conciliatory proposal, seen by Reuters, advocating an end to a state of emergency declared last week, political participation for all parties and guarantees of human rights, including the right to free assembly.
"NO RECONCILIATION"
But his initiative seemed at odds with the stance of Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, who suggested outlawing the 85-year-old Brotherhood, which would effectively force it underground.
"There will be no reconciliation with those whose hands that have been stained with blood and who turned weapons against the state and its institutions," Beblawi told reporters on Saturday.
The cabinet meeting lasted about four hours, but ended with no immediate announcement of any major decision.
A middle-ranking security officer, who asked not to be named, said no political proposals or foreign condemnation would be allowed to deflect the suppression of the Brotherhood.
"We have the people's support. Everybody is against them now as they see the group as an armed terrorist organization with no future as a political power," the officer said.
The capital's frenetic streets, unusually empty in the past few days, were returning to normal, although the army kept several big squares closed and enforced a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
At night, soldiers standing by armored personnel carriers man checkpoints and vigilantes inspect cars for weapons.
Banks and the stock market reopened for the first time since Wednesday's carnage, and shares plunged 3.9 percent.
"As long as we have bloodshed on the streets, it takes away any reason for foreign and regional investors to buy in Egypt," said Amer Khan, director at Shuaa Asset Management in Dubai.
Egypt's new rulers blame the Muslim Brotherhood, which won five successive national polls held after Mubarak's fall in 2011, but which drew charges that it was incompetent and bent on consolidating its own power during Mursi's year in office.
Sisi said: "We will not stand idle in face of the destruction and torching of the country, the terrorizing of the people and the sending of a wrong image to the Western media that there is fighting in the streets."
Brotherhood leaders accuse the military and other state institutions of sabotaging their time in government.
In calibrated rebukes to the army, the United States has delayed delivery of four F-16 fighters and scrapped a joint military exercise, but it has not halted its $1.55 billion a year in aid to Egypt, mostly to finance U.S.-made arms supplies.
The European Union has said it will urgently review relations.
Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy sought to pre-empt any Western attempt to use aid flows as a lever by saying he would look at all such assistance to see "what aid is being used to pressure Egypt and whether this aid has good intentions and credibility".
He told a news conference Egypt was not seeking to reshuffle its friendships, but would widen them to increase its options.
"The relationship between Egypt and the U.S. has been there for a long time. It has been through ups and downs in the past. We hope things will go back to normal promptly," Fahmy said.
ACCUSATIONS OF BIAS
As part of a concerted push to drive home the state's narrative of events, Fahmy's aides distributed a pack of photos said to show Muslim Brotherhood members carrying firearms and wooden staves - and in one picture a black al Qaeda-type flag.
The Brotherhood denies links to the global militant network.
Officials have accused Western media of biased coverage of the unrest, saying they have ignored attacks on police and the destruction of churches blamed on Islamists.
The army crackdown has drawn wide support among Egyptians tired of political turmoil and hard-hit by its economic fallout.
"I tried to sympathize with the Brotherhood but could not," said Hussein Ismail, 32, on holiday from his job in the Gulf, who took part in anti-Mursi protests late last year.
"They stormed our protests at the presidential palace, they hit our women protesters," he said.
"They defended the army when they attacked and killed Christian protesters in 2011. They slammed liberals, women and Copts when they asked for more freedoms, rights. Do you think those people really cared about democracy?"
At least 173 people were killed on Friday during a "Day of Rage" called by the Brotherhood two days after police destroyed its protest camps. The Brotherhood put the death toll at 213 protesters. Police have since arrested more than 1,000 Brotherhood "elements". The state news agency said 250 faced possible charges of murder, attempted murder or terrorism.
The Brotherhood has called for daily street protests this week, but there were no reports of trouble by Sunday evening.
Hundreds of Mursi supporters staged six separate marches in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, late on Saturday in defiance of the curfew. People in civilian clothes attacked and dispersed two of the processions. No casualties were reported.
