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Egypt Protests

December 18, 2011 by · Comments Off on Egypt Protests 

Egypt Protests, Troops and protesters clashed Sunday in Cairo for the third straight day, pelting each other with rocks in skirmishes near parliament in the heart of the Egyptian capital.

At least 10 protesters have been killed and 441 others wounded in the three days of violence, according to the Health Ministry. Activists say most of the 10 fatalities died of gunshot wounds.

The clashes began early Friday when one of several hundred peaceful protesters staging a sit-in outside the Cabinet offices near parliament was detained and beaten by troops. The protesters began their sit-in three weeks ago to demand that the nation’s ruling military, which took over after longtime leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February, immediately step down and hand over power to a civilian administration.

Sunday’s renewed clashes were taking place as unofficial results from a second round of voting in parliamentary elections showed Islamist parties, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, continuing their dominance at the polls.

The third and final round of voting is slated for next month in nine of Egypt’s 27 provinces.

What is Going on in Egypt

January 29, 2011 by · Comments Off on What is Going on in Egypt 

What is Going on in Egypt, Communication is in many ways the most powerful tool available to both entrenched power and pushy. However control of the communications tends to be firmly in the hands of the former. Example: According to reports on the Internet for days, the Egyptian government has been blocking access within its borders to social networks, including Twitter and Facebook.

Over the past two days, about 20,000 demonstrators in Egypt, inspired by the recent protests against the corruption of the Tunisian government, marched to the end of the dictatorship of 30 years to 82 years, President Hosni Mubarak in cities including Alexandria, Suez and North Sinai. Demonstrators hold regime largely responsible for the poverty of the country, high food prices, corruption and mismanagement of the Mubarak government.

“Down with Hosni Mubarak, down with the tyrant,” they reportedly chanted. “We do not want you.”

Many protesters were met by measures such as riot control tear gas guns and water: 860 people have been arrested so far and at least three were killed on both sides of the event: Two protesters were fatally injured by rubber bullets and a policeman was hit in the head.

As part of its strategy to quash the protests, the government has blocked local access first to Twitter, Facebook, and then hours later when a certain extent, the demonstrations were organized in advance.

“We can confirm that Twitter has been blocked in Egypt around 8:00 PT today,” the company tweeted @ twitterglobalpr handle. “It has an impact on applications Twitter.com @. … We believe that free trade benefits of views info & & Govt helps companies communicate better w / their people.”

The power of Facebook users declined Egyptian requests for posting that called, among other things, Mubarak and the resignations of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, the dissolution of parliament of the country, and the subsequent creation of a new government. The block also affected access to pages like “We’re all,” said Khaled, “inspired by the death of an Egyptian man allegedly tortured and killed by a police Alexandria. Reported by TechCrunch as a major contributor to online mobilization events, the page has 18,200-plus fans and features continuously updated with photos and video. (In fact, as of the publication, the page reported that the local mobile operator Vodafone Egypt was ordered by the government to also block Gmail, Google Chat (GOOG), and access to other sites not specified.)

(AP) – Tunisia is the new foreign minister says his country is not going to lecture on what the Egyptians to their countries should be taken following protests this week against the government.

The two Arab countries are different and each must make their own way, Ounaies Ahmed told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. Tunisia protests toppled longtime autocratic leader country two weeks ago, while Egypt is in chaos amid protests against the government’s largest ever faced by the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

“It belongs to the Egyptian people to decide their present and future for themselves,” Ounaies, a career diplomat and a political independent, said. “We will not decide for them or give them lessons.”

Violent protests in Tunisia led to the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14 after 23 years in power. Ounaies, a political independent, was appointed to the interim government Thursday in a reorganization that has declined most of the old guard Ben Ali to the lineup.

Only three ministers in the current interim government have roots in the party of Ali Ben RCD, compared to 10 in the previous short-lived Cabinet that was formed shortly after the ouster of Bin Ali. The protesters continued even after the departure of Ben Ali, protesters angry that the old guard had retained positions of power.

