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28 Jan 2011 11:13

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World: Egypt’s situation completely screwed up beyond disrepair today

  • To be clear, a lot is happening in Egypt right now. It’s a giant mess, really. Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei is reportedly under house arrest, media outlets are getting attacked, security forces are attacking protesters, the internet’s OFF … pretty much every bad thing that could happen in a revolution is happening today. It’s very much a “where-do-we-start”-type of situation. There is no central point. It’s a lot of bad, everywhere. We’ll try our best to keep an eye on all this today. (tweet via @alaa, a South African who has been covering Egypt heavily) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jan 2011 02:32

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World: Mohamed ElBaradei on Egypt: “Every demand fell on deaf ears”

  • I wish we didn’t have to go to the street to impress on the regime the need to change. We tried signatures. We tried boycotting the elections. Nothing worked; every demand fell on deaf ears and the young took the credit for going onto the streets and making things happen.
  • Egyptian opposition leader (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Mohamed ElBaradei • Offering his take on the events that led to the current protests. While he’s seen as a possible new leader in the country, he’s not universally loved; others criticize him for choosing to live in Vienna instead of Egypt even after he completed his time with the United Nations’ atomic energy agency. Nevertheless, he’s a symbol to rally around. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jan 2011 02:12

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World: Three interesting findings from Wikileaks’ Egypt-focused cables

  • tactics Obama’s people have tended to be harsher about Egypt in private than in public, a change from the more critical Bush years.
  • blogs While the Egyptian government claims they don’t block free speech, they may be forced to act when “people are offended by blogs.”
  • torture Diplomats noted one case where a number of detainees were both shocked and deprived of sleep, making them zombie-like. source
  • » Obama’s not-very-harsh words: It’s clear that Obama’s comments on Egypt, made during a YouTube town-hall style thingy, try to tow that public/private line noted above. “I’ve always said to him that making sure that they are moving forward on reform – political reform, economic reform – is absolutely critical to the long-term well-being of Egypt,” Obama said. “And you can see these pent-up frustrations that are being displayed on the streets.” Dear Obama administration: There’s a point where a chummy relationship doesn’t work anymore.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jan 2011 01:57

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World: How quickly did Egypt’s internet completely disappear?

  • This is how quick the Interwebs died in Egypt: “It’s probably a phone call that goes out to half a dozen folks who enter a line on a router configuration file and hit return,” said Craig Labovitz, chief scientist for Arbor Networks. “It’s like programming your TiVo – you have things that are set up and you delete one. It’s not high-level programming.” Basically, Egypt is not a country with a ton of pipe, so it’s far easier to shut them down than, say, the U.S. Still, though, it’s utterly shocking how quickly it just disappeared. (image via Google’s Tim Bray) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jan 2011 23:22

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World: Internet, text messaging severed in Egypt, most likely by government

  • NO Internet in Egypt; it’s been shut down source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jan 2011 10:54

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World: Mohamed ElBaradei: Need a leader, Egyptian protesters? I’m here

  • ElBaradei: ready to take up power for a transitional period if the street demanded it.
  • A message that popped up on Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya • Informing Egyptians that  Mohamed ElBaradei, a key opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was up for the job of leader if they needed someone to rally behind. He’s returning to the country today after a long time away. So far,  the protests against President Hosni Mubarak have been strong, but not focused. A figurehead like ElBaradei might strengthen the movement with a rallying point. “He has served the country for 30 years and it is about time for him to retire,” ElBaradei said. Will this be the corner-turning the protesters need? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jan 2011 10:44

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World: Yemen gets in on the mass-revolt bandwagon; good for them

Today in the Arab world’s collective realization that they don’t have to put up with this *#(& anymore: Yemen. Hotbed of al-Qaeda. Coldbed of jobs. Home of fresh protests. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Jan 2011 10:04

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World: Egyptian bombing attack targeted minority Christian sect

  • We heard a thunderous sound of explosion. I fell on the ground. I saw a car burning. You cannot imagine what we have seen there. … It was a horrible scene.
  • Eyewitness Nermin Nabil • Describing the scene near a church where a blast went off on Saturday, reportedly caused by a suicide bomber. The blast claimed at least 21 deaths and 79 injuries. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak expressed rage and retaliation at the bombing: “I would say with confidence, that we will chase the people who planned and committed this terrorism act, and we will chase the people involved with them.” The victims of the attack were Copts, who follow an Egyptian sect of Christianity. They make up nine percent of the country’s population – versus 90 percent Muslims. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Aug 2010 21:03

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World: Somebody stole a Van Gogh painting in Egypt for some reason

  • $55 million value of some earless dead guy’s painting source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jun 2010 10:55

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U.S.: Two dudes arrested before reportedly going to hang with terrorists

  • who Two American citizens, Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26. The terror suspects were both arrested at JFK Airport late last night.
  • what The duo were headed on separate flights to Egypt with the eventual destination of Somalia, where, reportedly, they were going to meet up with a terror cell. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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