Ahly's veteran midfielder Ahmed Hassan has been sidelined from Ahly's primary African squad alongside Liberian Franciss and attacking midfielders Mostafa Afrotto and Amir Saiod.
Football committee headed by Hassan Hamdy decided on Saturday sending 25-player-list to CAF as a primary squad, according to the club official website.
Ahly are allowed to replace any of their players until January 31 but with a fine.
The squad published as follows:
Goalkeepers: Sherif Ikramy, Ahmed Adel, Mahmoud Abu El-Soud.
Defenders: Wael Gomaa, Ahmed Said, Mohamed Samir, Sherif Abd El-Fadiel, Ahmed Fathi, Said Mo'awad, Ayman Ashraf.
Midfielders: Shehab Ahmed, Hossam Ashor, Ahmed Nabil "Mangah", Hossam Ghaly, Mohamed Shawky, Mo'taz Eno, Ahmed Shokry, Mohamed Barakat, Mohamed About Trika.
Strikers: Mohamed Nagy "Geddo", Ossama Hosni, Emad Meteb, Mohamed Fadl, Dominique Da Silva.
Egypt has received a request from Iran to allow two of its warships to use the Suez Canal, but the defence ministry has yet to decide whether to approve it, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
Spokesman Hossam Zaki said the ministry received the request to allow the ships to pass through the waterway on Thursday and passed it on to the defence ministry, which must approve the crossing of any warship through the canal.
"It is with them now, they will decide," he said. "The defence ministry has to study the request."
If approved, it would be the first time Iranian naval vessels have passed through the canal since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which led to a severing of diplomatic ties with Egypt.
Iran's official Fars new agency, quoting senior naval commanders, said the ships are the 33,000-tonne refuelling and support vessel Kharg and the 1,500-tonne light patrol frigate Alvand, both British-built.
The Kharg has a crew of 250 and can carry up to three helicopters. The Alvand is armed with torpedos and anti-ship missiles. They intend to enter the Mediterranean Sea and head to Syria.
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday branded the mission a "provocation".
Egyptian activists ratcheted up pressure on the country's new military rulers by calling for a massive march in Cairo on Friday to commemorate the uprising's martyrs and press for the release of detainees.
Several thousand flag waving Egyptians massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square -- the focal point of anti-government demonstrations that brought down strongman Hosni Mubarak-- as crowds were expected to swell after Friday prayers.
Hundreds of military police in red berets were already manning the square on Friday morning and a military band entertained the festive crowd, one week after Mubarak stepped down and handed power to a military junta.
The Coalition of the Revolution Youth, which groups pro-democracy movements that helped launch the revolt, have called for the gathering to "remember the martyrs of freedom and dignity and justice," after at least 365 were killed and 5,500 injured in the protests, according to the health ministry.
The coalition has vowed to keep up the pressure to ensure the rest of its political demands are met, including the "immediate release of all detainees," it said in statement posted on Facebook.
Hundreds of people went missing during the protests, rights groups said, blaming the army which they also accused of torture.
Gamal Eid, a lawyer who heads the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said: "There are hundreds of detained, but information on their numbers is still not complete ... The army was holding detainees."
On Thursday, Amnesty International called on the Egyptian military to halt the use of torture against detainees, saying it had fresh evidence of abuse.
Both Amnesty and the New York-based Human Rights Watch said they interviewed former detainees who described being tortured by the military.
The coalition of activists is also calling for "a speedy replacement of the current caretaker cabinet by a government of technocrats" that are not seen as corrupt, it said.
Pro-democracy activists are also seeking an investigation into the deaths during the uprising, a lifting of the decades-old emergency law, and support for the pay strikes that have surged around the country.
"We are going today to commemorate the martyrs and in doing so we are awaiting justice," Mohammed Waked, a protest organiser, told AFP.
"If those detained during the protests are not released, let alone the older political prisoners, it would be a bad sign," he said. "It would show the army is not sincere about political reforms."
Activists who are also calling for a complete dismantling of Mubarak's regime welcomed the arrest of reviled former interior minister Habib al-Adly, whose security forces were given wide powers of arrest under the emergency law.
