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Cairo clashes highlight tensions between Egyptian police, public
Egyptian riot police and demonstrators throw stones at each other during clashes close to the interior ministry in Cairo, early Wednesday, June 29. Egyptian security forces and protesters are clashing for a second successive day in central Cairo in scenes not seen since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak earlier this year. Khalil Hamra/AP
Major clashes erupted in Cairo overnight, underscoring the volatility of Egypt as it seeks to transition from revolution to a more democratic state. Thousands of protesters, demanding speedier prosecutions for the police who killed hundreds of demonstrators earlier this year, clashed with riot police in Tahrir Square.
The rioting snowballed after a planned memorial service for Egyptians killed in the uprising went awry last night. When families of the dead arrived at the Balloon Theater downtown, they were turned away by security. Shouting soon escalated, and police began beating people and using tasers, with the crowd eventually swelling. Later in the evening, the clashed moved to Tahrir Square.
Today the roads to the iconic square, which served as the epicenter for a revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak, were lined with rubble Wednesday. Ambulances whizzed by, police lobbed tear-gas canisters, and protesters retaliated by throwing stones. Nearly 50 policemen and 132 protesters have been injured, according to security and hospital officials cited by the Associated Press.
The police, once feared by civilians, are now seen as leftover elements of Read more…
Pyramid-Exploring Robot Reveals Hidden Hieroglyphs
A robot explorer sent through the Great Pyramid of Giza has begun to unveil some of the secrets behind the 4,500-year-old pharaonic mausoleum as it transmitted the first images behind one of its mysterious doors.
The images revealed hieroglyphs written in red paint that have not been seen by human eyes since the construction of the pyramid. The pictures also unveiled new details about two puzzling copper pins embedded in one of the so called “secret doors.”
Published in the Annales du Service Des Antiquities de l’Egypte (ASAE), the images of markings and graffiti could unlock the secrets of the monument’s puzzling architecture.
“We believe that if these hieroglyphs could be deciphered they could help Egyptologists work out why these mysterious shafts were built,” Rob Richardson, the engineer who designed the robot at the University of Leeds, said. The study was sponsored by Mehdi Tayoubi and Richard Breitner of project partners Dassault Systèmes in France.
NEWS: Great Pyramid May Hold Two Hidden Chambers
Built for the pharaoh Cheops, also known as Khufu, the Great Pyramid is the last remaining Read more…
Egypt finds 17 lost pyramids
A new satellite survey of Egypt reportedly found 17 lost pyramids along with more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements.
The survey used infra-red images to detect underground buildings, the BBC reports.
Satellites above the earth were equipped with cameras that could pin-point objects on the earth’s surface. The infra-red imaging then highlighted different materials under the surface, it states.
The work was done by a NASA-sponsored laboratory in Birmingham, Alabama.
“To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archeologist,” Sarah Parcak who led the project told BBC.
Meanwhile, Egypt opened the tombs of seven men, including some who served King Tutankhamen, to tourists earlier this week after restoration, the Associated Press reports.
Egypt hopes the tombs in the New Kingdom Cemetery in South Saqqara will draw more tourists to the area.
Egypt’s tourism industry has been badly hit by the revolution that toppled the government in February and subsequent political uncertainty.
The number of tourists to Egypt fell 46 percent in the first quarter, Reuters reported Sunday.
Egypt and Tunisia: risk of civil war
The deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo, in Egypt and unrest in Tunis region, spark fears of renewed sectarian violence in Egypt, and insecurity in Tunisia. In Egypt, a religious leader warns against a “civil war”, while police is accused of inaction.
- The Egyptian government has promised to use all available legislative arsenals to prevent further clashes after those in the neighbourhood of Imbaba Saturday night having made 12 dead and 232 wounded.
- On Monday, the press was concerned about an expansion of violence: “The fire of religious fanaticism threatens Egypt,” headlined the daily Al-Ahram, while the independent Al-Masri al-Yom emphasized: “extremism burns the revolution.”
- Newspapers and the power blamed the “cons-revolutionaries” and “extremists” for the violence orchestrated by these followers of former President Hosni Mubarak ousted Feb. 11 by a popular revolt. The army has provided since the country’s leadership.
- Quoted by Al-Masri al-Yom, Mufti Ali Gomaa, one of the highest Muslim authorities in Egypt, has warned against “a possible Read more…
Egypt and Israel Headed for Crisis
Israeli officials have expressed alarm at a succession of moves by the interim Egyptian government that they fear signal an impending crisis in relations with Cairo.
