Cuba unveils new business taxes

Egypt sees Qaeda link to blast; Europe warns Copts
By Marwa Awad Cairo | Tue Jan 4, 2011 2:03am EST Cairo (Reuters) - Egypt is screening people who arrived recently from countries where Al-Qaeda is known to recruit after early findings suggested the Militant network was behind a New Year's church bombing, security sources said. In Europe, authorities said they were pursuing threats against Coptic churches there, after militants said they would attack the Egyptian Christian denomination both in Egypt and among its diaspora communities. A suspe...

Anti-Christian drumbeat loud before Egypt attack
CAIRO (AP) — In the weeks before the New Year’s Day Suicide bombing of an Egyptian church, al-Qaida-linked websites were carrying a how-to manual on “destroying the cross,” complete with videos on how to build a bomb and the locations of churches to target — including the one that was attacked. They may have found a receptive audience in Alexandria, where increasingly radicalized Islamic hard-liners have been holding weekly anti-Christian demonstrations, filled with...

Anti-Christian drumbeat loud before Egypt attack
CAIRO - In the weeks before the New Year's Day Suicide bombing of an Egyptian church, al-Qaida-linked websites carried a how-to manual on "destroying the cross," complete with videos on how to build a bomb and the locations of churches to target — including the one that was attacked. They may have found a receptive audience in Alexandria, where increasingly radicalized Islamic hard-liners have been holding weekly anti-Christian demonstrations, filled with venomous slogans against the...

Did Islamist websites incite Egypt attack?
Updated 0 minutes ago 1/4/2011 11:12:45 PM +00:00 In the weeks before the New Year's Day Suicide bombing of an Egyptian church, al-Qaida-linked websites carried a how-to manual on "destroying the cross." Full story President Hosni Mubarak has accused foreign groups of being behind the attack, which has sparked a wave of angry Protests by Christians in Egypt calling for more protection. Billionaire Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Telecom, one of Egypt's biggest listed companies, has o...

US worried by rising anti-Christian attacks
The Obama Administration says it is "deeply concerned" by what appears to be a rising number of attacks on Christians in the Middle East and Africa. The State Department said Tuesday that the U.S. condemns religiously motivated violence and is disturbed by a recent string of attacks against Christians in Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria. Spokesman P.J. Crowley is calling for the governments in those countries to bring the perpetrators to justice. A radical Muslim sect in Nigeria has claimed numerous rece...

Christians pelt Egypt minister as fears unrest rise
Angry Christian demonstrators pelted an Egyptian minister with stones, as fears rose of sectarian unrest after a bombing at a church that killed 21 people. Hundreds of Coptic Christians gathered inside the gates of Cairo's St Mark's Cathedral where the Coptic pope, Shenouda III, has his headquarters and heckled officials who came to pay condolences. Demonstrators chased the state minister for Economic Development, Osman Mohammed Osman, to his car and pelted him with stones after he met Shenouda,...

Egypt on high alert ahead of Coptic Christmas
Egypt was on high alert on Monday ahead of the Coptic Christmas holiday following a New Year's Day church bombing that killed 21 people, as investigators raced to identify those behind the attack. Police cancelled leave for top officers and were tightening Surveillance of airports and ports to prevent suspects from leaving the country, as new checkpoints were set up across the nation. Security was also to be beefed up at churches for Christmas which Copts celebrate on January 7, security officia...

Egyptians fear religious clashes after bombing
Christians prayed on Sunday at a church targeted by an apparent Suicide Bomber who killed 21 people as Egypt pointed the finger of blame at international "Terrorism" and fears of sectarian violence mounted. "With our soul and our blood we will redeem the Holy Cross," the grieving congregation chanted at the Coptic Al-Qiddissin church in Alexandria at Sunday mass a day after the bombing. Bloodstains from Saturday's attack were still visible on the facade of the church where 21 people were killed ...

Lebanese political party: Egypt church bombing part of "hellish plotcrafted in the Zionist-American Greater Middle East project"
We are hearing this so often, it is clearly a line that some group has settled upon and sold to the rest. "Lebanese Political Party: 'The Alexandria Bombing Was an American-Zionist Production,'" from Translating Jihad, January 4: [...] (Link to original Arabic.) Lebanese Popular Congress: The Alexandria Bombing Was an American-Zionist Production alintiqad.com, 3 Jan 2011 The Lebanese Popular Congress opined that "the wicked Terrorist bombing which targeted Christian worshipers in the Churches...

Video of Coptic Church bombing and letter from a Copt
Here's another video of the aftermath of the car bombing outside a Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt late Friday night. Note what they're clearly screaming in the background in the last 3-4 seconds. Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit). Allahu Akhbar (God is great - the Muslim 'martyrdom' cry). I was also asked to blog about this letter from a Coptic Christian. It was written to President Obama on Friday, December 24, and it was prophetic. Coptic Christians have been the Victim...

Suicide bombing opens vein of Christian anger in Egypt
CAIRO — The New Year's Day Suicide bombing of a church that killed 21 people has opened up a vein of fury among Egypt's Christians, built up over years of what they call government failure to address persistent Discrimination and violence against their community. Christian Protests spread to Cairo from the northern city of Alexandria where the attack took place. Late Sunday, riots erupted outside the cathedral-headquarters of the Coptic Church after the country's top Muslim religious figure...

U.S. State Department Very Wary Recent Slaughter of Christians in Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria Are Connected
It’s called Jihad. WASHINGTON (AFP)- The United States said Tuesday it is “deeply concerned” about the rise in attacks against Christians in parts of the Middle East and Africa. “We are certainly aware of a recent string of attacks against Christians from Iraq to Egypt to Nigeria,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. “We are deeply concerned about what seems to be an increasing trend.” Crowley, speaking to reporters, said the US State D...