Adly was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of money laundering and ordered held for 15 days.
And prosecutors ordered former tourism minister Zuheir Garana, former housing minister Ahmed al-Maghrabi and businessman Ahmad Ezz also to be held for 15 days "to assist in an investigation," a judicial source said.
Ezz, a steel magnate, was a member of the former ruling National Democratic Party. He was considered to be a mentor of Mubarak's son Gamal, who was long considered a possible successor to his father.
Since Mubarak's fall, Egyptian workers have tested the limits of their new found freedom, staging pay strikes despite calls from the new military regime for them to return to work and warning of "disastrous" consequences should strikes continue.
Workers are calling for the resignation of the leaders of state-controlled trade unions and company board members, who they accuse of corruption, as well as higher wages and better working conditions.
On Thursday, the United States gave Egypt, a key ally in the region, $150 million in crucial economic assistance to help transition towards democracy.
"I am pleased to announce today that we will be reprogramming $150 million for Egypt to put ourselves in a position to support the transition there and assist with their economic recovery," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
Google unveiled an online payment platform for publishers on Wednesday, a day after Apple launched a subscription service of its own for newspapers, magazines, music and video.
Google will take a 10-percent share of revenue from subscriptions managed through "Google One Pass," less than the 30 percent charged by Apple.
The new payment system for online content was announced by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt in a speech at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Lee Shirani, director of business product management for Google Commerce, said publishers who opt to use Google One Pass to charge readers for digital content can set their own prices and terms.
"Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password," Shirani said in a blog post.
"Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers don't have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices," Shirani said.
Google said publishers can offer readers a variety of options including full subscriptions or even single articles for purchase.
"With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them," Google said.
"We've been working with publishers for some time now to help them find ways to engage their readers, attract traffic to their sites, and make money online," said Carlo D'Asaro Biondo, Google vice president for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
"By working with the publishing industry and experimenting with a variety of products, we can come up with tools to help journalism thrive online."
Google said its launch partners include German publishers Axel Springer AG, Focus Online (Tomorrow Focus) and Stern.de.
Others include France's Le Nouvel Observateur, and Spain's Prisa.
Google's US partners are Rust Communications, publisher of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, Media General, which operates 18 television stations and 21 daily newspapers, mostly in the southeastern United States, and Bonnier Corp., publisher of Popular Science.
Google said Google One Pass is currently available for publishers in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States.
Google's announcement comes a day after Apple unveiled a subscription service for digital newspapers and magazines purchased through its online App Store.
While newspapers and magazines have been searching for new ways to charge for digital content and make money from mobile devices, Apple's 30-percent cut of each subscription purchased through the App Store raised some eyebrows in the struggling publishing industry.
Apple's subscription service was first offered with The Daily, a digital newspaper for the iPad tablet computer launched earlier this month by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Google is "very, very proud" of cyberactivist Wael Ghonim, a young executive at the company who emerged as a leading voice of the Egyptian uprising, company boss Eric Schmidt said Tuesday.
Ghonim, Google’s head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, administered a Facebook page that helped spark the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
The 30-year-old also appeared in an emotional television interview shortly after he was released from police custody after 12 days in custody which is credited with re-energising the movement just as it seemed to be losing steam.
"We are very very proud of what Wael Ghonim was able to do in Egypt," Schmidt said at the mobile phone industry's annual get-together in Barcelona.
"They were able to use a set of technologies that included Facebook, Twitter and number of others to really express the voice of the people. And that is a good example of transparency. And we wish them very much the best. I have talked to him. We are very very proud of what he has done."
In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, Ghonim said the protests which led to Mubarak's ouster would not have happened without online social networks.
"If there was no social networks it would have never been sparked," he said.
"Because the whole thing before the revolution was the most critical thing. Without Facebook, without Twitter, without Google, without You Tube, this would have never happened."
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is to impose a blanket ban on all Twitter posts by team officials during matches in a bid to be seen to be doing all it can to crack down on corruption.
