Egypt

Whatever else you may say about the “young war criminal” (as British journalist Alan Watkins used to call former prime minister Tony Blair), he certainly fights his corner with great determination. He is condemned to spend his life defending his part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and last weekend he was at it again.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi landed in Islamist neighbour Sudan on Friday for a lightning visit, which an analyst said would attempt to shore up a regional alliance against Islamic "terrorism".

An AFP photographer at Khartoum airport confirmed the Egyptian leader’s plane had touched down and said Sisi, wearing a dark suit and sunglasses, left about two hours later.

The Standard & Poor’s report on Greek banks inflicted fresh losses on their respective stocks and sealed the benchmark’s end-of-week fate, as it posted the biggest weekly drop of 2014, giving up 7.35 percent from last Friday.

BELGRADE - Egyptian Ambassador to Serbia Menha Mahrous Bakhoum organized a concert by a mixed international choir and a reception to celebrate National Day of Egypt, with a message that the historical unity of the Egyptian people, whose culture is characterized by religions intertwined in harmony, could be applied to Serbia as well.

The International Press Institute (IPI) Board has called on Egypt’s president to immediately grant a full presidential pardon to all journalists convicted in the country in connection with their work.

An Al-Jazeera journalist whose jailing triggered global outrage has donated 15,000 Egyptian pounds to a fund initiated by the president to boost Egypt's ailing economy, his brother said on Thursday.
      

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s dismissal of President Abdullah Gül’s congratulatory message to Egypt’s new President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi – even if he did not mention Gül by name - as “meaningless” may be a criticism of Gül. It could also mean that Gül and Erdoğan are playing the good policeman-bad policeman game here.

The message sent by Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi upon the latter’s election was not a “congratulatory” message, but should rather be assumed as “goodwill,” sources from Gül’s office have underlined.

Four makeshift bombs exploded within minutes of each other at three Cairo metro stations during morning rush hour on Wednesday, wounding at least four people, police and health officials said.
      

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has dismissed a recent congratulatory message sent by President Abdullah Gül to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on being elected Egyptian president and said such messages are “meaningless.”