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| Police and Christian men face off after attack in northern city of Alexandria kills at least 21 people. Last Modified: 02 Jan 2011 03:25 GMT | ||||
Clashes have flared in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, following a car bombing outside a Coptic Christian church that killed 21 and wounded 97 people. Police and Christian men faced off late on Saturday afternoon, with reports of rubber-coated bullets and tear gas being fired at crowds of young men. Reporting for Al Jazeera, Nadia Abou El-Meg, a journalist in Alexandria, said: "This scene [of clashes] has been [witnessed] several times today. The protesters started gathering and throwing stones ... the police responded with tear gas. "Tension is running very high and people are very angry ... We saw a lot of people weeping and screaming and asking why are they being attacked. "The church has issued a statement which was also very angry, demanding justice, and criticising the performance of the government. "More and more people are gathering as the night is falling. Many people are not buying this idea of the suicide bomber." The Copts are the biggest Christian community in the Middle East and account for up to 10 per cent of Egypt's 80m population. No bombing claim There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's bombing, which came as nearly 1,000 faithful left the Qiddissine Church, located in Alexandria's Sidi Bechr district. According to the Egyptian interior ministry, the car that exploded was parked in front of the church. After the blast occurred early on Saturday morning, enraged Christians emerging from the Qiddissine Church fought with police and stormed a nearby mosque.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the Egyptian capital Cairo, said that the car bomb probably involved sophisticated remote-control timer technology. "Churches in Egypt are heavily guarded, so undoubtedly questions will arise about how a car was parked so close to the church and who was able to detonate it from a distance," he said. While it was not known who was responsible for the blast, a group calling itself al-Qaeda in Iraq had threatened the country's Coptic Christian community. The Egyptian interior ministry blamed the bombing on "foreign elements". Adel Labib, Alexandria's governor, has linked the attack to al-Qaida, but our correspondent says the government has not made clear who they were blaming for the bombing. Plea for protection The attack in Egypt prompted Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican to call for Christians throughout the Middle East to be protected. The bombing comes almost two months to the day after an October 31 attack by Muslim fighters on Our Lady of Salvation church in central Baghdad, which left 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security forces members dead. Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate claimed responsibility for that attack and made new threats against Christians. The group threatened to attack Egyptian Copts if their church did not free two Christians it said had been "imprisoned in their monasteries" for having converted to Islam. The two women were Camilia Chehata and Wafa Constantine, the wives of Coptic priests whose claimed conversion caused a stir in Egypt. Protection around Copt places of worship was discreetly stepped up after the threats, as Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, said he was committed to protecting the Christians "faced with the forces of terrorism and extremism". Egypt's Coptic Christians often complain of discrimination and have been the target of religious violence. Repeated clashes In 2006 a man attacked worshippers in three churches in Alexandria, killing one person and wounding others. Authorities said at the time he had "psychiatric problems" but this was rejected by the Coptic community. Clashes broke out between Copts and Muslims the following day at the funeral of the victim, with one person killed and several wounded. In November clashes took place in a southwestern neighbourhood of Cairo between Coptic demonstrators and police after local authorities refused to allow a community centre to be transformed into a church. Two Christians died and dozens were wounded. | ||||
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| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Clashes follow Egypt church bombing
S Koreans protest at tense border
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| Activists from South Korea agitate at the tense border with the north, after a stern New Year's message from Pyongyang. Last Modified: 02 Jan 2011 10:10 GMT | ||
