CAIRO — Supporters of toppled President Mohammed Morsi increased the pressure on Egypt’s interim leadership by defiantly flooding into two protest camps Monday, prompting police to postpone moving against the 6-week-old sit-ins because they feared a “massacre.” Pro-Morsi sit-ins gain
Pro-Morsi sit-ins
gain strength
CAIRO — Supporters of toppled President Mohammed Morsi increased the pressure on Egypt’s interim leadership by defiantly flooding into two protest camps Monday, prompting police to postpone moving against the 6-week-old sit-ins because they feared a “massacre.”
Morsi’s Islamist backers have rejected negotiations with the military-backed government, leaving the most populous Arab nation in an uneasy limbo.
Still, the delay by the security forces gave the Sunni Muslim world’s top religious institution more time to try to ease the political tensions with a new initiative.
Authorities also showed no signs of meeting key demands by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood to release top Islamists who have been detained and face criminal investigations.
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita wins Mali’s presidency
BAMAKO, Mali — Former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won Mali’s presidency after his opponent conceded defeat late Monday in an election aimed at restoring stability to a country wracked by a rebellion, a coup and an Islamic insurgency.
Soumalia Cisse’s concession averts a protracted election fight, allowing Mali to move ahead with establishing a democratically elected government, one of the international community’s caveats for unlocking some $4 billion in promised aid.
Keita, who is known by his initials “IBK,” had been expected to win the runoff easily, having pulled nearly 40 percent of the vote in the first round. Most of the other candidates from the first round had given their endorsements to Keita, who has had a long career in Malian government.
Cisse paid a visit to Keita’s home late Monday along with his wife and family to deliver his concession in person.
Prisoner release elicits mixed reactions
BRUKIN, West Bank — Mustafa al-Haj expected to die in an Israeli prison for killing an American-born settler hiking in the West Bank in 1989. Now lights decorate his home to celebrate the planned release of the 45-year-old and more than 100 other Palestinian convicts in a deal that revived Mideast peace talks.
While the Palestinians are joyful, the decision to free the inmates has stirred anger in Israel where victims’ families say it is an insult to their loved ones.
Israel published the names of 26 men, including al-Haj, to be freed before the first round of talks Wednesday. In all, 104 prisoners have been slated for release in four tranches over a period of nine months that the U.S. has set aside for negotiations. But their freedom is contingent on progress in the talks. The Israelis have granted early release to Palestinian prisoners in the past, including in swaps. The upcoming round, however, has sparked particularly high-pitched debate because it was linked to resuming talks and many of those to be freed were involved in deadly attacks.
44 killed at
mosque in Nigeria
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Suspected Islamic militants wearing army fatigues gunned down 44 people praying at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, while another 12 civilians died in an apparently simultaneous attack, security agents said Monday.
Sunday’s attacks were the latest in a slew of violence blamed on religious extremists in this West African oil producer, where the radical Boko Haram group, which wants to oust the government and impose Islamic law, poses the greatest security threat in years.
It was not immediately clear why the Islamic Boko Haram would have killed worshipping Muslims, but the group has in the past attacked mosques whose clerics have spoken out against religious extremism. Boko Haram also has attacked Christians outside churches and teachers and schoolchildren, as well as government and military targets.
By wire sources
