From Al-Jazeera…
Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader, has told Israel that it could face another Palestinian uprising unless conditions in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank improve.
Meshaal said that the continuation of an international economic embargo of the Palestinian government and military actions by Israel would present a catalyst for such actions.
He said that current conditions would “give notice to a huge explosion that would not only affect the Palestinians but also the entire region, especially the Zionist entity”.
Click on Latuff’s cartoon below to read the full report…
The textile workers at Mansoura-Spain Company in Daqahliya continue their strike, while their bretheren at the Trust Company in Suez are still staging their a sit-in…
More details from Al-Masry Al-Youm here…
Agents from the Omraniya Police Station arrested yesterday a number of garbage collectors, who are involved in the ongoing strike over unpaid salaries, and transferred them to the 6th of October Prosecutor’s Office, on charges of illegal assembly. The police had invited a number of strikers to the station for negotiations with the company managers. When the strikers arrived, they found out it was a trap, and the police detained them immediately.
More details from Al-Masry Al-Youm could be found in Arabic here…
Egyptian bloggers will hold a “wedding party” in Talaat Harb Sq., Friday 4 May, 6pm, to celebrate the marriage of our future president Gamal Mubarak to the lovely Khadiga, which will be held simultaneously in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The bloggers’ protest party will be held under the slogan: “Heyya ah! Baladna La!” (basically: Go and marry her, but don’t marry our country!”
Click on the banner below to read more details in Arabic.
Mabrouk lil 3aroussein.
From Al-Jazeera…
The Egyptian Shurah Council has approved in principle amendments to the judicial system law, extending the retirement age for judges from 68 to 70.
The decision on Sunday triggered the Egyptian Judges’ Club to hold an emergency general assembly to protest against the move which is seen as an attempt to keep the ruling party in power.
The judges discussed what steps to take to declare their rejection of the amendments proposed by the ruling National Democratic party.
The club is an elected body which oversees the independence of the judicial system and takes care of the interests of Egyptian judges.
Dozens of judges attended the assembly to protest against the amendments to the law, which include raising the age of retirement, something that means that the five top judges who are controlling the judicial system in Egypt at present and who are loyal to the government, will remain in their posts for two more years.
Click on Fathi Abul Ezz’s cartoon below to read the full report…
From Reuters…
An Egyptian court has ruled that the state has no obligation to recognise the right of Christians who convert to Islam to change their minds and revert to Christianity, a human rights group said on Sunday.
The Court of Administrative Justice ruled that recognising such changes of religion would violate a ban on apostasy which most Muslim jurists say is part of Islamic law, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said in a statement.
The ruling reverses the position the same court had held up to September 2006, when the former president of the court retired. In 22 previous rulings the court had said that refusing to recognise a citizen’s reversion to Christianity was unjustified interference by the state and a form of coercion.
Click on the photo below to read the full report…
[Above: A mosque neighboring a church on Dahab Island, Nile. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]
I’ve just received news from blogger Ibrahim el-Hodeiby that 14 Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including two parliamentarians, were detained in the Nile Delta province of Menoufiya, roughly an hour ago.
No more details available yet…
UPDATE: Ikhwan Web posted a report with the names of activists and MPs rounded up by Mubarak’s Gestapo…
UPDATE: HR-INFO denounced the arrests. Click on Fathi Abul Ezz’s cartoon below to read the statement…