South Korean activists have rallied against North Korea near the heavily fortified border, burning placards with the images of North Korean leaders. The activists criticised leader Kim Jong-il over North Korea's artillery attack on the South in November during a rally at the South Korean border town of Imjingak on Sunday. Thwarted by strong winds, the activists also unsuccessfully tried to launch thousands of propaganda leaflets in balloons toward North Korea. The activists also burned placards with the images of a North Korean national flag and the photos of Kim and his son and heir-apparent Kim Jong-un before flying the balloons. Korean tensions For its part, North Korea welcomed the new year on Saturday with a push for better ties with rival South Korea, warning that war "will bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust". Despite calls in its annual New Year's message for a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons, the North, which has conducted two nuclear tests since 2006, also said its military was ready for "prompt, merciless and annihilatory action" against its enemies. The North's holiday message comes in the wake of its November 23 artillery attack on a front-line South Korean island near the countries' disputed western sea border. That barrage, which followed an alleged North Korean torpedoing of a South Korean warship in March, sent tensions between the Koreas soaring and fuelled fears of war during the last weeks of 2010. In a joint editorial in three newspapers, carried in the official Korean Central News Agency, the North said confrontation between the two Koreas should be quickly defused and called for a push to improve Korean relations. South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said its officials were in the process of analysing the North's message. Four South Koreans, including two civilians, were killed in the November shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, which North Korea carried out after warning Seoul against conducting live-fire drills there. The attack was the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War. Possible escalation The South Korean government has strengthened security and deployed additional troops and weaponry to Yeonpyeong, which lies just 11km from North Korean shores. North Korea does not recognise the maritime border drawn by the UN in 1953, and it claims the waters around the island as its own. The Korean peninsula remains technically in a state of war because the conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme have been stalled for nearly two years. Washington and Seoul, however, are insisting that the North make progress on past disarmament commitments before negotiations can resume. North Korea also stoked new worries about its nuclear programme in November when it revealed a uranium enrichment facility - which could give it a second way to make atomic bombs. North Korea is believed to have enough weaponised plutonium for at least a half-dozen atomic bombs. | ||
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| Source: Agencies |
Iranian pleads for mom's life
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| The son of the Iranian woman convicted to death by stoning hopes for a less harsh sentence for her crimes. Last Modified: 02 Jan 2011 09:00 GMT | ||
The son of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery has appealed for his mother's sentence to be commuted. "I have said that I do not think that my mother is innocent. She is certainly guilty," Sajjad Qaderzadeh, son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, said on Saturday. "However, the decision has to be made by our country's officials. They may change the stoning sentence to some other verdict." Speaking from Tabriz, in northwestern Iran, Qaderzadeh told foreign media his mother had violated Islamic law, but called for compassion and forgiveness. Ashtiani was allowed out on prison leave to have dinner with her daughter and son on Saturday, hours after he had appealed to the judiciary to spare her life. Journalists were allowed to meet her briefly the same day, when she again confessed to being an accomplice in the murder of her husband, while maintaining that it was her lover who did the actual killing. "In my opinion my mother is also guilty but since we have lost our father we do not want to lose our mother too. Consequently, we ask for a commutation of the penalty," Qaderzadeh said. Qaderzadeh was arrested in October after he discussed his mother's case with two German journalists, who were taken into custody for having entered the country on tourist visas but working as journalists. He was freed on a $40,000 bail on December 12, but the journalists remain in custody. Ashtiani further said that she advised her son to sue the German journalists, who "embarrassed" her. "I want my voice to be heard. I want to complain about the German reporters who made this case even more complicated and worsened my situation," Ashtiani said. She also denied ever having been tortured during her time in prison, as had been alleged by her former lawyer. Condemned to death Ashitani has been sentenced to death twice. The first court decision to hang her for the murder of her husband was commuted to a 10-year jail sentence by an appeals court in 2007. She was later condemned to die by stoning for adultery, a sentence which was upheld by another appeals court. In the face of international outrage the sentence was suspended and is under review by Iran's supreme court, but she still faces possible execution. It was not immediately clear when Ashtiani would return to prison. "The stoning sentence is on the file but it may not be carried out. At least this is what we are hoping," Qaderzadeh added. Stoning was widely imposed in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution, and even though Iran's judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are often converted to other punishments. The last known stoning was carried out in 2007, although the government rarely confirms that such punishments have been meted out. Under Islamic rulings, an adulterer is usually buried up to his waist, while an adulteress is buried up to her chest with her hands also buried. Those carrying out the verdict then throw stones until the condemned dies. | ||