The widening rift was underscored yesterday when leaders of the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation pact in the Egyptian capital. Egypt’s secret role in brokering the agreement last week caught both Israel and the United States by surprise.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the deal “a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism”.
Several other developments have added to Israeli concerns about its relations with Egypt, including signs that Cairo hopes to renew ties with Iran and renegotiate a long-standing contract to supply Israel with natural gas.
More worrying still to Israeli officials are reported plans by Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza, closed for the Read more…
Enormous statue of powerful pharaoh unearthed
This undated photo released by the Supreme Council of Antiquities on Tuesday, April 26, 2011, shows a 13 meter (42 foot) tall statue of Amenhotep III in Luxor, Egypt. Archeologists unearthed one of the largest statues to date of the powerful ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III at his mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor, as well as one of the god Thoth with a baboon's head and and a six foot (1.85 meters) tall one of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, the country's antiquities authority announced Tuesday.
CAIRO – Archaeologists unearthed one of the largest statues found to date of a powerful ancient Egyptian pharaoh at his mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor, the country’s antiquities authority announced Tuesday.
The 13 meter (42 foot) tall statue of Amenhotep III was one of a pair that flanked the northern entrance to the grand funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile that is currently the focus of a major excavation.
The statue consists of seven large quartzite blocks and still lacks a head and was actually first discovered in the 1928 and then rehidden, according to the press release from the country’s antiquities authority. Archaeologists expect to find its twin in the next digging season.
Excavation supervisor Abdel-Ghaffar Wagdi said two other statues were also unearthed, one of the god Thoth with a baboon’s head and a six foot (1.85 meter) tall one of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet.
Archaeologists working on the temple over the past few years have issued a flood of announcements about new discoveries of statues. The 3,400-year-old temple is one of the largest on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor, where the powerful pharaohs of Egypt’s New Kingdom built their tombs.
Amenhotep III, who was the grandfather of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun, ruled in the 14th century B.C. at the height of Egypt’s New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.
The pharaoh’s temple was largely destroyed, possibly by floods, and little remains of its walls. It was also devastated by an earthquake in 27 B.C. But archaeologists have been able to unearth a wealth of artifacts and statuary in the buried ruins, including two statues of Amenhotep made of black granite found at the site in March 2009.
After the ecstasy of revolution, the Bankers quietly begin carving up Egypt and North Africa
By Richard Eastman
21st Century Wire
Feb 25, 2011
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is ready to lend one billion EUROS a year to Egypt for reconstruction and “free-market reform”- even as Egypt’s Minister of Finance Samir Radwan has gone begging to the City of London bankers and the British Ministry of Trade and Investment for relief on debt payments that are about to throw Egypt into bankruptcy.
All this, as Egypt has been such a good boy with regards to privatization and austerity, measures which awarded Egypt its celebrated 7 percent growth rate- mostly in investments that will end up in international hands as ventures fail to pay out with ever diminishing Egyptian domestic purchasing power.
FRESH CYCLES OF DEBT
First EBRD will lend at interest and build what they want backed by Egyptian collateral and the value of the projects themselves. Then when it turns out they can’t make the debt payments because of all the interest we have sucked from them, we take over all of the assets we have developed. That’s freedom and EBRD is really going to give it to them. After all EBRD is experienced at this. In 1991 the EBRD was organized to financially lead Russia and Eastern Europe in their transition from paternalistic socialism to sustainable free-market economies open to international Read more…
2 million Egyptians in Tahrir Square chant “To Jerusalem we are heading, Martyrs in the millions.”
Egypt’s military dissolves parliament, suspends constitution
 Protester shouts as they resist being removed by Egyptian soldiers from Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Sunday. AFP photo
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Egypt’s military leaders dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution on Sunday, meeting two key demands of protesters who have been keeping up pressure for immediate steps to push forward the transition to democratic, civilian rule after forcing Hosni Mubarak out of power.
In their latest communique, the military rulers that took over when Mubarak stepped down Friday, said they will run the country for six months, or until presidential and parliament elections can be held.
The military leaders said they were forming a committee to amend the constitution and set the rules for popular referendum to endorse the amendments.
Both the lower and upper houses of parliament are being dissolved. The last parliamentary elections in November and December were Read more…
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