Egypt shortens curfew by two hours as of Saturday: cabinet

CAIRO |(Reuters) - Egypt will shorten its curfew as of Saturday to start at midnight rather than 11 p.m., the cabinet said in an emailed statement.

The government imposed the curfew on August 14 after it broke up two sit-ins by supporters of former Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, killing hundreds. Mursi was toppled by the army on July 3 following mass protests against his rule.
The curfew will be lifted at 5 a.m. rather than 6 a.m. On Fridays, traditionally a day of protest, it will continue to start at 7 p.m., the statement said.
(Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Egyptian army offers no respite for southern town

By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press

DALGA, Egypt (AP) -- Islamic militants on motorbikes drive by Sameer Hanna Tanyous's home in this southern Egyptian town and make a chilling gesture - running their fingers across their throats. Others, he says, shout warnings that security forces won't be there forever to protect him and other Christians.

This week, a large contingent of troops and police rolled into Dalga, backed by helicopter gunships, breaking the hold of Islamist hard-liners who seized control of the town of 120,000 in early July in a spasm of violence after the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. Their grip terrorized the town's Christians, as hard-liners torched and looted their homes, businesses and churches.

Egypt troops storm Islamist stronghold near Cairo

By AHMED ABDEL-FATTAH and MOHAMMED WAGDY
Associated Press

KERDASA, Egypt (AP) -- Egyptian security forces backed by armored fighting vehicles and helicopters stormed a town known to be an Islamist stronghold outside of Cairo near the Great Pyramids on Thursday, coming under barrages of fire from gunmen on rooftops as they searched door to door for militants.

A police general fell in the first moments of the battle at around 6 a.m. Gen. Nabil Farrag had just given a pep talk to his men on the street, preparing them to roll into the town of Kerdasa, when they came under a hail of gunfire, according to an Associated Press photographer and video journalists at the scene.

Army soldiers and policemen ducked for cover behind armored vehicles and behind walls. Farrag fell with a bullet wound in his right side, getting past the body armor he was wearing. He lay in the street for nearly 15 minutes, blood soaking through his white uniform, until his men could reach him and carry him into a sedan to take to a hospital.

Two bombs defused on Cairo metro: report

CAIRO |(Reuters) - Egyptian explosives experts defused two primitive bombs planted on the Cairo metro line on Thursday, the state news agency reported, causing a partial closure of the network.

The bombs had been found 100 metres (yards) from Helmeyet el-Zaytoun station in northeast Cairo.
(Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Patrick Graham)

Egypt policeman killed in operation near Cairo

CAIRO | (Reuters) - An Egyptian police officer was shot dead on Thursday, state media reported, during a security operation on the outskirts of Cairo aimed at reasserting control over an area where gunmen killed 11 policemen last month.

The police had earlier fired tear gas and exchanged gunfire with gunmen in the area of Kerdasah, state TV reported.
Kerdasah police station was abandoned after it was hit with rocket propelled grenades and gunfire on August 14 - the same day security forces moved against protests by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi in Cairo, killing hundreds.
(Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Patrick Graham)

Egypt military court gives five Palestinians one-year jail sentence

CAIRO | (Reuters) - An Egyptian military court on Wednesday sentenced five Palestinian fishermen to a year in jail for illegally crossing into Egypt's territorial waters, Egyptian security sources said.

"The court had arrested five Palestinians recently for crossing without permits to the Egyptian waters in North Sinai (that borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza enclave)," one security source said. The source said each of the fishermen was also fined 500 Egyptian pounds ($72.53).
It was not clear when the incident took place, according to another security source in Sinai.

Analysis: Turkey's 'worthy solitude' sidelines Erdogan in Middle East

By Nick Tattersall

ISTANBUL |(Reuters) - Clinging to calls for military action in Syria and wedded to his backing for Egypt's ousted Islamist president, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan cuts an increasingly lonely figure in a region whose future he still hopes to help shape.

Finding himself in what one adviser calls "worthy solitude", Erdogan risks alienating some important Gulf investors in Turkey as well as weakening his diplomatic clout with international powers and Egypt's new military-backed rulers.
Long feted by the West as a model democrat in the Muslim world, his influence had seemed to be rising when he backed the pro-democracy uprisings of the Arab Spring, particularly when fellow Islamists initially won power in Egypt and elsewhere in north Africa.