At dawn, police raided the homes of 34 Brotherhood members in Alexandria and arrested seven people, security sources said.
(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Patrick Werr in Cairo, Paul Taylor in Paris and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Egypt cabinet debates Brotherhood's fate, death toll climb
Alistair Lyon and Tom Finn
1 hour ago
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed rulers met on Sunday to discuss their bloody confrontation with deposed President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood amid contrasting proposals for compromise and a fight to the death.
In a televised speech to military and police officers, army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to crack down on anyone using violence, but also struck an apparently inclusive note, telling Mursi's supporters: "There is room for everyone in Egypt."
The Brotherhood, under huge pressure since police stormed its protest camps in Cairo and killed hundreds of its supporters on Wednesday, staged several more marches across the country to demand the reinstatement of Mursi, ousted by Sisi on July 3.
Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, is grappling with the worst bout of internal bloodshed in its modern history, just 30 months after President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow was hailed as heralding democratic change across a region ruled by autocrats.
Seventy-nine people died and 549 were wounded in political violence around the country on Saturday, state news agency MENA said on Sunday, quoting the government. That pushed the death toll since Wednesday to 830, including 70 police and soldiers.
It was not immediately clear how Saturday's deaths had occurred. Previously only one person had been reported killed.
On Saturday, Mursi supporters exchanged fire with security forces who eventually cleared protesters from a central Cairo mosque where they had sought refuge from clashes the day before.
The clampdown has earned the military rulers criticism from Egypt's major ally, the United States, and the European Union, but support from wealthy Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, which fear the spread of Brotherhood ideology to the Gulf monarchies.
Before the cabinet met, the liberal deputy prime minister, Ziad Bahaa el-Din, had floated a conciliatory proposal, seen by Reuters, advocating an end to a state of emergency declared last week, political participation for all parties and guarantees of human rights, including the right to free assembly.
"NO RECONCILIATION"
But his initiative seemed at odds with the stance of Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, who suggested outlawing the 85-year-old Brotherhood, which would effectively force it underground.
"There will be no reconciliation with those whose hands that have been stained with blood and who turned weapons against the state and its institutions," Beblawi told reporters on Saturday.
The cabinet meeting lasted about four hours, but ended with no immediate announcement of any major decision.
A middle-ranking security officer, who asked not to be named, said no political proposals or foreign condemnation would be allowed to deflect the suppression of the Brotherhood.
"We have the people's support. Everybody is against them now as they see the group as an armed terrorist organization with no future as a political power," the officer said.
The capital's frenetic streets, unusually empty in the past few days, were returning to normal, although the army kept several big squares closed and enforced a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
At night, soldiers standing by armored personnel carriers man checkpoints and vigilantes inspect cars for weapons.
Banks and the stock market reopened for the first time since Wednesday's carnage, and shares plunged 3.9 percent.
"As long as we have bloodshed on the streets, it takes away any reason for foreign and regional investors to buy in Egypt," said Amer Khan, director at Shuaa Asset Management in Dubai.
Egypt's new rulers blame the Muslim Brotherhood, which won five successive national polls held after Mubarak's fall in 2011, but which drew charges that it was incompetent and bent on consolidating its own power during Mursi's year in office.
Sisi said: "We will not stand idle in face of the destruction and torching of the country, the terrorizing of the people and the sending of a wrong image to the Western media that there is fighting in the streets."
Brotherhood leaders accuse the military and other state institutions of sabotaging their time in government.
In calibrated rebukes to the army, the United States has delayed delivery of four F-16 fighters and scrapped a joint military exercise, but it has not halted its $1.55 billion a year in aid to Egypt, mostly to finance U.S.-made arms supplies.
The European Union has said it will urgently review relations.
Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy sought to pre-empt any Western attempt to use aid flows as a lever by saying he would look at all such assistance to see "what aid is being used to pressure Egypt and whether this aid has good intentions and credibility".
