10 in Ten

Jan 23, 2011 10:46 PM | By TImes LIVE 

EGYPT

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Al-Qaeda group blamed for attack on Christians

A GROUP in Gaza linked to al-Qaeda was behind the New Year's Day suicide bombing that killed at least 21 Christians and wounded about a hundred at a church in Egypt's port city of Alexandria, Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said yesterday.

"Conclusive evidence" showed that the shadowy, Gaza-based Army of Islam was behind the planning and execution of the attack.

The worst attack on Egyptian Christians in more than a decade sparked three days of Christian rioting in Cairo and other cities.

Al-Adly made his announcement at a Police Day ceremony attended by President Hosni Mubarak, ministers and top police officials. - AP

TUNISIA

Top officials of Ben-Ali under house arrest

TWO officials of ousted Tunisian leader Zine al-Abidine ben-Ali have been confined under house arrest.

The Tunisian state news agency yesterday named them as Abdelaziz bin-Dhia, Ben-Ali's spokesman and chief adviser, and Abdallah Qallal, a former interior minister and head of Tunisia's appointed upper house of parliament.

The agency said the police were looking for Ben-Ali's political adviser, Abdelwahhab Abdalla.

Tunisia's interim government said last week that 33 members of Ben-Ali's family were arrested but named only one - Imed Trabelsi, a nephew of Ben-Ali's wife, Leila. - Reuters

US

State funding to boost pharmaceutical research

THE US, concerned about the slowing pace of new drugs from the pharmaceutical industry, is to start a billion-dollar government drug-development centre to help create medicines.

The New York Times reported this at a time when many large drug makers are cutting research.

Discoveries for illnesses such as depression and Parkinson's, which would once have led to clinical trials, went unexplored because companies lacked research funds. - Sapa-AP

IRAN

Ahmadinejad 'hopes' to resume nuclear talks

IRAN hoped to resume talks with world powers on its nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday after negotiations deadlocked with no clear agreement to meet again.

"If the other party is determined and committed to law, justice and respect, there is hope that, in the next sessions, good results would be achieved," he said.

Talks ended without progress on Saturday. Catherine Ashton, the group's lead negotiator, said no further talks were scheduled. - Reuters

RWANDA

Former top brass deny forming rebel group

TWO former senior Rwandan security officials yesterday denied claims that they had formed a rebel group in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rwanda's military chief of staff said on Saturday that former military chief General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa and former head of intelligence Patrick Karegeya set up a militia group that was collaborating with Congolese rebels. - Sapa-AFP

ISRAEL

Anti-apartheid tactics aimed at Jewish state

FOREIGN protests, boycotts, embargoes and sanctions, along with internal resistance, helped end the apartheid regime. Now Israelis fear pro-Palestinian, or anti-Israeli, activists are using the same tactics against them with increasing effect.

Carlos Santana, Gil Scott Heron, Elvis Costello, Gorillaz Sound System, the Klaxons, the Pixies, Faithless, Leftfield, Tindersticks, Meg Ryan and film director Mike Leigh have all decided not to go to Israel in recent months.

Website boycottisrael.info keeps count. Israeli analysts say a global "delegitimisation network" pressures artists. -Reuters

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Hope that presidential poll will bring stability

THE Central African Republic went to the polls yesterday in a presidential poll that observers hope will bring stability to a nation hit by decades of violence and coups.

President Francois Bozize, who seized control in 2003 and consolidated his position with an election victory in 2005, is considered the favourite, but some accuse him of preparing to rig the poll.

The man he ousted in 2003, Ange-Felix Patasse, returned from exile to stand against Bozize. Martin Ziguele, Patasse's prime minister from 2001 to 2003, is also running. -Sapa-DPA

JORDAN

King holds talks to get closer to the people

JORDAN'S King Abdullah had consulted representatives of various political views, hoping "to get closer to the demands of the people", before protests expected on Friday, a royal source said yesterday.

They included "former and incumbent high-ranking officials, activists, unionists and Islamists to hear the grievances of Jordanians and tune in with the street".

The king made "discrete visits to the . poorest areas to assess their needs".

Jordanians have been protesting against high prices and economic policy, and calling for change of government. - Sapa-AFP

AFGHANISTAN

Mosque protest against 'illegal parliament'

ABOUT 200 people protested at a mosque in Afghanistan's capital yesterday against President Hamid Karzai's decision to open the new parliament this week and not wait for an election-fraud investigation.

Losing candidate Najibullah Mujahid, of Kabul province, claimed the president had caved in to outside pressure: "This is an illegal parliament," he said. - Sapa-AP

ISRAEL

Probe clears military on blockade-runner deaths

AN ISRAELI inquiry cleared the government and military yesterday of wrongdoing in the bloody seizure of a Turkish aid ship trying to breach the Gaza blockade and blamed the ships's passengers for the violence.

The Turkel commission's report, to form the core of Israel's submission to a UN inquiry, endorsed the blockade, but urged a review to focus sanctions on Gaza's Hamas rulers and spare its civilians.

It does not seem likely that the findings will be welcomed by Turkey, nine of whose citizens were killed by Israeli commandos. - Reuters