Ships cross Egypt's New Suez Canal in first test-run
By Yusri Mohamed
ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - The first cargo ships passed through Egypt's New Suez Canal on Saturday in a test-run before it opens next month, state media reported, 11 months after the army began constructing the $8 billion canal alongside the existing 145-year-old Suez Canal.
The new waterway, which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hopes will help expand trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia, will be formally inaugurated on Aug. 6.
THE SURGE IN UK’S CONCERN FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
“International religious freedom has received greater attention across the political and social spectrum,”says an analysis piece published today byLapido Media.
One sign of this, it says,is the recent honour given to Coptic Orthodox Bishop Angaelos, appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen for his services to international religious freedom.
‘Greater acknowledgment of this issue,’ Angaelos told Lapido, ‘is fitting within the UK’s understanding of what it means to safeguard human rights.’
It was ‘imperative’, he added, for both individuals and nations to protect them.
Italy vows to help Egypt fight 'terrorism' after blast
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Cairo (AFP) - Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday expressed his country's firm backing for Egypt in fighting "terrorism" after the jihadist Islamic State group said it bombed Rome's consulate in Cairo.
IS claimed Saturday's car bombing on the city centre complex in the first such attack on a foreign mission in Egypt since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
David Cameron to announce tough new powers to crack down on Islamist radicalisation
David Cameron is to announce tough new legislation against Islamist radicalisation(Getty)
David Cameron is to announce how his government intends to curb organisations and individuals who promote militant ideologies at home and recruit young people to radical Islamist groups.
The Prime Minister will set out legislation to be announced in the Queen's Speech that will include powers to restrict the activity of those who seek to radicalise young people and who use inflammatory speech in public places.
Archbishop Welby in 'visit of condolence' for murdered Egyptian Christians
Media captionArchbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: ''Europe as a whole must rise up, and seek to do what is right''
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has travelled to Egypt for a "visit of condolence" following the murders of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya.
In France, lessons in secularism to confront radical Islam
The French government wants to send imams to classes in secularism and religious freedom as a measure to prevent home-grown extremism. Elizabeth Bryant reports from Lyon on a program that is paving the way.
Sunlight slants across a classroom at the Catholic University of Lyon, where the Bible dominates a recent lecture.
The subject may seem unsurprising in this ancient city that was once a bastion of French Catholicism. But the dozen or so people jotting down notes are not theology students. One young woman wears a headscarf. A man sports the beard of a devout Muslim. Still others are non-Muslim civil servants working for the local government.
GE delivers turbines to Egypt as part of $1.9 billion deal
BY STEPHEN KALIN
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt
The logo of U.S. conglomerate General Electric is pictured at the company's site in Belfort, April 27, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/VINCENT KESSLER
(Reuters) -GeneralElectricCo(GE.N) has delivered a shipment of gas turbines toEgyptas part of a $1.9 billion (1.28 billion pounds) deal to boost power capacity, and will invest $200 million in a planned economic zone near the Suez Canal, the firm said on Friday.
مؤتمر الهيئة القبطية الهولندية يعرض فيلماً حول إرهاب الإخوان فى مصر
مؤتمر الهيئة القبطية الهولندية رسالة هولندا- جمال جرجس المزاحم
بالسلام الجمهورى المصرى، انطلق المؤتمر العالمى السابع للهيئة القبطية الهولندية، بمدينة أمستردام عاصمة هولندا تحت عنوان "مصر التى فى خاطرى" لدعم مصر فى حربها ضد الإرهاب،
وحضر المؤتمر أكثر من 25 مؤسسة ومنظمة مصرية وقبطية دولية وعالمية، وحشد من وسائل الإعلام ووكالات الأنباء العالمية.
