Thursday September 26, 2013
Kaieteur News
Egypt forces raid Brotherhood newspaper HQ Cairo (AFP) - Egyptian security forces have shut down the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood newspaper in Cairo after raiding it and confiscating material, the Islamist movement’s website reported yesterday. Tuesday’s raid on AlHurriya Wal Adala’s offices came a day after a Cairo court banned the Brotherhood and ordered its assets seized, delivering a vital blow to the movement of deposed president Mohamed Mursi. The moves by Egypt’s army-backed authorities are part of a sustained campaign
against the Islamist movement since Mursi was ousted by the army on July 3 after mass street protests against his year-long rule. “The forces of the military coup in Egypt closed the headquarters of Al-Hurriya Wal Adala newspaper which is the mouthpiece of the party,” said Ikhwanonline, the Brotherhood website. The newspaper’s journalists also condemned the raid in a separate statement on the same website. “We, the journalists of AlHurriya Wal Adala, condemn the closure of the
newspaper’s headquarters by security forces of the coup who took all documents, equipment and other materials” from the premises, the statement said. The journalists said that since July 3 “we have been working under pressure and intimidation from the security forces and thugs.” The website said that “there was no warning, no legal decision against our journal,” adding that since June 28 no journalists had been working in the actual headquarters. The raid ratchets up an intensifying crackdown.
U.S. Congress turns attention to debt limit battle (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress, already struggling to avert a government shutdown next week, turned its attention yesterday to the other fiscal bullet it had to dodge: a federal debt default. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives notified members that a vote on raising the debt limit could come as early tomorrow. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew pleaded for quick action in the deeply divided Congress on raising the $16.7 trillion statutory limit on government borrowing, as he projected an October 17 drop-dead date when only $30 billion would be left in his agency’s checking account. Amid those dire warnings, lawmakers struggled with another potential crisis: federal agency shutdowns that could begin with the new fiscal year on October 1
Jack Lew unless Congress comes up with emergency funds. The money would be used to continue paying U.S. troops, operate border patrols, provide free school lunches for poor children and thousands of other activities. The Senate voted unanimously to begin
advancing legislation to avert government agency shutdowns. But tough fights in both the Senate and House remained over the next few days. Both the debt ceiling and government funding measures were complicated by Republican attempts to use the must-do bills to gut President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, known as “Obamacare.” A disheveled Republican Senator Ted Cruz finished a 21-hour, 19-minute marathon of standing and speaking on the Senate floor, arguing for defunding Obamacare as part of the government-funding bill. Sporting a beard stubble and his blue tie sagging, the first-term Texas senator with presidential aspirations compared the healthcare law to the villain in the “Friday the 13th” horror films.
Al Shabaab leader confirms group attacked Kenyan mall, warns of more strikes (Reuters) - The leader of the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab has for the first time confirmed claims by members of his group that it was behind the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that killed at least 72 people and destroyed part of the
complex. In an audio posted on the al Shabaab-linked website www.somalimemo.net last night, Ahmed Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu alZubayr, said the attack on the mall was in r e t a l i a t i o n f o r K e n y a ’s incursion in October 2011
into southern Somalia to crush the insurgents. “Take your troops out or prepare for a longl a s t i n g w a r, b l o o d , destruction and evacuation,” Godane said in the message, apparently directed at the Kenyan government.
U.S., Russia, other powers agree on core of U.N. Syria resolution U N I T E D N AT I O N S (Reuters) - The United States, Russia, France, China and Britain have agreed on the core of a U.N Security Council resolution to rid Syria of its chemical weapons, two diplomats said yesterday.
The agreement came after the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the council met U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier in the day, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
They said a draft resolution could be presented to the full 15nation council soon and the five permanent members would also meet on Friday to discuss a proposed Syria peace conference in Geneva.
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