CAIRO: The leadership of Egypt's ruling party quit on Saturday, but the protesters who have rocked the political establishment dismissed the move as a ruse that would not deter them from their goal of toppling the president. The United States, Egypt's key ally, which has been demanding transition begin immediately, signalled it might be changing tack by declaring explicitly that President Hosni Mubarak should stay in power to oversee the process. This was likely to anger demonstrators demanding he resign immediately. Reports by Al Arabiya saying President Hosni Mubarak had resigned as head of the party were later withdrawn by the Dubai-based television news channel. Mubarak has reshuffled his government but says he intends to stay on as president until elections in September. State television said only the leadership of the party, including Mubarak's son Gamal, had resigned and named the new secretary general as Hossam Badrawi, seen as more liberal. A US official...

CAIRO: The top executive committee of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which includes President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal, resigned en masse on Saturday, state television reported. "The members of the executive committee resigned from their posts. It was decided to name Hossam Badrawi secretary general of the party," the regime's channel announced amid ongoing opposition street protests. Badrawi, who is reputed to have good relations with opposition figures, also replaces Gamal Mubarak as head of the party's political bureau, the station said.

WASHINGTON: New Egyptian vice president Omar Suleiman and top Egyptian military leaders are discussing plans to limit President Hosni Mubarak's authority and possibly remove him from the presidential palace in Cairo, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Citing unnamed US and Egyptian officials, the newspaper said these plans did not call for him to be removed from presidency immediately. But they would allow for the formation of a transitional government headed by Suleiman, which would negotiate with opposition figures amendments to Egypt's constitution and other democratic changes. In Cairo, state news agency MENA said Mubarak held talks with members of his newly-appointed cabinet but gave no further details. The ageing leader has shown no intention of stepping down imminently, despite huge demonstrations on Friday at Cairo's Tahrir Square -- the epicentre of the protests -- and in Alexandria. But The Times said that among the ideas that had been discussed were ...

BEIRUT: Over 1,000 protesters ascended on the Egyptian Embassy Friday for the seventh consecutive day of protests in solidarity with the Egyptian people. Masked youths appeared in the crowd shortly before 5 p.m., when they began throwing sticks at riot police, but scenes failed to descend into large-scale rioting after protest organizers took a firm stance against the violence and asked supporters to keep calm, with many protesters quickly dispersing. Five people were hospitalized following Thursdays demonstrations, with five more protesters reportedly temporarily detained by authorities. Violence for violence sake does not help anyone, it doesnt help the protest, it doesnt help our cause, said Omar Deeb, the head of the Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth. It can be a genuine expression of the popular frustration but the people making trouble today are just here for that purpose, they do not support the cause. The protest was organized by a collection of leftist, pro-March 8 and Islam...

CAIRO: Egyptian protesters massed Friday for sweeping " departure day" demonstrations to force President Hosni Mubarak to quit after he said he would like to step down but fears chaos would result. Tens of thousands filled Cairo's central Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the 11 straight days of protests that have shaken the pillars of Mubarak's three-decade rule, on the Muslim day of rest. At one end of the square the faithful prayed out in the open, beneath two traffic lights from each of which hung an effigy of Mubarak. "We were born free and we shall live free," prayer leader Khaled al-Marakbi said in his sermon. "I ask of you patience until victory." Worshippers used newspapers, banners or even Egyptian flags as impromptu prayer mats, reciting the traditional prayer for the dead in memory of the more than 300 people who have died since the protests erupted, sending shock waves around the world. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Kham...

TEHRAN: A wave of uprisings in Arab countries is a sign of an "Islamic awakening" which was envisaged when the 1979 Iranian revolution took place, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday. "Today's events in North Africa, Egypt and Tunisia and some other countries have different meanings for us," Khamenei, the commander-in-chief and spiritual guide of Iran, said in a sermon at Tehran university during the Muslim weekly prayers. "This is what was always talked about as the occurrence of Islamic awakening at the time of the Islamic revolution of the great Iranian nation and is showing itself today." Khamenei's remarks were received by cheering crowds of worshippers who, raising their hands, chanted "Death to America! Death to Israel!" The sermon marked the first time in seven months that Khamenei has addressed the weekly Friday prayers and came as protesters were massing in Egypt for sweeping "departure da...