He told a news conference Egypt was not seeking to reshuffle its friendships, but would widen them to increase its options.
"The relationship between Egypt and the U.S. has been there for a long time. It has been through ups and downs in the past. We hope things will go back to normal promptly," Fahmy said.
ACCUSATIONS OF BIAS
As part of a concerted push to drive home the state's narrative of events, Fahmy's aides distributed a pack of photos said to show Muslim Brotherhood members carrying firearms and wooden staves - and in one picture a black al Qaeda-type flag.
The Brotherhood denies links to the global militant network.
Officials have accused Western media of biased coverage of the unrest, saying they have ignored attacks on police and the destruction of churches blamed on Islamists.
The army crackdown has drawn wide support among Egyptians tired of political turmoil and hard-hit by its economic fallout.
"I tried to sympathize with the Brotherhood but could not," said Hussein Ismail, 32, on holiday from his job in the Gulf, who took part in anti-Mursi protests late last year.
"They stormed our protests at the presidential palace, they hit our women protesters," he said.
"They defended the army when they attacked and killed Christian protesters in 2011. They slammed liberals, women and Copts when they asked for more freedoms, rights. Do you think those people really cared about democracy?"
At least 173 people were killed on Friday during a "Day of Rage" called by the Brotherhood two days after police destroyed its protest camps. The Brotherhood put the death toll at 213 protesters. Police have since arrested more than 1,000 Brotherhood "elements". The state news agency said 250 faced possible charges of murder, attempted murder or terrorism.
The Brotherhood has called for daily street protests this week, but there were no reports of trouble by Sunday evening.
Hundreds of Mursi supporters staged six separate marches in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, late on Saturday in defiance of the curfew. People in civilian clothes attacked and dispersed two of the processions. No casualties were reported.
At dawn, police raided the homes of 34 Brotherhood members in Alexandria and arrested seven people, security sources said.
(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Patrick Werr in Cairo, Paul Taylor in Paris and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Egypt cabinet debates Brotherhood's fate, death toll climb
Alistair Lyon and Tom Finn
1 hour ago
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed rulers met on Sunday to discuss their bloody confrontation with deposed President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood amid contrasting proposals for compromise and a fight to the death.
In a televised speech to military and police officers, army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to crack down on anyone using violence, but also struck an apparently inclusive note, telling Mursi's supporters: "There is room for everyone in Egypt."
The Brotherhood, under huge pressure since police stormed its protest camps in Cairo and killed hundreds of its supporters on Wednesday, staged several more marches across the country to demand the reinstatement of Mursi, ousted by Sisi on July 3.
Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, is grappling with the worst bout of internal bloodshed in its modern history, just 30 months after President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow was hailed as heralding democratic change across a region ruled by autocrats.
Seventy-nine people died and 549 were wounded in political violence around the country on Saturday, state news agency MENA said on Sunday, quoting the government. That pushed the death toll since Wednesday to 830, including 70 police and soldiers.
It was not immediately clear how Saturday's deaths had occurred. Previously only one person had been reported killed.
On Saturday, Mursi supporters exchanged fire with security forces who eventually cleared protesters from a central Cairo mosque where they had sought refuge from clashes the day before.
The clampdown has earned the military rulers criticism from Egypt's major ally, the United States, and the European Union, but support from wealthy Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, which fear the spread of Brotherhood ideology to the Gulf monarchies.
Before the cabinet met, the liberal deputy prime minister, Ziad Bahaa el-Din, had floated a conciliatory proposal, seen by Reuters, advocating an end to a state of emergency declared last week, political participation for all parties and guarantees of human rights, including the right to free assembly.
"NO RECONCILIATION"
But his initiative seemed at odds with the stance of Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, who suggested outlawing the 85-year-old Brotherhood, which would effectively force it underground.
"There will be no reconciliation with those whose hands that have been stained with blood and who turned weapons against the state and its institutions," Beblawi told reporters on Saturday.