Egypt partially reopens Gaza crossing after week-long closure

GAZA | (Reuters) - Egypt partially reopened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, a week after it was closed in response to a deadly attack on an Egyptian military headquarters near the frontier.

Witnesses said two buses took 100 passengers into Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the main window to the world for the Gaza Strip's 1.7 million Palestinians. Hundreds of other people waited outside the gates for a chance to enter Egypt.

Gunmen kill Egyptian army officer and soldier in Nile Delta

By Michael Georgy

CAIRO |(Reuters) - Gunmen killed an Egyptian military officer and a soldier in an attack on an army vehicle northeast of Cairo on Tuesday, security sources said, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is taking hold beyond the Sinai.

The number of militant attacks has risen since the army deposed President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3, following mass protests against his rule.
Most of the attacks on the army have been limited to the relatively lawless Sinai, near Israel and the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Tuesday's attack, which also wounded an army officer and a soldier, took place in Sharkia province in the Nile Delta. The assailants, who were in a vehicle, opened fire with automatic weapons, security officials said.

Egypt detains Brotherhood spokesman Haddad: officials

CAIRO |(Reuters) - Egyptian police arrested Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad on Tuesday, three security officials said, the latest high-profile detention in the army-backed authorities' crackdown on the Islamist movement.

Haddad was detained with two other Brotherhood officials in an apartment in Cairo. He served as chief of staff to deputy Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater and is the son of Essam El-Haddad, an aide to deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.
Haddad, the Brotherhood's main point of contact with international media before the crackdown, is charged with inciting the killing of protesters.
Many of the Brotherhood's top leaders have been detained on similar charges since the army deposed Mursi on July 3, triggering the worst spasm of violence in Egypt's modern history.

Police hunt veteran Islamist in southern Egypt

CAIRO |(Reuters) - Police hunted a veteran member of a former militant group in southern Egypt on Tuesday, security officials said, after he fled a town where the army and police deployed on Monday in an attempt to reimpose state authority.

Assem Abdel Maged of the Gamaa Islamiya is among several dozen Islamist activists sought by the police in Minya province after their operation on Monday to restore control over the town of Delga, some 300 km (190 miles) south of Cairo.
The town had slipped from the state's grip following the July 3 downfall of President Mohamed Mursi, a Muslim Brotherhood member. Minya has witnessed some of the most intense violence since then: around 70 people were killed there on August 14, the day police broke up pro-Mursi protests in Cairo.
At least 20 churches were attacked in the province in the days that followed. Many of them were torched.

Detainees kill Frenchman in Egypt police custody: security sources

CAIRO |(Reuters) - A French citizen was beaten to death by fellow detainees while in Egyptian police custody after he had been arrested for breaking a curfew, Egyptian security sources said on Tuesday.

The French foreign ministry confirmed the death and said it had called on Egyptian authorities to investigate.
The security sources said the man was arrested in Cairo for violating the overnight curfew and that he had no valid residency permit. They added that he was drunk at the time.
After being presented to state prosecutors, who decided to release and deport him, the man had been put in detention at a police station pending deportation, the sources added.

Police say 11 killed in car crash in Egypt

By MAMDOUH THABET
Associated Press

ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) -- Security officials say a car crash in southern Egypt has killed at least 11 people.

The collision happened early Friday morning on a road in the New Valley Governorate in the southwestern part of the country. Security officials say two cars collided on the road and burst into flames, killing 11 people and wounding three others.

The officials gave no other details about the crash. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Traffic crashes are common in Egypt due to badly maintained roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws. According to a 2012 World Health Organization report, road accidents kill about 12,000 people each year in the country, home to a population of about 90 million.

In south Egypt, Islamists take over a town

By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press

DALGA, Egypt (AP) -- The Coptic Orthodox priest would only talk to his visitor after hiding from the watchful eyes of the bearded Muslim outside, who sported a pistol bulging from under his robe.

So Father Yoannis moved behind a wall in the charred skeleton of an ancient monastery to describe how it was torched by Islamists and then looted when they took over this southern Egyptian town following the ouster of the country's president.

"The fire in the monastery burned intermittently for three days. The looting continued for a week. At the end, not a wire or an electric switch is left," Yoannis told The Associated Press. The monastery's 1,600-year-old underground chapel was stripped of ancient icons and the ground was dug up on the belief that a treasure was buried there.

"Even the remains of ancient and revered saints were disturbed and thrown around," he said.