CAIRO: Egypt's embattled President Hosni Mubarak's and his family's net worth is estimated to be between US dollars 40 and 70 billion, a media report said. The wealth of the Egypt's first family was built largely from military contracts during his days as an air force officer; Mubarak eventually diversified his investments through his family when he became president in 1981, the 'ABC News' quoted experts as saying. The family's net worth now ranges from US dollars 40 to 70 billion, by some estimates, the report said. Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton, said those estimates are comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries. "The business ventures from his military and government service accumulated to his personal wealth. There was a lot of corruption in this regime and stifling of public resources for personal gain," Jamal was quoted as saying. Jamal said that Mubarak's assets are most likely in ...

WASHINGTON: US officials said on Thursday they were discussing with Egyptians different scenarios for a transition of power, including one in which President Hosni Mubarak leaves office immediately. "That's one scenario," said a senior Obama administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "There are a number of scenarios, but (it is) wrong to suggest we have discussed only one with the Egyptians." The New York Times reported on Thursday the Obama administration was talking with Egyptian officials about a proposal for Mubarak to resign immediately. The White House would not confirm the Times report but said discussions have been under way with Egyptians in an attempt to resolve the 10-day crisis in Egypt. Violence has raged between pro- and anti-Mubarak demonstrators after Mubarak declared he would resist demands to leave now and would remain in power until September. Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said...

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has welcomed political reforms in Yemen in a call with his counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had announced not to seek re-election in 2013. "President Obama called President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen on February 2 to welcome the significant reform measures that President Saleh had announced earlier that day, and to stress that President Saleh now needs to follow-up his pledge with concrete actions," White House said in a statement. Obama asked Yemeni security forces to show restraint and refrain from violence against demonstrators, who are exercising their right to free association, assembly and speech. The US president told Saleh it is imperative that Yemen takes forceful action against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to protect innocent lives in Yemen as well as abroad. "President Obama expressed concern over the release of Abd-Ilah al-Shai, who had been sentenced to five years in prison for his association wi...

CAIRO: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which on Thursday refused dialogue with the embattled government that has banned but tolerated it for decades, is the country's strongest organized opposition group. Though it has adopted a low profile in the massive protests that have rocked President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old regime, it is sure to be a major force in any post-Mubarak Egypt, especially a democratic one. The group has been officially banned since the 1950s, but it counts hundreds of thousands of members and operates a vast network of social and religious outreach programs across the country. Founded by schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928 as a grass-roots movement opposed to colonialism and Zionism, the group has largely succeeded in its main goal of encouraging Egyptians to embrace Islam in public life. At the same time it has alarmed Western governments and some of its secular rivals with its anti-Israel rhetoric and calls for a more Islamic state. Mubarak'...

WASHINGTON: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday in an interview with ABC television that he wants to leave office, but fears there will be chaos if he resigns. The beleaguered Egyptian leader said he was "fed-up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot, he says, for fear that the country would sink into chaos," ABC's Christiane Amanpour reported after their 20-minute interview in Cairo. "I don't care what people say about me. Right now I care about my country, I care about Egypt," Mubarak said, as violent protests against his rule stretched into a 10th day. The veteran leader added: "I was very unhappy about yesterday. I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other."

A spate of ritual killings unnerves Liberia Killings in Liberia Feb 3rd 2011 | MONROVIA | from PRINT EDITION Tweet NOT rural superstition, but part of political life: body parts such as the heart, blood, tongue, lips, genitals and fingertips, all used in sorcery to bring wealth and power, are removed. Then the body is dumped. Such ritual killings are known in Liberia as gboyo. Since a case in the 1970s known as the Maryland murders, when seven people, including a parliamentarian and a senior policeman, were hanged for killing a fisherman, the practice has tainted politicians at the highest levels. As parliamentary and presidential polls this autumn draw near, politicians are again tempted to turn to the supernatural for help.Welemonger Ciapha, a seasoned newspaper man, says the killings are rampant and increasing. Local media report tens of cases each year. But many deaths are described as mur...

SANAA: Tens of thousands of protesters massed on Thursday at Sanaa University for a "day of rage" against Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule, while a similar number of loyalists flooded a central square in support of the embattled Yemeni president, AFP correspondents said. The protest, the biggest staged against Saleh in past weeks, came despite the president announcing Wednesday that he would not seek another term and that he had postponed controversial April elections -- two key opposition demands. Opposition leaders, who have been calling protesters onto the streets in a bid to force Saleh into making reforms, had said they would push on with Thursday's planned "day of rage" but that they would also study his latest announcements. Their plans were affected when armed supporters of Saleh's General People's Congress took over Al-Tahrir Square, the planned protest venue, on Wednesday night, setting up tents and carrying portraits of the president. Protes...