The cabinet meeting lasted about four hours, but ended with no immediate announcement of any major decision.
A middle-ranking security officer, who asked not to be named, said no political proposals or foreign condemnation would be allowed to deflect the suppression of the Brotherhood.
"We have the people's support. Everybody is against them now as they see the group as an armed terrorist organization with no future as a political power," the officer said.
The capital's frenetic streets, unusually empty in the past few days, were returning to normal, although the army kept several big squares closed and enforced a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
At night, soldiers standing by armored personnel carriers man checkpoints and vigilantes inspect cars for weapons.
Banks and the stock market reopened for the first time since Wednesday's carnage, and shares plunged 3.9 percent.
"As long as we have bloodshed on the streets, it takes away any reason for foreign and regional investors to buy in Egypt," said Amer Khan, director at Shuaa Asset Management in Dubai.
Egypt's new rulers blame the Muslim Brotherhood, which won five successive national polls held after Mubarak's fall in 2011, but which drew charges that it was incompetent and bent on consolidating its own power during Mursi's year in office.
Sisi said: "We will not stand idle in face of the destruction and torching of the country, the terrorizing of the people and the sending of a wrong image to the Western media that there is fighting in the streets."
Brotherhood leaders accuse the military and other state institutions of sabotaging their time in government.
In calibrated rebukes to the army, the United States has delayed delivery of four F-16 fighters and scrapped a joint military exercise, but it has not halted its $1.55 billion a year in aid to Egypt, mostly to finance U.S.-made arms supplies.
The European Union has said it will urgently review relations.
Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy sought to pre-empt any Western attempt to use aid flows as a lever by saying he would look at all such assistance to see "what aid is being used to pressure Egypt and whether this aid has good intentions and credibility".
He told a news conference Egypt was not seeking to reshuffle its friendships, but would widen them to increase its options.
"The relationship between Egypt and the U.S. has been there for a long time. It has been through ups and downs in the past. We hope things will go back to normal promptly," Fahmy said.
ACCUSATIONS OF BIAS
As part of a concerted push to drive home the state's narrative of events, Fahmy's aides distributed a pack of photos said to show Muslim Brotherhood members carrying firearms and wooden staves - and in one picture a black al Qaeda-type flag.
The Brotherhood denies links to the global militant network.
Officials have accused Western media of biased coverage of the unrest, saying they have ignored attacks on police and the destruction of churches blamed on Islamists.
The army crackdown has drawn wide support among Egyptians tired of political turmoil and hard-hit by its economic fallout.
"I tried to sympathize with the Brotherhood but could not," said Hussein Ismail, 32, on holiday from his job in the Gulf, who took part in anti-Mursi protests late last year.
"They stormed our protests at the presidential palace, they hit our women protesters," he said.
"They defended the army when they attacked and killed Christian protesters in 2011. They slammed liberals, women and Copts when they asked for more freedoms, rights. Do you think those people really cared about democracy?"
At least 173 people were killed on Friday during a "Day of Rage" called by the Brotherhood two days after police destroyed its protest camps. The Brotherhood put the death toll at 213 protesters. Police have since arrested more than 1,000 Brotherhood "elements". The state news agency said 250 faced possible charges of murder, attempted murder or terrorism.
The Brotherhood has called for daily street protests this week, but there were no reports of trouble by Sunday evening.
Hundreds of Mursi supporters staged six separate marches in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, late on Saturday in defiance of the curfew. People in civilian clothes attacked and dispersed two of the processions. No casualties were reported.
At dawn, police raided the homes of 34 Brotherhood members in Alexandria and arrested seven people, security sources said.
(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Patrick Werr in Cairo, Paul Taylor in Paris and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Kenny Ogungbe Gives Jaywon Serious Warning
For some time now,
it has been making the rounds underground that Filebe singer, Jaywon, is
having issues with his record label, Kenny Ogungbe’s Kennis Music.