The agitation has subsided, but has not entirely disappeared. After sunset, hundreds of young people clashed with police in the capital, throwing stones. Police responded with tear gas.

Suez Canal

January 28, 2011 by · Comments Off on Suez Canal 

Suez Canal, The Suez Canal is a waterway artificial sea level in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea. Opened in November 1869, allows water transport between Europe and Asia without having to navigate around Africa. The northern terminus of Port Said and the southern terminus are at Port Tawfik Suez City. Ismailia is located on its western shore, 3 km (1.9 mi) north of the halfway point.

When built, the canal was 164 km (102 miles) long and 8 m (26 ft) deep. After several expansions, the canal is 193.30 km (120.11 km) long, 24 m (79 ft) deep and 205 meters (673 ft) wide from 2010. It consists of the access road north of 22 km/14 miles, the canal itself km/100.82 162.25 mi and the access channel south of 9-km/5.6 mi.

It is single track with passing places in Ballah By-Pass and the Great Bitter Lake. It contains no locks; flow of seawater freely through the channel. In general, north of the Bitter Lakes Canal runs north and south in winter in summer. Southern Lakes current changes with the tide at Suez.

The channel is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) of the Arab Republic of Egypt. Under international treaty, it can be used “in time of war as in peacetime, by any vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag.”

Former east-west canals have facilitated travel from the Nile to the Red Sea. A small channel is supposed to have been built under the auspices of one or Senusret II Ramses II. Another channel may include a portion of the first was built during the reign of Necho II and completed by Darius.

The legendary Sesostris (probably either Pharaoh Sesostris II or Senusret III of the XII dynasty of Egypt) has suggested may have started work on an old canal joining the Nile to the Red Sea (1897 BC-1839 BC). (It is said that in ancient times the Red Sea to the North reached with the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah.)
French cartographers have discovered the remains of an ancient canal north south past the east side of Lake Timsah and ending near the north end of Great Bitter Lake in the second half of the 19th century. (The former, on the other hand, the channel may have followed a course along the shores of the Red Sea when the Red Sea once extended north of Lake Timsah.) In the 20th century, extending northward this ancient channel was discovered, which stretches from the Great Lake Timsah to Ballah, which was then dated from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt by extrapolating the dates of ancient sites erected along its course. However, it remains unknown whether this is the same as Sesostris old canal “and whether it was used as a waterway or as a defense against the East.

The reliefs of the Punt expedition under Hatshepsut 1470 in British Columbia represent seagoing vessels carrying the expeditionary force returning from Punt. This led to the suggestion that, at the time, was a navigable link between the Red Sea and the Nile. Everything seems to indicate its existence by British Columbia in the 13th century at the time of Ramses II.

Remnants of an ancient canal east-west, crossing the ancient Egyptian city of Bubastis, the Pi-Ramses, and Pithom were discovered by Napoleon Bonaparte and his senior engineers and cartographers in 1799.

According to the stories of the Greek historian Herodotus, about 600 BC, Necho II undertook to dig a canal to the west east through Wadi Tumilat between Bubastis and Heroopolis, and perhaps she continued Heroopolite to the Gulf and Red Sea. Regardless, Necho is reported as having never completed his project.

Herodotus said that 120,000 men perished in this undertaking, but this figure is probably exaggerated. According to Pliny the Elder, the extension of Necho the canal was about 57 English miles, equal to the total distance between Bubastis and the Great Bitter Lake, which wound up through the valleys she had to pass through. The length that Herodotus tells us, over 1000 stadiums (ie more than 114 miles) must be understood as including the entire distance between the Nile and the Red Sea at that time.

With the death of Necho, the work was interrupted. Herodotus tells us that the reason the project was abandoned due to a warning received by an oracle that others would benefit from its success. In fact, the war with Nebuchadnezzar II Necho probably prevented the channel must be pursued.

