Latest Cairo Stories
By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Democratic lawmaker vowed to slash some of the $1.7 billion in aid to Egypt approved by a House panel on Friday as part of a foreign aid bill as Congress voiced growing irritation over Cairo's democratic setbacks. The $20.7 billion foreign aid bill approved by a House of Representative Appropriations subcommittee contained the full amount the Bush administration sought for Egypt. But subcommittee acted a day after the United States condemned...
CAIRO (Reuters) - The Egyptian authorities are holding 314 members of the Muslim Brotherhood for taking part in protests in support of judicial independence, the opposition Islamist group said on Friday. Brotherhood deputy leader Mohammed Habib said the 314 had been referred to the public prosecutor on charges including gathering and taking part in illegal demonstrations on Thursday. Most of the activists who tried to protest in support of the judges were from the Brotherhood, which...
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt on Friday rejected condemnation by close ally the United States of a court's decision to uphold a five-year jail sentence against opposition leader Ayman Nour. Egypt's highest appeal court on Thursday rejected Nour's appeal for a retrial. He cannot file another appeal. Nour, who challenged President Hosni Mubarak in a presidential election last year, was sentenced in December on charges of forging signatures to set up the opposition Ghad Party. Nour says the...
By Mohammed Abbas and Yara Bayoumy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces clubbed demonstrators in the streets on Thursday and a court rejected an appeal against a jail term by a former election challenger to President Hosni Mubarak in twin blows to the opposition. Plainclothes security men beat and kicked protesters rallying in support of Egyptian judges and judicial independence in Cairo, while Egypt's highest appeal court threw out the appeal by jailed opposition leader Ayman...
By Mohammed Abbas and Yara Bayoumy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces clubbed demonstrators in the streets on Thursday and a court rejected an appeal against a jail term by a former election challenger to President Hosni Mubarak in twin blows to the opposition. Plainclothes security men beat and kicked protesters rallying in support of Egyptian judges and judicial independence in Cairo, while Egypt's highest appeal court threw out the appeal by jailed opposition leader Ayman...
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian judicial disciplinary panel on Thursday punished one of two judges at the center of a dispute with the government over judicial independence by withholding his next promotion. The panel said Hesham Bastawisi would be dismissed from the judiciary if he committed another offence. The panel cleared the second judge, Mahmoud Mekky.
By Tom Perry and Yara Bayoumy CAIRO (Reuters) - Plainclothes security men beat, kicked and clubbed protesters demonstrating in support of Egyptian judges and judicial independence in Cairo on Thursday. Police detained some 260 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, the largest of several groups which came out in solidarity with two judges facing disciplinary proceedings for speaking out about election abuses last year. Some 180 members of the Islamist group were injured in the...
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian riot police closed down parts of central Cairo on Thursday as a precaution against demonstrations in solidarity with two judges facing disciplinary action for talking about election abuses. Thousands of police, armed with sticks and shields, sealed off streets around the High Court and the nearby Judges Club, flashpoints during weeks of protests against the authorities' attempts to punish the two judges. In the same High Court building, the Court of Cassation...
By Jonathan Wright CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces beat activists and arrested journalists in Cairo on Thursday during protests in support of judges facing a disciplinary committee for criticizing election abuses last year. Activists organized at least three separate demonstrations in central Cairo but in each case plainclothes security men moved in, beating and detaining selected protesters. Thousands of riot police, armed with sticks and shields, sealed off main streets...
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security briefly detained at least six journalists covering a protest on Thursday in support of judges who are facing a disciplinary committee for criticising election abuses last year, a Reuters witness said. Plainclothes policemen dragged away cameramen from news organizations, including Reuters and Al Jazeera television, and confiscated their cameras. An Al Jazeera cameraman was badly beaten. Plainclothes policemen also beat demonstrators trying to...