While some have alleged that Jaywon has called it quits with the label that made 2face into an international brand, others have said that he will call it quits.
All along, there has been nothing really concrete from both parties, but Kennis Music’s parent company, Kennis Communications, has come out to warn the musician over his contract situation, probably in a bid to forestall such problems it had with another of its artists, Maga Don Pay singer, Kelly Hansome.
In a statement lucidly titled ‘Jaywon signed for 3 full albums,’ Kennis Music reminded Jaywon that he signed a 3-album deal and only one, Meet Jaywon, has been released so far.
The statement also cemented the label’s position on the Jaywon issue by declaring that “discussion of Jaywon’s contract renewal is not on the front burner.” In recent times, artists having problems with their labels has been rife in the music industry.
Celebrated cases that readily come to mind are the ongoing BrymO, Chocolate City faceoff; May D, P-Square brouhaha and Eva, Trybe Records sudden split. A respected music egghead has however warned Jaywon to honour his contract with Kennis Music as Kelly Hansome who reneged on his is yet to get his career back on track since then. source naij.com
While some have alleged that Jaywon has called it quits with the label that made 2face into an international brand, others have said that he will call it quits.
All along, there has been nothing really concrete from both parties, but Kennis Music’s parent company, Kennis Communications, has come out to warn the musician over his contract situation, probably in a bid to forestall such problems it had with another of its artists, Maga Don Pay singer, Kelly Hansome.
In a statement lucidly titled ‘Jaywon signed for 3 full albums,’ Kennis Music reminded Jaywon that he signed a 3-album deal and only one, Meet Jaywon, has been released so far.
The statement also cemented the label’s position on the Jaywon issue by declaring that “discussion of Jaywon’s contract renewal is not on the front burner.” In recent times, artists having problems with their labels has been rife in the music industry.
Celebrated cases that readily come to mind are the ongoing BrymO, Chocolate City faceoff; May D, P-Square brouhaha and Eva, Trybe Records sudden split. A respected music egghead has however warned Jaywon to honour his contract with Kennis Music as Kelly Hansome who reneged on his is yet to get his career back on track since then. source naij.com
Islamists Hit Christian Churches
After torching a Franciscan school, Islamists paraded three
nuns on the streets like "prisoners of war" before a Muslim woman
offered them refuge.
Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.
In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism.
Christians have long suffered from discrimination and violence in Muslim majority Egypt, where they make up 10 percent of the population of 90 million. Attacks increased after the Islamists rose to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak from power, emboldening extremists.
But Christians have come further under fire since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 3, sparking a wave of Islamist anger led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt's military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi's reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide source naij.com
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/44089.html
Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.
In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism.
Christians have long suffered from discrimination and violence in Muslim majority Egypt, where they make up 10 percent of the population of 90 million. Attacks increased after the Islamists rose to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak from power, emboldening extremists.
But Christians have come further under fire since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 3, sparking a wave of Islamist anger led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt's military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi's reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide source naij.com
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/44089.html
Islamists Hit Christian Churches
After torching a Franciscan school, Islamists paraded three
nuns on the streets like "prisoners of war" before a Muslim woman
offered them refuge.
Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.
In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism.
Christians have long suffered from discrimination and violence in Muslim majority Egypt, where they make up 10 percent of the population of 90 million. Attacks increased after the Islamists rose to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak from power, emboldening extremists.
But Christians have come further under fire since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 3, sparking a wave of Islamist anger led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt's military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi's reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide source naij.com
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/44089.html
Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.
In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism.
Christians have long suffered from discrimination and violence in Muslim majority Egypt, where they make up 10 percent of the population of 90 million. Attacks increased after the Islamists rose to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak from power, emboldening extremists.
But Christians have come further under fire since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 3, sparking a wave of Islamist anger led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt's military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi's reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide source naij.com
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/44089.html
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