Human remains recovered at EgyptAir crash site

Human remains have been recovered from the EgyptAir Flight 804 crash site in the Mediterranean, according to Egypt's Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee.

An Egyptian-contracted search vessel carrying the recovered remains is headed to the Egyptian port of Alexandria to hand over the remains to investigation officials and prosecutors, the committee said.
The number of victims that can be identified by the retrieved body parts is still unclear. Upon arrival, the remains will be transferred to the Department of Forensic Medicine in Cairo to begin DNA analysis immediately, a statement from the investigation committee said.

2nd black box from the doomed EgyptAir flight recovered fromMediterranean Sea

The second black box from the doomed EgyptAir flight has been recovered from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Search teams on Friday recovered the second flight recorder of an EgyptAir plane from the bottom of the Mediterranean that could prove vital in establishing the cause of the unexplained crash.

Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar screens in the eastern Mediterranean last month with 66 people on board, and a vast search operation has since scoured swathes of sea off Egypt’s northern coast.

Debris from #EgyptAir flight has been found in Mediterranean Sea

*Debris from #EgyptAir flight has been found in Mediterranean

*Airliner ‘apparently’ brought down by terror attack – Russia’s security chief

BREAKING: Debris from #EgyptAir flight has been found in Mediterranean https://t.co/b5Q8U4600Y

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 19, 2016

REUTERS reports that a Greek frigate searching for a missing Egyptair aircraft discovered two large plastic floating objects in a sea area 230 miles south of the island of Crete on Thursday, Greek defence sources said.

Tear gas, arrests as Egypt protesters defy ban

Egyptian police fired tear gas at protesters in Cairo who defied government warnings and held a rally Monday calling for the "downfall" of the regime, quickly scattering them and making arrests. A coalition of leftist and liberal groups had called for the protest, ostensibly against the handing over of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

But in a country where most protests are banned, the gesture was aimed more at defying what activists call the heavy-handed rule of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

In the lead-up to the protest, police arrested dozens of activists over the past week, in some cases raiding their homes. By Monday morning, police had closed off a street leading to the Journalists' Syndicate, where the protesters had announced they would gather, and deployed in force in central Cairo.

EgyptAir passenger plane hijacked, forced to Cyprus, Hijacker in suicide vest

Three more uniformed individuals run out of EgyptAir plane: Cypriot TV

Passengers released from plane that was forced to divert to Cyprus, amid reports that hijacker has personal motive.

Negotiations with the Hijacker result in the release of all the passengers, except the crew and four foreigners - EGYPTAIR

EgyptAir passenger flight MS181 hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus - An EgyptAir domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo in Egypt has been hijacked and landed in Cyprus.

EgyptAir confirmed flight MS181 had 55 passengers and seven crew on board and that negotiations with the hijacker have so far led to the release of all the passengers except the cabin crew and four foreigners.

EgyptAir flight MS181 to Cairo departed Alexandria at 8am local time

* Pilot was forced to land at Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus
* There were 56 passengers, seven crew and a security officer on board the A320 aircraft
* Four crew members and three passengers still held hostage, while all others have been released
* The hijacker, Egyptian citizen Seif El Din Mustafa, reportedly wanted to deliver a letter to his ex-wife

BREAKING: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seeks peace talks with Israel to resume in Cairo as soon as possible; Egypt to invite delegates to resume Gaza truce talk

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seeks peace talks with Israel to resume in Cairo as soon as possible. Egypt to invite delegates to resume Gaza truce talk!

Abbass said peace talk with Israel should resume as soon as possible. Israel kept up the pressure on Hamas in Gaza on Saturday, carrying out multiple air strikes that killed six Palestinians, five of them from the same family, as Egypt prepared to convene new truce talks.

Eighty-three Palestinians and a four-year-old Israeli boy been killed since Tuesday, when a previous round of frantic Egyptian diplomacy collapsed, shattering nine days of calm.

"Egypt is going to invite delegates to return to the negotiating table to consider a long-term truce," Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"What interests us now is putting a stop to the bloodshed," Abbas said.

Breaking: Cairo urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume Gaza talks

Israeli air strike on Gaza City kills wife, infant daughter of elusive Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif

An Israeli air strike on Gaza City kills the wife and infant daughter of elusive Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif as Truce talks between Israelis and Palestinians collapse, Israel's Haaretz says.

"The wife of the great leader was martyred with his daughter," in a strike on Tuesday night, Hamas' exiled deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

He said nothing about the fate of Mr Deif himself. He said Israel had been looking for "an excuse to target a big Hamas leader".

Egyptian attempts to broker an end to a month-long war between Israel and Hamas militants collapsed in heavy fighting Tuesday, with Palestinian militants firing dozens of rockets and Israel responding with airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.

Tony Blair wants Cairo to mediate Israeli-Hamas' Gaza violence

Cairo (AFP) - Egyptian government, under new President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has adopted a hands-off approach towards the conflict in Gaza amid deteriorating ties with Hamas. Mideast Quartet envoy Tony Blair arrived in Cairo Saturday for talks on ending the violence in Gaza, where Israeli air raids have killed more than 155 Palestinians this week, officials said.

Blair, who represents the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States, will hold talks with Egyptian officials to press for an end to the c

Despite international concern, truce efforts have been unsuccessful, according to Egypt, which had been key in mediating previous ceasefires between Hamas and Israel.

Yahoo

Why Iran rejects U.S. action in Iraq as militants push east

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
 stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraq city of Mosul

(Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader accused the United States on Sunday of trying to retake control of Iraq by exploiting sectarian rivalries, as Sunni insurgents drove toward Baghdad from new strongholds along the Syrian border.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's condemnation of U.S. action in Iraq came three days after President Barack Obama offered to send 300 military advisers in response to pleas from Iraq's government. It ran counter to speculation that old enemies Washington and Tehran might cooperate to defend their mutual ally in Baghdad after two weeks of swift territorial gains by Sunni Islamists.

On Sunday, militants overran a second frontier post on the Syrian border as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) pursues the goal of its own caliphate straddling both countries.

Morocco 2015: Super Eagles, Black Stars in Pot 1

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has put in motion the road to Morocco 2015 as the seeding for the potentials draws were made on Saturday.

CAF approved dates for the AFCON Morocco 2015 at its meeting at CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. According to CAF, the Orange Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2015 will be played from 17th January through 8th February 2015. The distribution of groups between the host cities of the tournament was also formalized.

Egypt Opens Another Mass Trial of 683 Islamist Botherhood Members

(MINYA, Egypt) — Egypt authority has opened another mass trial of Muslim Breotherhood suspects with 683 defendants facing charges of murder and sabotage, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s top leader. The charges stem from rioting last August, sparked when security forces stormed two Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo, killing over 600 people.

Tuesday’s proceedings are held in the southern city of Minya, where just the day before the same court handed down death sentences to nearly 530 supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi over a deadly attack on a police station.

529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters sentences to death in Egypt

CAIRO — A court in southern Egyptian has convicted 529 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, sentencing them to death on charges of murdering a policeman and attacking police.


Egyptian court in Minya issued its ruling on Monday after only two sessions in which the defendants’ lawyers complained they had no chance to present their case.