Al-Qaeda sites ID'd attacked church
CAIRO — In the weeks before the New Year’s Day Suicide bombing of an Egyptian church, al-Qaida-linked websites carried a how-to manual on "destroying the cross," complete with videos on how to build a bomb and the locations of churches to target — including the one that was attacked. They may have found a receptive audience in Alexandria, where increasingly radicalized Islamic hard-liners have been holding weekly anti-Christian demonstrations, filled with venomous slogans again...

Bozell Column: War In the Mideast -- On Christians
Our national media elite reviewed 2010 with great sorrow for how America has besmirched itself in the eyes of the world with its “seething hatred” of Muslims. CBS anchor Katie Couric announced on her Internet show that there wasn't enough evaluation of“this Bigotry toward 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide” which was “so misdirected, and so wrong -- and so disappointing.” Couric even embarrassed herself by suggesting "Maybe we need a Muslim version of The ...

Bozell Column: War In the Mideast -- On Christians
Our national media elite reviewed 2010 with great sorrow for how America has besmirched itself in the eyes of the world with its “seething hatred” of Muslims. CBS anchor Katie Couric announced on her Internet show that there wasn't enough evaluation of“this Bigotry toward 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide” which was “so misdirected, and so wrong -- and so disappointing.” Couric even embarrassed herself by suggesting "Maybe we need a Muslim version of The ...

EGYPT: "stability & succession"
Oxford Analytica/ Excerpts: "... Some news agencies have reported that an al-Qaida-linked group called Markaz al-Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombing follows calls by al-Qaida affiliates in Iraq for attacks on Christians, and has caused a sharp escalation of the sectarian problem in Egypt. ... The January 1 bombing represents a dual challenge for the government. The possibility of al-Qaida inspiration or even involvement in ...

The survivors: Portraits of Baghdad
VIEW THE PHOTOS AT VII MAGAZINE Need to Know presents VII Magazine, a journalistic partnership with VII Photo, giving our readers unprecedented intimate access to the work of the world’s leading photojournalists. Every day, our partners at VII will showcase a new photo, and each week, a new video or audio slideshow. This week: Photographer Franco Pagetti’s series of black-and-white portraits capture the faces of ordinary Iraqis in Baghdad — a butcher, a tea seller, a fishmonger, a ba...

Bombing opens vein of Christian anger in Egypt
Cairo -- The New Year's Day Suicide bombing of a church that killed 21 people has opened up a vein of fury among Egypt's Christians, built up over years of what they call government failure to address persistent Discrimination and violence against their community. Christian Protests spread to Cairo from the northern city of Alexandria where the attack took place. Late Sunday, riots erupted outside the cathedral-headquarters of the Coptic Church after the country's top Muslim religious figures ...

The Arab World Incubator of Innovation in Terrorism
It's been a very long time since Arabic-speaking peoples brought benefit to humanity by, say, developing new medicines and technology or advancing Democracy and Human Rights. Indeed, the area where the Arabophones seem most adept at innovation would be Terrorism. Airplane hijackings, Suicide bombings, and mega-terrorism are among their claims to originality. And now comes the wave of Suicide Bombers. Note the news from Iraq, "3 Suicide bombers used to kill tenacious Iraqi cop," concerning the as...

Coptic church bombing in Egypt: Mubarak must prosecute
Minority Christians -- called Copts -- rightly complain that no one goes to jail for religious attacks on them. Egypt and other countries must reverse this practice of impunity for perpetrators....

Egypt's Christians pick up the pieces after deadly News Year's Eve church bombing
Priests called for calm as mourners gathered Sunday at the scene of the New Year's Eve church bombing that killed 21 and wounded 90 in Alexandria, Egypt....

Christians demonstrate in south Egypt
ASSIUT, Egypt - About 500 young Egyptian Christians have defied a call by their leaders to avoid demonstrations and descended into the main streets of this southern city protesting the New Year's Day church bombing that killed 21. The demonstrators gathered Tuesday evening in front of the ruling party's headquarters in the city of Assuit, which has a large Christian population, shouting slogans and vowing to protect the cross with their "blood and souls." Many Christians blame the governme...

Egypt holds 7 in attack on Christians
Image via Wikipedia Guardian: Egyptian security forces today were holding seven people in connection with the Terrorist bombing of a church in Alexandria that killed 21 people, in Egypt's worst sectarian violence in a decade. The Suicide Attack in the Mediterranean port city struck Coptic Christian worshippers as they were leaving midnight mass about 30 minutes into the new year. President Hosni Mubarak condemned what he called an attack "on all Egyptians" by "foreign elements". Officials earl...

Muslims: Alexandria Coptic Christian Church Massacre Was Done by Mossad
Herald Sun. Following the New Year’s Eve massacre of a score of Coptic Christian worshippers outside a church in Alexandria, Egyptians are wasting no time fingering the likely culprit. “With careful consideration,” observes commentator Ammar Ali Hassan in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, ”the incident could lead to other interpretations, especially the application of the Zionist Conspiracy against national unity in Egypt.” Going one better, Essam El-Irian, a senior member o

Pope Warns of "Christianophobia"
On Monday, December 20 of the year just past, Pope Benedict XVI met in the Vatican’s Regia Hall with his College of Cardinals and members of the Roman Curia for the traditional exchange of Christmas greetings. This ceremony has become one in which the Supreme Pontiff reflects on the meaning of the past year, by highlighting what he recalls as most significant in it. The Pope’s reflections on this occasion were reproduced in L’Osservatore Romano in the last edition of the year. ...