ويشارك فى المؤتمر عدد كبير من الشخصيات العامة، وعلى رأسهم الدكتور محمد العرابى وزير الخارجية الأسبق، والدكتورة درية شرف الدين وزيرة الإعلام السابقة، والدكتور حسن نافعة أستاذ العلوم السياسية، وسامح سوريال نائب رئيس الهيئة القبطية، والدكتور إبراهيم حبيب رئيس أقباط متحدون بريطانيا والناشط عصام عبيد رئيس الاتحاد الأوروبى للجاليات، والناشط جون سدراك رئيس اللجنة السياسية للهيئة القبطية الهولندية، والناشط حسنى بباوى منظمة أقباط النمسا، والعديد من المنظمات القبطية بأوروبا ورجل الأعمال المصرى بالسويد شيتوى عبدالله، والمرشح للبرلمان الكندى شريف السبعاوى، والمهندس مايكل منير رئيس حزب الحياة، ومدحت قلادة رئيس الاتحاد المنظمات القبطية بأوروبا، والناشط المصرى بألمانيا مجدى يوسف المتحدث الرسمى لاتحاد الأقباط بأوروبا، وأشرف فهيم سكرتير الاتحاد الأوروبى للجاليات المصرية، والدكتور هانى شنودة بكندا، والناشط ماهر يوسف رئيس الهيئة القبطية السويدية، ووفد من التلفزيون المصرى، برئاسة المخرج أكرم بشارة، والمذيع جورج رشاد، والمذيعة غادة عبدالسلام والمنتج بالتلفزيون المصرى ريمون عزمى. وقامت الهيئة القبطية الهولندية، بعرض فيلم لمدة 10 دقائق بعنوان "إرهاب الاخوان فى مصر"، حول ما يفعله الإخوان فى مصر من عمليات إرهابية بهدف نشر الذعر بين المواطنين.
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and British Prime Minister David Cameron (R) depart a joint news conference following their meeting at the White House in Washington January 16, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed on Friday to take on "the poisonous ideology" of Islamic extremists and said intelligence agencies must be allowed to track militants online despite privacy concerns.
Obama and Cameron held two days of White House talks amid increasing concern in Europe about the threat posed by extremists after 17 people were killed in Paris attacks and Belgian authorities engaged in a firefight with terror suspects.
Anti-Islam & pro-tolerance demonstrators take to German streets
Supporters of anti-immigration movement Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) hold flags during a demonstration in Dresden January 12, 2015. (Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch)
Charlie Hebdo attacks have led to the immigration issue becoming ever more acute in Germany, with equally massive rallies being held there by anti-Muslim activists and their opponents. Both sides claim to be in solidarity with the Paris massacre victims.
Thousands of people participated in anti-Islamization rallies in Germany on Monday, with many wearing black ribbons in commemoration of those killed in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine
US delivers 10 helicopters to Egypt in sign of improving relations
Apache helicopters arrived this week to support counter-terrorism
Delivery had been on hold since coup against elected president last year
The Pentagon had announced in September that it would be sending Apache helicopters to Egypt.Photograph: HO/Reuters
Egypt received 10 Apache helicopters from the US in the past week, security sources said on Saturday, in a sign of easing tensions between the longtime allies confronting Islamist extremism across north Africa and the Middle East.
The US announced in April that it had decided to lift its hold on the delivery of the attack helicopters. The hold was imposed last year, after the military toppled elected president Mohamed Morsi and cracked down hard on his Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
A protester wearing a traditional eastern Turkestan hat shouts during a demonstration in Istanbul, to protest against the deadly riot in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang on Jul. 6, 2009. Reuters/Osman Orsal
Urumqi, the capital of China’s restive Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region, passed a rule Thursday banning the use of full-face veils in public areas. The move is seen as an effort to curb violent attacks in the region, which Beijing has attributed to Islamist extremism, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Police in Sudan Arrest Church Leaders for Refusing to Surrender Worship Property
Authorities who bulldozed part of compound disperse worshippers.
JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – Police and security personnel today dispersed a congregation keeping vigil over its disputed property in North Khartoum, Sudan, and arrested five church leaders, sources said.