A town of some 120,000 - including 20,000 Christians - Dalga has been outside government control since hard-line supporters of the Islamist Mohammed Morsi drove out police and occupied their station on July 3, the day Egypt's military chief removed the president in a popularly supported coup. It was part of a wave of attacks in the southern Minya province that targeted Christians, their homes and businesses.

Egyptian protester killed as thousands demonstrate

CAIRO |(Reuters) - One person was killed on Friday in the Egyptian province of Damietta during protests called by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies against Egypt's army-backed government, a medical official said.

More than two months after the army deposed President Mohamed Mursi, thousands of people took to the streets across the country. Skirmishes were also reported in the cities of Alexandria on the north coast and Tanta in the Nile Delta.
The man killed in the Damietta town of Kafr el-Bateekh was Ibrahim Selim, 30, said Abdel Hadi Dorah, the head of the local emergency services. Witnesses said he was a Mursi supporter.
The violence erupted when dozens of Mursi supporters staged a march after Friday prayers, triggering clashes with government supporters, witnesses said. Birdshot, rocks and sticks were used in the violence. At least five other people were injured.
In Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city, a medic said three people were injured in clashes that erupted during protests by several thousand Mursi supporters.
(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Alison Williams)

Egypt set for legal action against Brotherhood as protests promised

By Tom Perry

CAIRO |(Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed government has decided to annul the Muslim Brotherhood's legal registration within days, a newspaper said on Friday, pressing a crackdown on deposed President Mohamed Mursi's movement.

While short of a formal ban, the move underlined the government's determination to crush the Brotherhood. The authorities accuse the group that won five successive elections since 2011 of terrorism and inciting violence.
But so far they have failed to snuff out nationwide demonstrations demanding the reinstatement of Mursi, ousted by the army on July 3 after mass protests, or stem a rise in militancy, which culminated on Thursday in an attempt to assassinate the interior minister in Cairo.

Egypt to dissolve Brotherhood NGO, official says

CAIRO |(Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed authorities have decided to annul the Muslim Brotherhood's non-governmental organization, an official said on Friday, widening a drive to neutralize the movement behind deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.

The move applies to the non-governmental organization registered by the Brotherhood in March, and stems from accusations that it used its premises to store weapons and explosives. The decision has yet to be formally announced, the official said..
The army-backed government is waging the toughest crackdown in decades on the Islamist group, which says it has a million members. Security forces have killed hundreds of its supporters and rounded up thousands more since Mursi was deposed by the army on July 3 after mass protests against him.
Although short of a ban, dissolving the NGO will strip the Brotherhood of a defense against challenges to its legality. Egypt's then army rulers formally dissolved the Brotherhood in 1954.

Egypt jamming Al Jazeera's satellite signals

(Al jazeera) --- Qatar-based network forced to change frequencies so viewers can tune in as authorities deliberately jam signals.

Al Jazeera says it can categorically state that Egyptian authorities are deliberately jamming its satellite signals and forcing it to change frequencies so viewers can tune in.
The Qatar-based broadcaster has been forced to change frequencies several times to allow viewers to continue to watch the network's news and sport channels.
Al Jazeera announced on Tuesday that independent experts had determined on the basis of extensive investigation where the jamming was emanating from and were confident about both the locations and who is responsible.

Egypt interim president defends military coup

(Al jazeera) ---- Adly Mansour says country sticking to military-backed transition plan and that his top priority is to restore security.

Egypt's interim president has defended the military's removal of former President Mohamed Morsi and said his government's top priority is to restore security.
In his first interview since he took office, Adly Mansour on Wednesday said that Egypt was "moving towards democracy" and that the country's was sticking to a military-backed road map for transition after the July 3 coup.
Mansour said Egypt's interim government is charging ahead with a transition plan, appointing a committee to review the constitution passed under Morsi.
A new version is to be put to a popular referendum within two months, and if passed, it would open the way for presidential and parliamentary elections.
"The state, with all its agencies, will not allow any party to prevent it satisfying the aspirations of the people," he added.

Egyptian minister survives car bombing

Mohammed Ibrahim survived attack that targeted his convoy in Cairo, which he condemned as "cowardly assassination bid".

A car bomb has targeted the convoy of Egypt's Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim but the minister was unhurt, the security forces say.

What happened today is not the end but the beginning Mohammed Ibrahim, Egypt's Interior Minister

The explosion took place at around 10:30am (08:30 GMT) on Thursday near Ibrahim's home in the Nasr City area, they said.