Long-serving Australia manager Steve Bernard has been 'tweeting' since August last year.
ICC chiefs insist they have no issues with anything Bernard has posted in the past.
But, given players are banned from having access to mobile phones during matches, they thought it prudent following the recent spot-fixing scandal involving Pakistan, to avoid a situation where team officials left themselves open to corruption claims, however baseless, as a result of a Twitter post.
"As recent events have shown, the ICC has a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and anything that can negate that possibility is something we are definitely interested in," ICC spokesman James Fitzgerald told AFP on Tuesday.
"This is just a precaution, it's not something we are overly concerned about. But we do feel a team manager's phone should be used for operational purposes only during matches.
"This applies to all teams and this decision has not been taken in response to anything the Australia team manager has said or done previously."
Players and officials will though still be allowed to post Twitter messages when their sides are not playing matches.
A trio of Brazilians gave Shakhtar Donetsk a shock 3-2 victory at Roma on Wednesday to put the Ukrainians in firm control of their Champions League second round clash.
Jadson, Douglas Costa and Luiz Adriano all found in the net in the space of 12 first half minutes to turn the tie on its head following Simone Perrotta's opener.
Jeremy Menez's second half strike ensured Roma retained a slight hope of triumphing following the second leg in Donetsk in three weeks time.
There were ominous signs for Roma on 12 minutes when goalkeeper Doni made a meal of Darijo Srna's free-kick, letting it slip through his hands before being relieved to see it drop on the roof of the net.
Roma should have gone in front on 21 minutes but Nicolas Burdisso amazingly put his header wide from five yards as he arrived at pace to meet Francesco Totti's corner.
Mirko Vucinic then curled a speculative effort just over the bar.
Roma went in front with a scrappy goal on 28 minutes as Rodrigo Taddei crossed for Perrotta to head goalwards, the ball hitting Razvan Rat in the chest and the defender failing to react as the ball then bounced over the line.
Just a minute later it was all square, though, as Jadson's shot deflected off Daniele De Rossi and wrong-footed Doni.
Dmytro Chygrynskiy then headed back across goal but Luiz Adriano couldn't turn it home.
The turnaround was complete on 36 minutes as Douglas Costa drove at a hesitating Roma defence, cut inside onto his left foot and curled a delicious strike around Doni.
Up the other end Vucinic tried to do something similar but sent his effort beyond the far post.
On 41 minutes disaster struck for Roma as John-Arne Riise lost his balance and fell over, allowing Douglas Costa to steal the ball and set up Luiz Adriano to shoot home under Doni.
Menez curled an effort wide for Roma but it could have been even worse for the hosts before the break as Douglas Costa released Luiz Adriano again and he shrugged off Philippe Mexes's shirt pull but then did not get enough weight behind his chip over Doni and Nicolas Burdisso got back to clear.
Roma took 15 minutes of the second period to finally threaten the Shakhtar goal but Menez couldn't keep his knee over the ball and volleyed high.
But just a minute later he made ammends, curling an unstoppable shot into the top corner from 20 yards.
Armenian Henrik Mkhitaryan then kept Doni busy with a skimming shot from distance.
Doni had to charge from his area to deny Luiz Adriano on the edge of his box while Mkhitaryan squuezed a finish just past the post.
Paolo Castellini forced Andriy Pyatov to tip over the bar before Totti shot straight at the keeper when well placed.
Substitute Marco Borriello directed a late header wide but Roma could not rescue a draw.
Arsenal gave themselves a fighting chance of reaching the Champions League quarter-finals here on Wednesday, coming from behind to stun favourites Barcelona 2-1 in a pulsating encounter.
Two goals in the final 12 minutes from Robin van Persie and substitute Andrey Arshavin clinched a dramatic victory for the English Premier League side after Barcelona had taken the lead through a first-half David Villa strike.
The result means Arsenal -- thrashed 6-3 on aggregate by Barcelona in last year's quarter-finals -- will carry a narrow lead into Camp Nou when the two sides meet in the second leg on March 8.
The thrilling finale capped a superb encounter at the Emirates as arguably the two most stylish sides in Europea laid on a feast of attacking football.