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| Source: Agencies | ||
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Activists clash with Japan whalers
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| Japanese fishing ships and environmental activists clash in the southern seas over whale hunting. Last Modified: 02 Jan 2011 11:21 GMT | ||
Environmental activists and Japanese whalers both released videos on Saturday, showing a confrontation in waters 3 000 kiliometres south of New Zealand. The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), authorised to catch whales by the country's Ministry of Fisheries, clashed with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Sea Shepherd alleged that the whalers turned water cannon and hoses on their crew, while whalers accuse the group of pelting their hunting fleet with "some rather unpleasant foul-smelling substances," they said in a statement. A Sea Shepherd spokesman was unable to confirm what was thrown, but in previous years the activists have tossed rancid butter, or butyric acid, stink bombs at the whalers to make their decks unusable for slaughtering whales. The conservationist group has been chasing the fleet in the hope of interrupting Japan's annual whale hunt, which kills up to 1 000 whales a year. Whalers accuse the activists of using dangerous tactics. Every year, Japan and Sea Shepherd make claims of aggression against each other, but the accounts are generally impossible to verify. Their skirmishes take place in an extremely remote part of the ocean off Antarctica. The Japanese are allowed to harvest a quota of whales under a ruling by the International Whaling Commission, as long as the mammals are caught for research and not commercial purposes. Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan, which critics say is the real reason for the hunts. Each hunting season runs from about December through February. Locky MacLean, the captain of the Sea Shepherd's 'Gojira' vessel, said the society's three boats had been "dancing dangerously through the ice packs locked in confrontation with the three harpoon ships". "It was both deadly and beautiful," he said in a statement on the society's website. "Deadly because of the ice and the hostility of the whalers and beautiful because of the ice, and the fact that these three killer ships are not killing whales while clashing with us." "Our objective is to save the maximum number of whales and to maximise the financial losses of the whalers at the same time," Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd president, said in a statement. However the Japan fisheries agency was quoted as saying: "The repeated obstructive behaviour against legitimate research activities is extremely dangerous action that threatens the vessels and the lives and property of their crew members." Previously, the two sides have clashed violently; last year, a Sea Shepherd boat was sunk after its bow was sheared off in a collision with a whaling ship. Australia has taken legal action against Japan to prevent it from hunting whales by exploiting a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium which allows whaling for research purposes. | ||
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| Source: Agencies |
Probe into Palestinian's gas death
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| Israeli military launches probe into the death of a Palestinian protester as her family claims a cover-up. Last Modified: 02 Jan 2011 10:49 GMT | ||
The Israeli military has said it will investigate the death of a Palestinian woman killed during a West Bank protest amid accusations of a cover-up. Palestinian doctors said Jawaher Abu Rahmeh, 36, died after inhaling tear gas at the protest against Israel's separation barrier in the village of Bilin on Friday. There were conflicting reports of the incident and the exact circumstances of the incident remain unclear. Doctors say tear gas can kill if a victim has a pre-existing condition. Mohammed Eideh, the doctor who treated Abu Rahmeh in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, said she had asthma, but her parents denied it. On Sunday Michael Sfar, the lawyer for the family, accused the Israeli army of "lying" about the circumstances surrounding Abu Rahmeh's death and of "using a massive amount of gas" during the protest. "Once again the army is covering up the actions of its men, instead of apologising and conducting a serious inquiry," he told Israel's army radio. Israeli investigation The military said an "investigation has been opened to determine the exact cause of death" but added that it has not been allowed to see the Palestinian medical reports. On Friday, the Israeli military said it had used unspecified "means of dispersing demonstrations" against some 250 violent protesters taking part in a weekly rally against the barrier. On Saturday hundreds of Palestinians joined Abu Rahmeh's funeral procession, condemning her death as a "war crime" by the Israelis. "We condemn this abominable crime by the Israeli occupation army in Bilin against people taking part in a peaceful demonstration and consider it an Israeli war crime against our people," Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief peace negotiator, told AFP. A member of Abu Rahmeh's family said there were "too many forces from the occupation guarding the apartheid wall, and they started shooting, so many, so many gas (canisters) mixed with smelly water". "And this large amount of gas caused many protesters a fealing of suffocation, and it killed Jawaher," said Rateb, a family member. "And immediately we moved her to the Palestinian medical centre." Deadly protests Abu Rahmeh's brother Bassem, in his 20s, was killed in 2009 after a tear gas canister struck him in the chest. Nearly 200 demonstrators gathered in the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, on Saturday to protest against Abu Rahmeh's death. A dozen people were arrested, according to AFP. Following the incident, Jonathan Pollak, an anti-barrier activist, said Abu Rahmeh's death was caused by the brutality of the Israeli army. "This death was caused by the fact that they are using tear gas that was banned in Europe in the 60s and 70s, because it is lethal. But here, on Palestinians, they continue using it," he said. Israel says the projected 723 kilometres of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire which it started building in 2004 is needed as a security measure to prevent suicide bombers from reaching its cities. The Palestinians see it as a land grab that undermines their promised state. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a non-binding ruling in 2004 calling for parts of the barrier inside the West Bank to be torn down and for further construction in the territory to cease. Israel has ignored the ruling. Violence in the West Bank has largely tapered off in the past few years as a result of Israeli security measures and a bolstered Palestinian police force. But tensions are on the rise along Israel's border with Hamas-ruled Gaza, where armed groups have been firing rockets at Israeli towns, prompting deadly Israeli air strikes. In an unrelated incident on Sunday, a Palestinian man was killed at a West Bank checkpoint, according to Palestinian and Israeli security officials. A Palestinian worker in his 20s reportedly attacked soldiers with a glass bottle after he was denied permission to cross, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli military said the man ignored calls to stop before he was shot. | ||
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| Source: Agencies |
Gbagbo using "stalling tactics"
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| Outtara camp urges "legitimate force" to remove Laurent Gbagbo from power in Cote d'Ivoire. Last Modified: 02 Jan 2011 04:23 GMT | ||
Supporters of the Ivorian incumbent president who were called on to remove his rival Alassane Ouattara from the Golf Hotel failed to meet the January 1 deadline. The hotel is guarded by combat-ready UN troops. Meanwhile, a top ally of Ouattara, widely recognised as Cote d'Ivoire's president, has said that Laurent Gbagbo is using stalling tactics to stay in power and urged the international community to intervene with "legitimate force'' to remove him. Ouattara's Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, told The Associated Press news agency on Saturday that Gbagbo would only leave power by force and that the international community will have to intervene to protect democracy in Africa. "It was this same type of distracting proposition that he used to hold on for five years without an election,'' Soro said. "Enough is enough. Mr Gbagbo must leave power." "I therefore extend my hand so we can talk," he said. The UN has said the volatile West African nation, once divided in two, faces a real risk of return to civil war, but Soro said this war has already begun. "In any country that records more than 200 dead in five days, as the UN has certified, it's war. When a country experiences a massive population flight of the population - more than 20,000 Ivoirians who leave their country to seek refuge in a country like Liberia - it's war," he said. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, spoke with Ouattara by telephone and assured him that the international community was working to try to end the stalemate in Cote d'Ivoire. Ban said he appreciated "the restraint and patience being shown even in the face of provocative acts'' and reaffirmed the United Nations' "principled and unwavering position on upholding the election outcome'' that should have put Ouattara in office. Human rights violations The secretary-general also expressed concern about reports of human rights violations and pledge that UN security forces would do their best to document abuses and prevent further atrocities. Human rights groups accuse incumbent Gbagbo's security forces of abducting and killing political opponents, though Gbagbo allies deny the allegations and say some of the victims were security forces killed by protesters. The UN has confirmed at least 173 deaths. Gbagbo gave an address late on Friday on state television in which he accused the international community of mounting a coup d'etat to oust him and said Ivorians were being subjected to international hostility. "No one has the right to call on foreign armies to invade his country,'' Gbagbo said. "Our greatest duty to our country is to defend it from foreign attack." The United Nations had been invited by all parties to certify the results