Egypt soccer riot kills 74; new clashes in Cairo
AFP: Egyptian protesters clashed with police for a second straight day on Friday as anger against the ruling military boiled over amid fury at the deaths of 74 people in football-related violence.
Marchers descended on parliament from mosques across Cairo to demand that the generals cede power immediately after a night of demonstrations in major cities across Egypt left at least two people dead.
In a sign of the growing threat the political turmoil poses to Egypt’s economy, two female American tourists and their Egyptian tour guide were kidnapped on the road from the historic St Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai peninsula, security officials said.
In the capital, riot police outside the interior ministry building fired tear gas at demonstrators, who hurled rocks back, after a night of confrontations left hundreds injured, an AFP correspondent reported.
The ministry said the injury toll since Thursday had reached 1,482 while one pro-democracy group, the Coalition of Maspero Youth, said one of its members had lost an eye during the clashes.
A soldier injured outside the ministry building on Thursday died in hospital on Friday, the state MENA news agency reported.
Masked protesters cut through barbed wire and lit fires on Mansur Street which leads to the ministry, as rocks flew overhead in all directions, the AFP correspondent said.
In nearby Tahrir Square – nerve centre of the mass rallies that forced Hosni Mubarak from power last February – thousands gathered chanting slogans against the military council that took power when the veteran president quit.
Marchers set off from mosques across the capital after noon prayers headed to parliament, a few blocks away.
In the canal city of Suez, where two demonstrators were killed late on Thursday, police fired birdshot and tear gas to disperse angry protesters, an AFP reporter said.
Under a volley of rocks and stones, ambulances ferried the injured out of Al-Arbaeen Square in the centre of the city at the opposite end of the Suez Canal from Port Said where Wednesday night’s stadium deaths enraged the nation.
The clashes between fans of home team Al-Masry and Cairo’s Al-Ahly marked one of the deadliest incidents in football history, and came amid claims by witnesses the security forces did little to prevent the rioting.
At final whistle, Al-Masry fans invaded the pitch after their team beat the visitors 3-1, throwing rocks, bottles and fireworks at Al-Ahly supporters, causing chaos and panic as players and fans fled in all directions, the witnesses said.
“This happened as security services stood by and did nothing, like they did in previous events, and perhaps they even contributed to the massacre,” wrote Ibrahim Mansur, a columnist for the independent daily Al-Tahrir.
“This happened under the military council whose ouster the people are demanding, and who has proved that it is a failure,” he said.
Egyptians have become increasingly angry with the ruling military, which they accuse of failing to manage the country and of human rights abuses.
For months, they have taken to the streets to demand the ouster of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and its chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi – Mubarak’s defence minister for two decades.
The SCAF has repeatedly pledged to cede full powers to civilian rule when a president is elected by the end of June.
But widespread suspicions that the military aims to retain some powers after the transition were fuelled by comments from U.S. former president Jimmy Carter after he held talks with the generals in Cairo last month.
“When I met with military leaders, my impression was they want to have some special privilege in the government after the president is elected,” Carter told reporters after the meeting.
In the Sinai, the abduction of the two American holidaymakers marked a fresh blow to Egypt’s already hard-hit tourism sector.
A group of masked gunmen held up the tourists’ bus in Wadi al-Soal in south Sinai, snatching the two women and their Egyptian driver, the officials said.
Bedouin sources told AFP the kidnappers were demanding the release of relatives held in Egyptian jails, without providing further details.
With its glitzy strip of golden beaches, hotels and casinos, diving resorts and golf courses, the Sinai is one of the gems of Egypt’s vital tourism sector but has been hit by mounting unrest, particularly from among its heavily armed Bedouin.
Last Saturday, a French tourist was killed and a German wounded during a hold-up at a money exchange bureau in the leading resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
—-
USAfrica: As Egypt’s corrupter-in-chief Mubarak slides into history’s dustbin. By Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/01/30/chido-nwangwu-as-egypt-corrupter-in-chief-mubarak-slides-into-historys-dustbin-egyptians-not-waiting-for-obama-and-united-nations/
Tunisia, Egypt . . . Is Nigeria next? By Prof. Rosaire Ifedi https://usafricaonline.com/2011/02/13/tunisia-egypt-is-nigeria-next-by-prof-rosaire-ifedi/
Obama’s Africa agenda, our business and democracy. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfricaonline.com and CLASS magazine and The Black Business Journal
www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html
Why Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa’s writer of the century. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/chido.achebebest.html
——-
VIDEO of the CNN International broadcast/profile of USAfrica and CLASSmagazine Publisher Chido Nwangwu. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn
Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com and the Nigeria360 e-group. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/ : IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary at USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/
Related insight: USAfrica’s October 17, 2001 special report/alert: Nigeria’s bin-Laden cheerleaders could ignite religious war, destabilize Africa. By USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/chido.binladennigeria.html
https://usafricaonline.com/tag/al-qaeda/
310 killed by Nigeria’s ‘talibans’ in Bauchi, Yobe n Maiduguri; crises escalate. USAfricaonline.com on July 28, 2009. www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html
http://www.groundreport.com/World/310-killed-by-Nigerias-talibans-in-Bauchi-Yobe-n-M/2904584
Related and prior reporting on the Jos crises on USAfrica, click here: https://usafricaonline.com/2011/08/16/10-killed-in-renewed-violence-near-jos/
News archives related to Jos, here https://usafricaonline.com/?s=jos
In the light of an icon, my mentor Stanley Macebuh (1942-2010). By Chido Nwangwu https://usafricaonline.com/2011/03/07/stanley-macebuh-tribute-by-chido-nwangwu/
USAfrica, and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com; The Black Business Journal, CLASSmagazine, PhotoWorks.TV, AchebeBooks.com, Nigeria360, USAfricaTV and several blogs, assessed by The New York TImes as the largest and arguably most influential multimedia networks for Africans and Americans. News@USAfricaonline.com. wireless: 1-832-45-CHIDO (24436). Office: 713-270-5500.
• For seasoned insights and breaking news on these issues, log on to USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica powered e-groups including Nigeria360 at yahoogroups and USAfrica at googlegroups. Follow us at Facebook.com/USAfricaChido and Twitter.com/Chido247
that just sucks. I thought the Soul Train LIne was the do-not-ever-miss the main show ‘cos the chicks were sexy with looking like the hootchies today and also the guys were always stylin’.
Watch it yourself and you may see him. If the camera hits him, he points in internet marketing like Uncle Sam. SuperFly Don Cornelius!!!!!
Can’t hear that song without dancing.Drowning in middle-aged nostalgia here, as Soul Train was an early childhood show to me.I was also thinking that the 70s were the peak years for Soul Train. Mavis Staples,Gladys Knight,etc.If Don Cornelius passed away in New Orleans,he’d obtain a jazz funeral with all the Rebirth Brass Band playing “I Feel Like Funking it Up” entirely back from your cemetary.