RANIA CAIRO: Firing from assault rifles targeted anti-government protesters in the Egyptian capital's Tahrir Square today apparently from supporters of the embattled President, killing at least six people as violence escalated just a day before the opposition's proposed massive rally on Friday to oust Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian army arrested people after violence was sparked by supporters loyal to Mubarak in Tahrir square on Thursday, Al Arabiya television reported, without giving numbers. Anti-government protesters who had camped out in the square after a peaceful protest on Tuesday have called on the army to intervene. When the violence erupted on Wednesday soldiers had not intervened. Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak had opened fire on protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Thursday, killing four people and wounding 13, witnesses and television said. It was the biggest spike in violence since protesters angered by oppression and hardship launched an unprece...

CAIRO: The fate of Egypt's pro-democracy movement may rest on the shoulders of the country's top soldier, who has so far refused to use force against protesters demanding the removal of President Hosni Mubarak. In a rare balancing act, Lieutenant General Sami Enan, the armed forces chiefof-staff, has won praise from both the US and a leading member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, who said he could be an acceptable successor to Mubarak. Enan was in Washington when anti-Mubarak demonstrations erupted last week in the wake of Tunisia's " Jasmine Revolution" that overthrew President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. The former air defence officer cut short his visit and rushed home before the military issued a crucial statement on Monday calling the protesters' demands legitimate and saying troops would not open fire on the people. Now that Mubarak has announced he will not seek re-election in September, the army is telling demonstrators their message has been hea...

CAIRO: Supporters of the Hosni Mubarak regime clashed with protesters in the capital`s Tahrir Squrare on Wednesday, hours after the president in a television address offered to quit by September but refused to flee the country. Protesters rejected the offer and insisted on the Friday ultimatum, though the army, popular with the people so far, appeared to go with the president in an unexpected twist. Opponents and supporters of Mubarak fought in central Cairo on Wednesday in what appeared to be a move by the strongman to stamp out nine days of protests. Protesters said some of the Mubarak supporters were members of the hated police forces in plainclothes. Some rode into the crowd on horses and camels and in horse-drawn carriages, wielding whips and sticks. People fought each other with fists, sticks and stones while troops surrounding the square made no attempt to intervene. The army, however, denied reports that troops had fired on protesters. Military spokesman Ismail Etman told...

CAIRO: Opponents and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak fought with fists, stones and clubs in Cairo on Wednesday as the Egyptian government rejected international calls for the leader to end his 30-year-rule now. Anti-Mubarak protesters said some of the attackers were members of the hated police force in plain clothes. In chaotic scenes in central Tahrir Square, some rode into the crowd on horses and camels and in carriages, wielding whips and sticks. Opposition figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate, called on the army intervene to stop the violence, the worst in the nine-day uprising against Mubarak since protesters fought street battles last Friday. But troops stood by and watched. The emergence of Mubarak loyalists, whether ordinary citizens or police, thrust a new dynamic into the momentous events in this Arab nation of 80 million people. The protests broke out last week as public frustration with corruption, oppression and economic hardship under Mubarak ...

CAIRO: Supporters of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak clashed violently with opposition protesters after marching into an anti-regime rally in Tahrir Square, an AFP correspondent said. Protesters from both sides threw stones at each other in the divided square, the epicentre of opposition demonstrations now in their ninth day. An AFP reporter said several people had been injured. "The pro-Mubarak NDP ( National Democratic Party) and the secret police dressed in plain clothes, they invaded the place to get rid of the revolt," protester Mohammed Zomor, 63, told AFP. Fighting took place around army tanks deployed around the square, with stones bouncing off the armoured vehicles. Soldiers did not intervene. Several groups were involved in fist fights, and some were using clubs. The opposition said in a statement that plain-clothes policemen stormed the square. "Members of security forces dressed in plain clothes and a number of thugs have stormed Tahrir Sq...

SANNA: Yemen's president has told parliament he will not seek another term in office or hand power to his son - an apparent reaction to protests in his own country that have been inspired by Tunisia's revolt and the turmoil in Egypt. The US-allied Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for nearly 32 years, spoke on Wednesday to lawmakers in both houses of the assembly. Saleh said, "I won't seek to extend my presidency for another term or have my son inherit it." Activists and opposition supporters have staged several protests in Sanaa, boldly asking for Saleh's removal and decrying reports he plans to install his son in power. The opposition has called for mass anti-Saleh rallies tomorrow in all provinces.