Authorities arrived at noon at the compound of the Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church, where last week they demolished a pastor’s house and church wall, and threatened to arrest members of the congregation camped out on the site of the destroyed house as the Christians prayed and worshipped, a church source told Morning Star News.
Radical Islam should be rooted out at kindergarten level – Austrian far-right party leader
The newly re-elected leader of the Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPO) has vowed to fight radical Islam in kindergartens and stop Vienna from becoming an “immigrant magnet.”
Heinz-Christian Strache has said stated his intentions in several speeches, alluding to an alarming rise in radical indoctrination going on in Austrian schools. Protecting young children is important to “counteract dangerous currents,” he said, as cited by The Local.
Home Secretary Theresa May reveals how many UK terrorist plots have been foiled since July 7 bombings
Home Secretary Theresa May has revealed 40 terrorist plots have been foiled since the London July 7 attacks more than seven years ago as she underlined the scale of the threat faced by the UK.
As she unveiled broad-ranging new powers to tackle terrorism, Mrs May said 753 people had been arrested for terrorism-related offences since April 2010.
She also said 212 have been charged since the Coalition Government came to power with 148 successfully prosecuted and 138 people are behind bars for terrorist-related offences.
Thirteen people, including hook-handed radical cleric Abu Hamza, have been extradited, while other individuals deemed dangerous, such as Abu Qatada, have been deported.
Proposed law to remove restrictions on church buildings to be presented in Egypt
Country/Region: Middle East and North Africa, Africa, Egypt
A proposed law that could remove crippling restrictions on the building of churches in Egypt will be presented to the country’s parliament early next year, according to a government minister.
Egypt’s Minister of Transitional Justice, Ibrahim Henaidi, told reporters on 16 October that a committee comprising church representatives and government officials will be formed to discuss the bill before it is presented to parliament.
Under Egypt’s constitution, which was passed in January this year, parliament is required in its first session to “issue a law aimed at regulating the construction and restoration of churches in a way that ensures that Christians perform their religious rites freely”.
British jihadists who go to fight in Iraq or Syria could be tried for treason, the Foreign Secretary has suggested.
Philip Hammond said such people had "sworn personal allegiance" to Islamic State (IS) and could potentially have committed the offence.
The last prosecution for treason was in 1946, when the notorious Lord Haw Haw - real name William Joyce - was hanged for his Nazi propaganda broadcasts.
The offence remains on the statute books, even though the death penalty has been abolished.
Minister Kenney welcomes Coptic Pope Tawadros II to Canada
Pope Tawadros II begins month-long visit
September 3, 2014—Toronto, ON—Jason Kenney, Minister for Multiculturalism, today greeted the leader of the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church upon his arrival in Toronto, on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Government of Canada.
Pope Tawadros II, who became the 118th leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church on November 19, 2012, arrived in Toronto this evening to officially begin his month-long Canadian visit. His first trip to Canada will include the consecration of the first Coptic cathedral in North America, Markham’s St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church, visits to other parishes across Canada, meetings with religious leaders, and the delivery of a lecture at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
Andrew Bennett, Canada’s Ambassador for Religious Freedom, joined Minister Kenney in Toronto to greet Pope Tawadros.
Egypt Tempts Back Foreign Cash After MSCI Nod: Chart of the Day
By Ahmed A. Namatalla
Foreign investors are returning to Egyptafter MSCI Inc. preserved the North African country’s emerging-market status and the former army chief won the presidency in a landslide.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows non-Arabs purchased 2.9 billion Egyptian pounds ($406 million) of stocks from June 11, the day after the index provider said it’s no longer considering cutting the country’s status to a frontier market, through Aug. 27. That’s almost eight times the amount they purchased in 2014 before the announcement, according to Egyptian Exchange data. The EGX 30 Index has rallied more than 35 percent this year in dollar terms, making it the world’s third-best performer.