Arsenal started brightly and tested Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes after only five minutes, when a jinking run from Theo Walcott saw the ball transferred to Cesc Fabregas on the edge of the area.
The Spanish maestro flicked an exquisite pass to van Persie, whose angled half-volley from close range forced a good save from Valdes.
The threat of Lionel Messi was never far away however, and the Argentinian star drew a desperate challenge from behind from Alex Song after only seven minutes that earned the Cameroonian a booking.
Arsenal were given a huge let-off on 15 minutes when Messi was sent racing clear after an immaculate pass from Villa.
Messi committed Wojciech Szczesny with a magical feint and beat the Arsenal keeper with a delicate dink but the effort rolled just wide of the post.
Arsenal continued to live dangerously, and Andres Iniesta just failed to find Villa with another penetrative pass along the deck.
After numerous ominous warning signs for Arsenal, the opening goal duly arrived on 26 minutes.
Another eye-of-the-needle pass from Messi sent Villa racing clear and the Spanish World Cup star drilled a low shot beneath Szczesny.
Arsenal's players appealed for offside as boos rang out around the Emirates, but Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli remained unmoved.
With Barcelona dominating possession, Arsenal's most promising moments of the half came on the counter-attack, where Walcott's pace regularly unnerved the visitors' defence.
The England international was at the heart of a lightning break on 29 minutes that ended with van Persie slicing his shot wide.
Arsenal breathed another sigh of relief on 38 minutes when Messi had the ball in the net, only to be adjudged fractionally offside.
A frenetic start to the second half saw both sides struggle to create clear chances, although Arsenal were grateful when Laurent Koscielny -- magnificent throughout -- just managed to knock Pedro Rodriguez off-balance as he went clear on goal on 57 minutes.
Arsenal continued to probe for openings on the break however, and a sweeping move ended in a booking for Gerard Pique, who tripped Samir Nasri.
The booking rules the Barca centre-back out of the second leg.
Just when it seemed Arsenal's labours were to be in vain, van Persie conjured a goal out of nothing on 78 minutes.
Gael Clichy flicked a ball over the top and van Persie went clear wide on the left. Nothing seemed on but the Dutchman spotted daylight between Valdes and the Barcelona goalkeeper's near post and thundered home a rasping low shot.
With Barcelona suddenly rocking, Arsenal pressed home their advantage, and seven minutes from time their persistence paid off.
Another counter-attack saw Nasri burst clear down the right. The Frenchman checked and weighed his options before picking out Arshavin, who had replaced Song, and the diminutive Russian swept in a majestic winner.
Veteran Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos has joined Russian outfit Anzhi Makhachkala, who hail from the southern republic of Dagestan, the club announcing Wednesday they have signed the 37-year-old on a two-and-a-half year deal.
"Anzhi Makhachkala officially announce the signing of 2002 World Cup winning defender Roberto Carlos," the club said on their website.
Roberto Carlos had a brief spell with Inter Milan in 1995-1996 but it was his foraging runs at Real Madrid which earned him stardom along with three Champions League winners medals in 11 years with the club.
There followed spells with Fenerhahce of Turkey (2007-2009) and then back in Brazil with Corinthians but following their Copa Libertadores loss to Colombia's Tolima the player wanted one last new challenge.
Makhachkala, who finished in lower-mid table last season, are reportedly set to pay the Brazilian some five million euros a season for his services.
The import and export features on Blogger give your content a whole new range of portability and freedom, allowing you to create copies of your own blogs as well as import them into other existing ones. Best of all-we've made this a very simple process!
Import as a New Blog
To import content as a brand new blog, click Create a Blog from your dashboard.
Then under Advanced Options, click the Import Blog Tool
Finally, choose the Blogger export file (.xml) from your hard drive and fill out the word verification. Click the Upload arrow and your new bog will be created instantly!
Import Into an Existing Blog
To import posts and comments into an already existing blog, start by clicking Import Blog from the existing blog's Settings | Basic tab.
Note: Your template will not be affected by the imported content.