BEIRUT: Lebanon filed a complaint against Israel before the Security Council Tuesday through its permanent mission at the U.N. after an Israeli patrol entered Lebanese territories last month. On Jan. 24 an Israeli patrol in the occupied Shebaa Farms went beyond the technical fence and entered Lebanese territories near the town of Kfarshouba before retreating back to the occupied land. In its complaint, Lebanon considered the Jan. 24 incident as a clear violation of Lebanese sovereignty, Security Council Resolution 1701, international law and the U.N. Charter along with threatening international peace and security. The country has been in a state of cessation of hostilities with Israel after United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 ended Israels summer 2006 war against the country Also Tuesday, caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Shami telephoned Lebanons permanent representative at the U.N. in New York, Nawwaf Salam, asking him to arrange for an urgent meeting with U.N. chief Ban Ki-...

BEIRUT: The March 14 parties will either participate in the new government altogether or no one will, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Tuesday. He also said Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikatis nomination to form a new government was undemocratic. Participation in the government will either be with all the March 14 parties or no one will participate, Geagea told a news conference. He said so far, there has been no serious offer or proposal that encouraged the March 14 coalition to participate in the government. Geagea spoke a day after he and Kataeb (Phalange) Party leader Amin Gemayel met separately with Mikati to discuss the March 14 coalitions possible participation in the new government. He said the talks he and Gemayel held with Mikati were in agreement with all March 14 leaders. Mikati, who is backed by the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition, was designated by President Michel Sleiman on Jan. 25 to form a new government to replace caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariris topp...

WASHINGTON: The United States warned Tuesday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's offer to quit after September elections may be insufficient, as President Barack Obama prepared to speak on the crisis. Obama spent 80 minutes with his national security team plotting the next US move in the crisis, after nudging Mubarak to accept the end of his 30-year strongman rule, as a million Egyptian street protesters demanded his ouster. The president watched Mubarak tell the Egyptian people he would not run for reelection in September on television in the White House Situation Room, and planned to make his own on-camera comments around 6:30 pm (2330 GMT). In a first reaction to Mubarak's comments, a US official told AFP the Egyptian president's concession was "significant" in that it envisaged a transition to another government, but may not go far enough. "The president's announcement is significant, but the question is whether it will satisfy the demands...

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak came to power amid crisis three decades ago, a reassuring symbol of stability for many Egyptians as well as for Western leaders seeking a solid ally in the Middle East. Today, crisis again envelops Egypt, and Mubarak is widely seen as the root of the problem. In the span of his presidency, Mubarak, a former pilot and air force general with a combative, stubborn streak, took tentative steps toward democratic reform but then pulled back toward the authoritarianism that, coupled with poverty and a culture of corruption, helped drive Egyptian protesters into the streets. The prospect that Mubarak was grooming his son, Gamal, to succeed him left many Egyptians feeling that they were trapped in the past, deprived of the opportunity for change and renewal. Then, the uprising in Tunisia delivered an electrifying message: an old order can be ousted. Mubarak, 82, announced in a televised address Tuesday that he will not seek another term, but rejected demands...

GAZA CITY: Hamas police prevented a handful of people in Gaza from demonstrating in solidarity with the Egyptian protesters demanding President Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a Gaza activist said today. The West Bank's Palestinian Authority also squelched a pro-Egypt protest this week, showing the rival governments' fears that the massive anti-government protests in nearby Egypt could inspire Palestinians unhappy with their own leadership to rise up against it. Gaza activist Asma al-Ghoul said she and a small group of demonstrators had gathered Tuesday in central Gaza City when police came to stop them. She says police detained and roughed up some demonstrators. "Everyone should enjoy the right of freedom expression,'' she said, adding that female police harassed her for not covering her hair and accused her of being a bad Muslim. New York-based Human Rights watch called on Hamas to "stop arbitrarily interfering with peaceful demonstrations about Egypt or...

JERUSALEM: Israel expressed concern today that its natural gas supplies from Egypt could be threatened by the ongoing popular uprising to oust President Hosni Mubarak. "We again realise that the Middle East is not a stable region. We must act to ensure our energy security without relying on others," a spokesman for Israel's National infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said. Egypt currently supplies about 40 per cent of Israel's natural gas, and in December, four Israeli firms signed 20-year contracts worth up to USD 10 billion (7.4 billion euros) to import Egyptian gas. But with Egypt's political future uncertain, Israel is concerned that a new regime in Cairo might not respect the bilateral peace treaty signed three decades ago -- and with it, the crucial energy supplies. This feeling was heightened after leaders of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood called for Cairo to stop supplying Israel with gas. Yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expresse...

