U.S. Copts Association

‘Mubarak increases salaries by 30% and a few days later you find that prices have gone up by 40%.’
CAIRO - Already stunned by skyrocketing prices, Egyptians voiced despair on Tuesday after the government raised duties on fuel and cigarettes in a bid to pay for a promised public sector wage increase.

“Cigarettes don’t matter - you can live without them. But, for the rest, it’s impossible,” shoe polisher Gamal Ahmed, 42, said in central Cairo.
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Rising food cost has plunged government into crisis with far-reaching social consequences.
By Alain Navarro - CAIRO

As popular anger over rising inflation threatens to boil over, the Egyptian government has opted for a solution that could actually add fuel to the fire - raising both salaries and taxes.

On Monday, the government voted to raise the cost of fuel and tobacco by between 30 and 50 percent, in order to finance a May 1 decision by President Hosni Mubarak to raise public workers’ salaries by 30 percent.
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Analysts say social tensions in Egypt may drive ruling elite to look into other scenarios of Mubarak’s succession.
By Alaa Shahine - CAIRO

Social tensions in Egypt over the past year have eroded overwhelming expectations that Gamal Mubarak will succeed his father President Hosni Mubarak at the helm of the most populous Arab country, analysts say.
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Pope Shenuda III has left for US to have medical treatment after reportedly suffering from kidney pain.
CAIRO - The head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenuda III, has left for the United States for medical treatment, the Coptic Orthodox Lay Council which manages the church’s affairs said.

The 84-year-old patriarch left Cairo late on Monday on an unscheduled trip to Cleveland, Ohio, Dr Tharwat Bassily of the council said, on what he said was a “routine check-up”.
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Rights group highlights ‘increasing incidence’ of gruesome methods by Ethiopian forces in Somalia.
NAIROBI - Ethiopian troops in Somalia are increasingly resorting to throat-slitting executions, Amnesty International (AI) said Tuesday in a new report on the killing of civilians in Somalia.

The report by the rights watchdog said the blame for civilian deaths was shared by all parties in the conflict, but highlighted an “increasing incidence” of gruesome methods by Ethiopian forces.
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State-backed body representing Muslims in France shrouded in uncertainty once again.
PARIS - The future of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), the state-backed body meant to represent the country’s second-largest religion, is once again shrouded in uncertainty.

The Grand Mosque of Paris (GMP) announced on Saturday it would boycott elections next month for the CFCM leadership.
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By Dean Yates

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military has “multiple” detainees who say the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah is providing training near Tehran for Iraqi militants, a senior military official said on Monday.

Colonel Donald Bacon, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said interrogation transcripts from these detainees were recently given to the Iraqi government.
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By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury discussed Christian-Muslim relations on Monday in their first meeting since the Anglican leader caused a storm with comments on the role of Sharia law in Britain.

The Vatican said the Pope had received Rowan Williams in a private audience but gave no details.
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News outlets call Egyptian President a hero amid rising public fury over country’s state of economy.
By Jailan Zayan - CAIRO

President Hosni Mubarak celebrates his 80th birthday on Sunday amid a wave of popular discontent marked by a call for Egyptians to stay at home in protest at price hikes and curbs on freedom.

But the call for the nationwide strike - the second in a month - failed to draw any response as Egyptians went to work as normal and Cairo traffic was heavy.
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Nader Shukry-Emad Khalil

For Copts, the fortnight preceding Easter is usually a busy, happy time of preparation for the major feast of the Resurrection and the pharaonic-old spring feast of Sham al-Nessim. This year, however, the happy expectation was marred by incidents of sectarian hatred in two villages some 500 kilometres apart along the eternal Nile valley.

Palm Sunday attack
In the village of Qasr Hur close to the monastery of Abu-Fana in Minya some 250km south of Cairo, Copts were celebrating Palm Sunday in the village church. As Holy Mass ended early afternoon, the congregation began leaving the church and heading to their homes, in preparation for the evening Pascha service which is held every evening during Passion Week. The last group to leave was suddenly attacked by a group of men carrying sticks and clubs. Five Copts were injured: Samuel Kamel, Ashraf Menassa, Ishaq Nessim, Hany Samir and Baha’ Samir.
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