Next, choose a Blogger export file (.xml) from your hard drive and fill out the word verification beneath. By default, all of your imported posts will remain unpublished until you publish them from your dashboard later. However, if you would rather have all posts published immediately, make sure to check the box next to Automatically publish all imported posts before you click Import Blog.
If you did not choose to have your posts publish automatically, you will need to manually publish them from the Posting | Edit Posts tab before they will appear on the web. You can either publish all the posts at once by clicking Publish all imported posts, or publish individual posts by selecting them and then clicking Publish Selected.
Exporting Your blog
To export your blog, simply click Export Blog from the Settings | Basic tab.
Finally, click the Export Blog button. You blog will be stored as a Blogger export file (.xml) file which can be kept as a backup on your hard drive or imported into another blog.
Note: Exported blogs are not deleted from your dashboard or Blogger.com
There are a few ways that you can create a blog with a right to left language such as Arabic, Hebrew or Persian. It is easiest to do this if you use a default Layouts template. If you use a Classic template, we recommend that you upgrade to Layouts.
Default Layouts Templates
For new blog owners and existing blog owners using Layouts, after you create a new blog or if you already have a blog, you will have to go to the Settings | Formatting tab,
and change your language to Hebrew, Arabic or Persian.
After you change your formatting language, click the orange Save Settings button at the bottom of the page and your blog will be set to display right to left in your selected language.
Classic Templates or Custom-Designed Layouts
If you want to keep your Classic template or customized Layout (meaning you have made changes to the Edit HTML page), you can still get your blog to read from right to left by going to the Template | Edit HTML tab and making the following edits to your code:
Add dir="rtl" to the HTML tag
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en" dir="rtl">Note: You will not have to add a new dir attribute if your <html> tag already has expr:dir='data:blog.languageDirection' (Layouts) or dir="<$BlogLanguageDirection$>" (Classic templates) in it.
Go through all of your CSS and change each instance of "left" to "right" and vice versa.
In any line that has margin, padding or border, followed by exactly 4 values: swap the 2nd and 4th values. If there are fewer values, leave them alone. For example, you would change: padding:0 0 .25em 15px;
to padding:0 15px .25em 0;
If your Blogger interface language is set to Arabic, Hebrew or Persian you'll be able to select either Left to Right or Right to Left directionality when composing a post. A post can contain any combination of right-to-left and left-to-right paragraphs. By default, Blogger starts composing a post with the Right to Left button active in Hebrew, Arabic and Persian interfaces.
To change the text direction:
At the beginning of a post or new paragraph:
Click the Left to Right button in the formatting bar of the post editor. The cursor will move to the left side of the compose pane.
To change an existing paragraph:
Highlight the paragraph to edit.
Click the Left to Right button in the formatting bar of the post editor.
If you're not seeing the directionality buttons in the post editor, it's likely because:
Right-to-left support is only available in the Hebrew, Arabic and Persian interfaces. To change the language of your Blogger interface:
Click the Settings link next to the blog you want to change to a right-to-left interface.
Click the Formatting tab.
Select either Hebrew, Arabic or Persian from the Language drop-down menu.
Click Save Settings at the bottom of the page.
The directionality buttons are only visible in Compose mode of the post editor. If you are in Edit HTML mode of the post editor, click the Compose tab to see the directionality buttons
Blogger has several keyboard shortcuts you can use while editing posts. They definitely work in Internet Explorer 5.5+/Windows and the Mozilla family (1.6+ and Firefox 0.9+), and might work in other browsers. Here they are:
After the Jump is a feature which lets you create expandable post summaries in your blog posts, so longer posts appear as an intro with a link to Read More
Creating jump breaks in your blog posts can be easily done right from the post editor, without the need for any HTML changes. First, decide where in the post you want to create the jump break, and place your cursor in that position:
Once your mouse cursor is placed at the jump point, simply click the Insert Jump Break toolbar icon:
Clicking the icon will insert a grey bar at the cursor point, illustrating where in the post your break will appear. The bar can be dragged though, so you can always re-position it after insertion.