Darius I of Persia, who conquered Egypt, finally completed Necho project. We are told that by the time of Darius passage of natural water that existed between the Gulf and Red Sea Heroopolite near the Egyptian town of Shaluf (alt. Chalouf or Shaloof), located just south of the Great Bitter Lake, became so crowded that Darius silt needed to clarify so as to enable navigation again. According to Herodotus, Darius canal was wide enough that two triremes could pass each other with oars extended, and required four days to cross. Darius commemorated his achievement by a number of granite stelae that he created on the Nile bank, including one near Kabret, and another a few miles north of Suez. Darius entries as follows:

“Darius the king said: I am a Persian. From Persia, I conquered Egypt. I ordered this canal dug by the river called the Nile that flows in Egypt, the sea that begins in Persia. When the canal was dug as I ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, even as I wanted. ”

The left channel of the Nile at Bubastis. An inscription on a pillar Pithom records that in 270 or 269 BC was again reopened by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. In Arsinoe, Ptolemy built a lock waterway with locks in the Gulf Heroopolite Red Sea allowing the passage of ships, but prevented salt water from the Red Sea to mingle with fresh water in the canal.  [via wikipedia and various sources]

Egypt, Obama

January 28, 2011 by · Comments Off on Egypt, Obama 

Egypt, (AFP) – The administration of President Barack Obama on Friday expressed “deep concern” by the unrest in the U.S. ally Egypt has urged Cairo to prevent its security forces and embark on immediate reform.

The wave of popular anger that has produced a fourth day of violent mass protests has riveted the attention of the president, who is kept informed of events of each day of multiple briefings, the White House.

Instead of everyday memory of President, Obama received a 40-minute presentation on the situation in Egypt’s National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and other members of his national security team, the White House press secretary, Tommy Vietor said.

They included John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and the fight against t*rror*sm, and Robert Cardillo, deputy director of national intelligence for the integration of intelligence.

And as the U.S. television networks showed street brawls and burning buildings in Cairo, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed concern about events in a country that is an ally of U.S. diplomacy Peace in the Middle East and the fight against t*rror*sm.

“We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against demonstrators and we urge the Egyptian government to do everything in his power to prevent the security forces,” Clinton said.

“At the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and to express themselves peacefully,” the chief U.S. diplomat.

“We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful demonstrations and to reverse the unprecedented measures taken to cut communications,” she added.

The protest movement in Egypt has mobilized the youth and the middle classes using the Internet and social networks in a challenge for the authorities that saw two Swedish sites Twitter and video-streaming Bambuser blocked.

Dire events “underline that there are deep grievances in Egyptian society” that cannot be resolved through violence; it has the strongest demand yet public policy changes and others.

“As partners, we firmly believe that the Egyptian government should immediately engage with the Egyptian people in the implementation of necessary economic reforms, political and social,” she said.

Recalling a speech she gave in Qatar two weeks ago, just as avant-garde events in Tunisia were reaching a crescendo, “Clinton said Arab leaders should” to see civil society as a partner and not as a threat. ”

Within hours of that speech in Doha, the Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had fled the country for Saudi Arabia.

Before the protests, U.S. officials had pushed for reform in the wings, but have been criticized for not taking a stronger stance in public, especially in the wake of parliamentary elections in Egypt last November.

Washington has also invested tens of millions of dollars in pro-democracy organizations in Egypt to the chagrin of President Mubarak, according to diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks and published by a Norwegian newspaper Friday.

Obama, Robert Gibbs, the press secretary earlier in the balance with the reaction most critical of the White House still in turmoil.

“Very concerned about the violence in Egypt,” Gibbs wrote about the microblogging site Twitter.

– The government must respect the rights of the Egyptian people & run on social networks and the Internet. ”

The State Department also had its say.

“The events in Egypt are of deep concern,” department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Twitter, the latest in a wave of those messages.

Contrary to the concerns expressed, on Friday, Clinton on Tuesday urged all parties to “exercise restraint” during the protests but said the U.S. believes that the Egyptian government is stable.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

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