of the November 28 presidential runoff vote. The UN declared Ouattara the winner, endorsing the announcement by the country's electoral commission. Sanctions The European Union said late Friday that it had approved sanctions on 59 more people, in addition to 19 already sanctioned last week including Gbagbo and his wife. Gbagbo and about 30 of his allies also face US travel sanctions, though such measures have typically failed to reverse illegal power grabs in Africa in the past. West African leaders have said they are prepared to use military force to push Gbagbo out, but are giving negotiations more time for now. For many, the credibility of the international community is at stake if it is unable to ensure that Ouattara takes power. Gbagbo points to Cote d'Ivoire's constitutional council, which declared him president after throwing out more than half a million votes from Ouattara strongholds. The council invalidated election results in those areas, citing violence and intimidation directed at Gbagbo supporters. | ||
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| Source: Agencies |
Mass held at bombed Egyptian church
| Christians attend Sunday service at Coptic church in Alexandria struck by New Year's car bomb. Last Modified: 02 Jan 2011 11:09 GMT | ||||
Congregants were back praying in a church targeted a day earlier in a bomb blast that killed 21 and wounded 97 people. Dozens attended Sunday Mass at Al-Qiddissine church in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria while riot police backed by armored vehicles were deployed outside. Meanwhile, Egyptian security sources said they had arrested 17 people suspected of involvement in the bombing. Sunday's service was marked by the grief and anger felt by a congregation devastated by the attack, which took place on Saturday outside the church's door about 30 minutes into the New Year. Many sobbed while others cried hysterically, screamed in anger or slapped themselves. "We spend every feast in grief," Sohair Fawzy, who lost two sisters and a niece in the attack, said. Grim reminders of the attack remained in the church a day after the bombing. Its ground floor was stained with the blood of victims brought inside immediately after the attack. Two statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary were toppled and the benches were scattered by the impact of the blast. And a "2011" sign hung on the inside of the church's door was torn apart. The attack Saturday was the worst violence against Egypt's Christian minority in a decade. It sparked clashes between riot police and Christians who say the government hasn't done enough to protect them. The Copts are the biggest Christian community in the Middle East and account for up to 10 per cent of Egypt's 80 million population. No bombing claim There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's bombing, which came as nearly 1,000 faithful left Al-Qiddissine Church, located in Alexandria's Sidi Bechr district. According to the Egyptian interior ministry, the car that exploded was parked in front of the church. After the blast occurred early on Saturday morning, enraged Christians emerging from the church fought with police and stormed a nearby mosque.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the Egyptian capital Cairo, said that the car bomb probably involved sophisticated remote-control timer technology. "Churches in Egypt are heavily guarded, so undoubtedly questions will arise about how a car was parked so close to the church and who was able to detonate it from a distance," he said. While it was not known who was responsible for the blast, a group calling itself "al-Qaeda in Iraq" had threatened the country's Coptic Christian community. The Egyptian interior ministry blamed the bombing on "foreign elements". Adel Labib, Alexandria's governor, has linked the attack to al-Qaida, but our correspondent says the government has not made clear who they were blaming for the bombing. Egypt's government has long insisted that the terror network does not have a significant presence in the country, and it has never been conclusively linked to any attacks here. Plea for protection The attack in Egypt prompted Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican to call for Christians throughout the Middle East to be protected. The bombing comes almost two months to the day after an October 31 attack by Muslim fighters on Our Lady of Salvation church in central Baghdad, which left 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security forces members dead. Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate claimed responsibility for that attack and made new threats against Christians. The group threatened to attack Egyptian Copts if their church did not free two Christians it said had been "imprisoned in their monasteries" for having converted to Islam. The two women were Camilia Chehata and Wafa Constantine, the wives of Coptic priests whose claimed conversion caused a stir in Egypt. Protection around Copt places of worship was discreetly stepped up after the threats, as Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, said he was committed to protecting the Christians "faced with the forces of terrorism and extremism". | ||||
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| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
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