If you don't use the new post editor, you can still insert a jump break in Edit HTML mode by adding where you want to position the jump break.
Once you are set on the jump break's location within the post, you are ready to publish your post. After publishing, you will notice that the Read More link is placed where you set the jump break:
Clicking on the Read More link will then display the full text of the post:
If you feel like changing the Read More text to your own custom phrase, you can easily do this from the Layout | Page Elements tab. Click Edit on the Blog Post widget, and then change the Post page link text to whatever you'd like.
One more note, the Jump Break feature does not change how your post appears in your feed. You can configure post feed options by going to Settings | Basic | Site Feed, and editing Allow Blog Feeds.
Note:For those using a customized third-party template, you will have to add a snippet of code to make Jump Breaks work.
To do this, access your blog's Layout | Edit HTML tab, and first backup your template by clicking the Download Full Template link at the top of the page. This will download an XML version of your template which you can upload later at any time if you need to.
After backing up your template, then click the Expand Widget Templates checkbox, and scan your HTML for the following snippet:
<data:post.body/>
Once you've located that code, paste the following snippet directly below it:
The speed at which your blog loads is critical to attracting more readers to your blog. If your blog takes a long time to load, many readers may leave your blog before they have the chance to read it. Here are a few tips and tricks that will help your blog load faster and attract more users:
Posts
Your blog's load time can be affected by the number of posts you display on your main page. You can easily edit the number of posts displayed of the main page from the Settings | Formatting tab. You can then select the number of posts you want to display on the main page. We recommend displaying 10 or fewer posts on the main page.
Third Party JavaScript and Links
For optimal blog load speed, we recommend using Google/Blogger widgets, JavaScipt and links. However, if you need to use third party JavaScipt and links, your blog will load much faster if you put all JavaScript at the bottom of your blog. If you have third party JavaScript and links in your sidebar, put them in at the bottom of the sidebar.
The more images, videos and other multi-media you have on your blog the longer it will take to load. However, images and other multimedia are important to attracting users to your blog, so it is important to optimize the load speed of your images and media. Here are a few tips to increase the load speed of your media:
Decrease the size of your images or use thumbnails that link to the full-size image.
If you use third party images, consider uploading them to Picasa Web Albums via the Blogger post editor.
If you have a large number of images to display, you can upload all your images (from a vacation or event) to a Picasa Web Album and link to the album in your post or sidebar.
Other suggestions
If you've added any custom CSS to your blog, make sure you put it at the top of the page.
The most important content of your blog that catches readers attention should load the quickest. To help you identify which items are taking the longest to load you can use Stopwatch. To use Stopwatch, enter your blog's URL into the text box and click "Start StopWatch". Stopwatch will then open your blog in a frame and will record the time it takes for everything on your blog to load, including images, videos, widgets, etc. Take note of the items that take the longest to load and modify them appropriately using our suggestions
The Blogger Posting gadget makes it easy to post to your blog from the convenience of Gmail or your iGoogle homepage.
To add the Blogger Posting Gadget to your iGoogle page, simply click this button:
Then click the blue "Add to Google" button. Make sure that you're signed in with the same Google account that you use for Blogger. Once you've added the Blogger Posting Gadget you will see the gadget on your iGoogle page:
To add the Blogger Posting Gadget in Gmail, you'll first have to enable the Add Gadget by URL lab feature from your settings:
Once you've enable this Labs feature, then you can add the posting gadget by simpling entering its URL into the Gadget tab in your Settings. Here's the URL:
http://www.blogger.com/gadgets/post.xml
In the top right corner of the gadget you will see the title of your blog. If you have more than one blog, there will be a drop-down menu in the corner so you can select the blog you'd like to post to. You can then enter a title and write a post. You also have the option to add labels to your post as well. Once you have finished writing your post, click "Publish" to publish your post or click "Save Draft" to save your post back to Blogger without publishing it.
Notes:
The gadget supports editing the HTML of title and body.
If you start writing a post and decide you want to upload images or use other rich text features, just click "Save Draft". The gadget will save your post, then give you a link to directly edit the post in Blogger.
