ALEXANDRIA: Egyptian police on Thursday arrested 64 members of the opposition party Akhwan-ul-Muslimeen for organising protests against the siege of the Gaza Strip.The arrests were made during dawn raids in the northern city of Alexandria, the Suez Canal town of Ismailya and other governorates in the Nile Delta, the website of Akhwan-ul-Muslimeen said. It was not immediately possible to confirm the number of arrests with security officials.Earlier this week, police arrested 28 Brothers "for membership of an illegal organisation and possession of banned literature," a security official said.The Muslim Brotherhood (Akhwan-ul-Muslimeen), which calls for an Islamic state in Egypt through peaceful means, is officially banned by the government but fields independent candidates in parliamentary and municipal elections.The movement won a fifth of seats in the 2005 parliamentary election, which observers said was marred by police intervention and fraud.Police have arrested dozens of the Islamists this year and also barred some of their leadership from travelling abroad.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
Comments