NEw SARS-likE viRUS EMERGES iN MidEASt - Kuwait Times

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012
Britain, France, Germany call for new Iran sanctions
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Syrian children killed
ahead of UN briefing
CISTERNINO: The wreckage of a truck lies on the tracks in Cisternino, southern Italy, yesterday. Italian state railway officials say a high-speed train slammed into the truck at a railroad crossing, killing the train’s engineer and
injuring four passengers. A railway spokesman, Marco Mancini, says the truck got stuck on the tracks and that the driver then abandoned the vehicle, making it to safety just before the Frecciargento (Silverarrow) train from
Rome ran into it. — AP
14 sentenced to death for Sinai attacks
ISMAILIA: An Egyptian court yesterday
sentenced 14 Islamists to
death for attacks on security forces
in the Sinai Peninsula, showing
Egypt’s determination to put down
militancy in a region critical to relations
with neighbouring Israel.
The Jewish state has voiced concern
about security in Sinai, where
at least four cross-border attacks
have taken place since President
Hosni Mubarak was toppled in
February 2011. The Islamist president,
Mohamed Mursi, has made
the issue a priority since he was
elected in June.
Sixteen Egyptian border guards
were killed in August, and hundreds
of police and troops with
tanks, armoured vehicles and helicopters
have been sent to raid militant
hideouts and seize weapons in
an operation coordinated with
Egypt govt will not tolerate attacks on army, police
Israel. The court in Ismailia sentenced
14 members of the
Tawheed wal Jihad group to hang
for killing three police officers, an
army officer and a civilian in attacks
on a police station and a bank in
the town of Arish in June and July
last year.
Eight were tried in absentia,
court sources said. Four other militants
were sentenced to life imprisonment.
“This court decision is a
milestone. It gives a strong message
to the militant groups that the
state, President Mohamed Mursi’s
government, will not tolerate
attacks on the Egyptian armed
forces and police,” said Nageh
Ibrahim, an expert on Islamists who
is himself a former militant.
The verdicts prompted cries
from the accused. “Mursi is an infidel
and those who follow him are
infidels,” shouted one. Others cried
“God is Greatest” as they listened to
the judge from inside their metal
cage in court. The men all had
beards and traditional white robes
and some held Qurans. The prosecutor
said that Tawheed wal Jihad
(“Monotheism and Holy War”)
propagated a hardline Islamist view
that allowed adherents to declare
the head of state an infidel and to
wage war on the government.
The same group was accused of
carrying out a series of bomb
attacks in 2004 and 2005 against
tourist resorts in South Sinai, in
which 34 people died.
Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, Egypt’s
highest Islamic legal official, sanctioned
the death penalty before it
was pronounced.
“The accused wanted to spread
corruption in the earth,” he said.
“They went out armed with deadly
weapons, machine guns and explosives
to target security forces ... all
in the name of Islam. They therefore
deserve the death sentence.”
Ibrahim, who was jailed during
the 1990s but later became one of
the leading Islamists to call for an
end to violence against the state,
said the verdicts would deter other
militants from attacking Israel.
“Mursi’s government is adamant
about stemming any attacks across
the border because this will give
Israel an incentive to reoccupy
Sinai. Now is the time for development,
not war,” Ibrahim said.
The US-brokered 1979 peace
treaty between Egypt and Israel
sets strict limits on military
deployment in the Sinai, which is
designated a demilitarised buffer
zone. — Reuters
Cameron backs minister over ‘pleb’ swipe at police
LONDON: Britain’s David
Cameron backed a senior
minister accused of ranting
at policemen in public and
calling them “plebs”, an oldfashioned
insult laden with
snobbery that has undermined
his party’s attempts
to shake off its privileged
image. The tirade outside
the prime minister’s
Downing Street office by
Andrew Mitchell has embarrassed
a Conservative party
that is trailing in the polls
and struggling to shore up
its support at a time of
recession, tax increases and
spending cuts. While
reports that Mitchell called
the officers “morons” were
embarrassing, more damaging
was the report that he
used the word “pleb”, a term
that is rarely used by a middle
or working class person
but is soaked in upper class
condescension.—Reuters
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