The gadget works in Firefox, Chrome, Safari 3, Internet Explorer and on the iPhone.
The
coalition of the 25 January Revolution has called for a million-man
celebration on Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square and other prominent
public spaces throughout the capital to commemorate those who lost
their lives in the 25 January uprising and celebrate the ouster of
longstanding president Hosni Mubarak.
In
a statement on Wednesday, the coalition also called for the immediate
release of all political prisoners, the formation of a government
cabinet consisting of technocrats, the abolition of Egypt's
longstanding Emergency Law, and the abolition of the State Security
Investigation Bureau.
The statement also called for the retrieval of all monies pilfered from the public purse by members of the former regime.
The
Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, has announced that it would participate
in the celebrations on Friday, to be dubbed the “Friday of Victory.”
A
handful of international financial institutions have offered to finance
Egypt's economy following the recent 25 January uprising, newly-appointed Finance Minister Samir Radwan said on Wednesday.
“Offers were made by the World Bank and the African Development Bank,” he said.
During the Sharm El-Sheikh
economic summit in January, Radwan had signed a memorandum of
understanding between the Arab League and World Bank to finance small
businesses and train young entrants to the Arab labor market.
"We're
concentrating now on the state budget deficit, which reached LE100
billion in the 2009/10 fiscal year,” Radwan said. “We will look into
these offers once things are back to normal.”
A US agent has been was shot and killed in Mexico and a second wounded amid a surge in violence in a country ravaged by crime cartel turf wars and a government crackdown on the drug trade.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were attacked while driving in a car between Mexico City and the northern industrial city of Monterrey, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said late Tuesday.
The pair "were shot in the line of duty" by "unknown assailants," Napolitano said in a statement.
The second agent was "shot in the arm and leg and remains in stable condition," she added.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry said it "strongly condemns this grave act of violence," and that it was working closely with US officials to solve the crime and help the wounded agent.
US embassy officials in Mexico City told AFP that the agents were assigned to an ICE office in the Mexican capital, but did not say if they were on an assignment when they were attacked.
A US law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Dallas Morning News that the agents, who were probably unarmed, were shot as they approached an unofficial checkpoint apparently manned by members of the Zetas paramilitary drug gang.
Drug gangs sometimes set up roadblocks to search for potential kidnap victims, steal cars, or rob travelers.
It was unclear whether the agents were targeted because they worked for the US government.
Mexican officials did not say where the attack took place, but local TV networks showed footage of a dark colored SUV with tinted glass windows marked with bullet holes on the side of a highway in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi.
State officials said that they found a bullet-riddled car with US license plates near the town of Ojo Caliente at 3 pm (2100 GMT) Tuesday.
More than 34,600 people have died in drug violence since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed soldiers and federal police in a widespread crackdown on the illegal cartels.
Amid the latest cycle of violence in northeastern Mexico, 18 people were killed in a series of attacks on a bus, a private car and public buildings on Monday.
In the state of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is located, attackers blew up a car in which the state intelligence chief was riding late Sunday.
Earlier Sunday, eight people were killed in a gun battle when a special police unit stopped a suspicious vehicle in Monterrey.
Monterrey, a prosperous city and home to the local operations of several multinational corporations, is at the intersection of several highways -- often used as drug smuggling routes -- heading north into the United States.
Two rival drug organizations, the Gulf cartel and their former allies, the Zetas, are battling for control of the area.
It was the first killing of a US official in Mexico since March 2010, when a pregnant employee of the US consulate in the violent northern border city of Ciudad Juarez was killed with her husband.
ICE director John Morton called the shooting a "stark reminder of the risks confronted and the sacrifices made by our men and women every day."
"US law enforcement agencies are working closely with Mexican authorities who are investigating the shooting to ensure the perpetrators of this unconscionable crime are captured as quickly as possible," Napolitano said.
"Let me be clear: any act of violence against our ICE personnel -- or any DHS personnel -- is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety," she added.
Iraq's government plans to slash the salaries of ministers and MPs, a top official said on Wednesday, as protests swept the country against widespread corruption and poor basic services.