CAIRO: More than a quarter-million people flooded into the heart of Cairo Tuesday, filling the city's main square in by far the largest demonstration in a week of unceasing demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power. Protesters streamed into Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, among them people defying a government transportation shutdown to make their way from rural provinces in the Nile Delta. The peaceful crowd was jammed in shoulder to shoulder schoolteachers, farmers, unemployed university graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in high heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes. They sang nationalist songs and chanted the anti-Mubarak ``Leave! Leave! Leave!'' as military helicopters buzzed overhead. Organizers said the aim was to intensify marches to get the president out of power by Friday, and similar demonstrations erupted in at least five other cities around Egypt. Soldiers at checkpoints set up the...

CAIRO: Thousands of people converged on the heart of Cairo Tuesday to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years in power. Organizers hoped a million would turn out in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square to force out a man they blame for ignoring the needs of the poor and allowing corruption and official abuse to run rampant. Mubarak would be the second Arab leader pushed from office by a popular uprising in the history of the modern Middle East. Authorities tried to thwart the protest by shutting down all roads and public transportation to Cairo, security officials said. Train services nationwide were suspended for a second day and all bus services between cities were halted. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. . It's a day to the week after an extraordinary eruption of discontent and demands for democracy in the United States' most important Arab ally. The uprising is fueled by years of...

CAIRO: Preparations began Tuesday for the million people march in the Egyptian capital to oust President Hosni Mubarak as the army said that they will not "use force against the Egyptian people". Another million-strong march is being planned at the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. The fierce protests against Mubarak entered the eighth day Tuesday, with defiant demonstrators determined to end the octogenarian's 30-year rule. The protests received a shot in the arm when the army said "freedom of expression" was guaranteed to all citizens using peaceful means. "To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people" stress that "they have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people," said an army statement, reported Al Jazeera. The statement came just a day before the march of the million people was to take place. The media report said that another million-strong march was pla...

CAIRO: Egyptians on the streets of Cairo said they had reservations about opposition leader Mohamed El-Baradei, who has offered to act as transitional leader to prepare Egypt for democratic elections. ElBaradei said he had a mandate from opposition groups to make contact with the army and negotiate a government of national unity. An opposition party, Arab nationalist Karama Party of Hamdin Sabahi, has rejected ElBaradei as a transitional figure, saying he was trying to jump on the bandwagon of popular uprising. ElBaradei's cosmopolitanism he lived abroad for years is a source of suspicion among others.

WASHINGTON: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "will have to go," a top US lawmaker said Monday after a closed-doors Senate meeting on weeklong, deadly protests calling for the authoritarian leader's ouster. Mubarak "cannot afford to clamp down again, as he initially tried to do by deploying his security forces and shutting down access to the Internet," Senator Bill Nelson wrote in an opinion article after a closed doors meeting of the Select Committee on Intelligence on recent events in Egypt and Tunisia. "Instead, Mr Mubarak will have to go," Nelson added, though cautioning against the Egyptian government falling and "leaving the door open for extremists," such as the powerful Muslim Brotherhood opposition group. His statement came amid the seventh straight day of nationwide protests against Mubarak's three-decade rule that have shaken Egypt, and left at least 125 people dead as the veteran leader clings to power. US President Ba...

CAIRO: Egyptian protesters gave a call for a million people to pour onto the streets of Cairo tomorrow to put up a massive show of strength to force the beleaguered President Hosni Mubarak to leave the country by Friday. Upping the ante to topple Mubarak, a coalition of opposition parties, including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood also served an ultimatum telling the powerful army to choose between " Egypt or Mubarak", indicating that a decisive stage may be near as the death toll in the last six days of violence crossed 150. Anti- Mubarak sentiments reached a feverish pitch, as thousands of protesters converged on Tahrir or Liberation Square the hub of the protests in the heart of Cairo to make the call for a "million man march" tomorrow. They waved placards that the time had come for the Army to choose between "Egypt or Mubarak" as they defied assembled tanks and armoured carriers backing heavily armed contingents of Army, police and secret polic...

Egyptian protesters on Monday called for an indefinite strike in Egypt and a "million man march" on Tuesday in Cairo, upping the stakes in their bid to topple President Hosni Mubarak's regime. "It was decided overnight that there will be a million man march on Tuesday," Eid Mohammed, one of the protesters and organisers said. "We have also decided to begin an open ended general strike," he said. The strike was first called by workers in the canal city of Suez late on Sunday. "We will be joining the Suez workers and begin a general strike until our demands are met," Mohammed Waked, another protest organiser said. In Cairo's Tahrir square, hundreds of protesters camped out overnight, in a bid to keep up the biggest anti government protests in three decades. Embattled President Hosni Mubarak appointed the first vice president in his 30 year rule, and a new Prime Minister in a desperate attempt to hold on to power. The protesters ins...