The new legislation will result in savings of at least $19 million annually, and will be seen as an attempt to ward off worsening protests that earlier in the day saw a 16-year-old boy killed.
"We will submit to the council of ministers next week ... a good substantial reduction, in some cases more than 50 percent, of present salaries," cabinet general secretary Ali al-Alaak told AFP in an interview.
If approved by the cabinet, the bill will need to be passed by Iraq's parliament.
The new legislation will reduce Maliki's own salary to 13 million Iraqi dinars ($10,100) per month, from 35 million dinars now, while Iraq's 42 ministers and 325 MPs will receive eight million dinars per month, down from their present salaries of 13 million dinars.
The Iraqi premier had earlier this month pledged to halve his salary.
Alaak said the most important provisions of the bill were likely the reduction in pension payments -- because MPs and ministers receive pensions based on their final salaries, the reduction in pay means lower payouts for former politicians.
In addition, the bill lowers the percentage of the final salary paid out to retired MPs and ministers.
Earlier on Wednesday, a teenager was killed when private guards shot at protesters who set fire to several government offices in the southern city of Kut, in Iraq's most violent demonstration since uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt led to their presidents being ousted over the past month.
The protests, which also left 27 people wounded, took place in the southern city of Kut, capital of Wasit province, with more than 2,000 demonstrators calling for the provincial governor to resign over poor basic services.
The demonstration broke out at 9:00 am (0600 GMT) and saw protesters set fire to three buildings -- the offices of Wasit provincial council, the governorate's main administrative building and the governor's official residence.
Policemen and soldiers fired their weapons into the air in a bid to dissuade protesters, while private security guards employed by Wasit council opened fire directly into the crowd, for which a senior policeman pledged punishment.
Kut hospital put the toll at one dead, a 16-year-old boy who suffered a bullet to the chest, and 27 wounded.
"Measures will be taken against the private guards but after the situation has calmed down," said Major Mohammed Saleh, the top police intelligence officer in Kut.
Illiteracy, poverty and access to clean water in Wasit are all worse than the Iraqi national average, according to the United Nations, while Transparency International rates Iraq as the world's fourth-most corrupt country.
Earlier, the demonstrators chanted slogans calling on Tarfa to resign, and held up placards that sarcastically read: "To all citizens: Electricity is only for officials," a reference to Iraq's dire shortfall in power provision.
"We demand that our rights be met, that we have better services and that the authorities fight corruption," said 54-year-old Ali Mohsen, a professor at Wasit university.
"We demand that the governor resign ... all we need is services."
In the southern port city of Basra, more than 200 unemployed demonstrators gathered in front of the provincial government headquarters, while clerics in the holy Shiite city of Najaf urged officials to listen to protesters' demands.
Hezbollah's chief on Wednesday urged his Shiite fighters to stand ready to take Galilee in any future Lebanon-Israel war and threatened Israelis "anytime, anywhere" to avenge a top operative's killing.
"I say to the fighters of the Islamic Resistance: Be ready. If a new war is imposed on Lebanon we may ask you to take Galilee, to free Galilee," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech to mark his Shiite party's martyrs' day.
He vowed that the death of Imad Mughnieh, killed in a February 2008 car bombing in Damascus that Iranian-backed Hezbollah has blamed on Israel, would not be forgotten or go unpunished.
"I do not want to go into details. Suffice to say that our decision remains the same and will be executed, God willing, at the right time," he said to thunderous applause from hundreds of his supporters gathered in a stadium.
"To the Zionist generals, I say: Anywhere you go in the world, at any time, watch out, for the blood of Imad Mughnieh will not go to waste."
A month-long war between the Shiite militant group and Israel in 2006 destroyed much of Lebanon's infrastructure and killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers.
Nasrallah's comments came a day after Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned that his army may have to re-enter Lebanon to ensure Hezbollah "remembers" the 2006 war.
"Even though it's quiet and deterrence exists -- Hezbollah remembers the heavy beating they suffered from us in 2006 -- but it is not forever, and you may be called to enter again," Barak said during a tour of the border region.
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