Egypt's Mubarak talks for 1st time since detention

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's former president, Hosni Mubarak, has spoken to the public for the first time since his detention two years ago, saying he is dismayed at the country's state of affairs and particularly the plight of the poor.

The 85-year old Mubarak spoke to Al-Watan newspaper after a session of his retrial for his role in the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that forced him to step down in 2011.

He was detained two years ago and put on trial. He has since been hospitalized, sentenced to life in prison and then granted a retrial.

Mubarak told the newspaper that it was too early to judge his elected successor, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi.

Mubarak's comments were published Sunday, a day after his trial session.

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Egypt's prime minister unhurt by shooting near his car: police

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police on Sunday detained a young man who opened fire on Prime Minister Hisham Kandil's convoy and his four companions in Cairo in an incident the authorities said had no political motive. Kandil was not injured.

The young men were on their way to settle a feud when their vehicle crossed paths with Kandil's convoy at 11 p.m. (5 p.m. EST)in Dokki, a residential and commercial district of the capital, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

When Kandil's security guards tried to force the vehicle away from the convoy, one of the men fired two shots at their car. The police gave chase and caught the five men, the Interior Ministry said. The incident had no "political motives or other dimensions", it added.

The five men were aged between 18 and 29, the Interior Ministry statement said.

(Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Christopher Wilson)

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New leader to head Egypt's Jewish community

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Jewish community has announced that it has elected the daughter of a well-known leftist and nationalist icon to protect its heritage and care for its dwindling, elderly membership.

Magda Haroun, 60, told The Associated Press Tuesday she aimed to continue the work of her predecessor, Carmen Weinstein, who died Saturday at the age of 82. Weinstein was known for her efforts to preserve synagogues and a Jewish cemetery.

"My new priority is to preserve the Egyptian Jewish heritage ... to give it back to Egypt, because it belongs to Egypt," Haroun said.

Haroun, an Egyptian who is fluent in Arabic, French and English, was born in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city. She attended school in Cairo, and graduated from Cairo University with a degree in Applied Arts. She runs a patents and legal affairs firm with her sister Nadia.

Haroun said she considered herself Egyptian before Jewish, born and raised in the country.

Her father Chehata Haroun was a prominent Egyptian nationalist, one of the founders of the leftist Al Tagammu Party. He was known for his anti-Zionist politics and his defense of Egyptian Jews against accusations of having greater loyalty to Israel than to Egypt, at the peak of the Mideast wars.

Haroun had previously told the AP that only around 40 Egyptian Jews remain in the country, a far-cry from the once-thriving Jewish community that largely left more than 60 years ago at a time of hostilities between Egypt and Israel.

"I will continue taking care of them, socially, medically, gathering them for the holidays, and burying them with dignity," Haroun said.

Haroun was unanimously elected as community president at an extraordinary general assembly meeting held on Monday, following Weinstein's death.

Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, an estimated 65,000 Jews left Egypt — most of them traveling to Europe and the West. Few of them settled in Israel. The remnants of the community are split between Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria that was also once a thriving multicultural and cosmopolitan hub.

Considerable hostility persists in Egypt, where radical preachers and others regularly denounce both Israel and Jews in general. However, Haroun said that Egyptians were kind-hearted and what ultimately mattered was social interaction. "If you treat others well, you will be treated well," she said.

Haroun dismissed any fears from the rise of Islamists to power in Egypt after the 2011 overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising. "The community size is still the same, and they keep dying one after another, what's the difference?"

But she said that the ensuing political turmoil around the community had made members fearful.

"Don't forget that most of the community is elderly women and housewives, uninvolved in everyday life," she added. "When they see the intolerance around them, they become more anxious."

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Egypt's Mubarak still jailed despite release order

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Egypt's legislature approves election law

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Islamist-dominated legislature approved a revised version of the law organizing the country's parliamentary elections on Thursday, after a court ruled an earlier version was invalid and delayed the vote.

The parliamentary elections had been scheduled to start this month, but the ruling said the law must be reviewed by the Supreme Constitutional Court before elections can be called. That body had asked for amendments to the earlier draft.

Thursday's approval was made by Egypt's Shura Council, the upper house of parliament now fully entrusted with legislation until new elections are held. It also referred the text to the Supreme Constitutional Court for review, Egypt's state news agency reported.

The Supreme Constitutional Court could take up to 45 days to rule on the new law. President Mohammed Morsi has said he expects the elections to be held in October.

Also on Thursday, Morsi promoted the heads of Egypt's air force, air defense forces and navy to the rank of Lieutenant-general during a meeting with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The decision came amid recurrent media reports of strained relations between the presidency and the military.

Egypt's state news agency quoted an official close to the meeting as saying Morsi expressed his appreciation for the role of the armed forces, and his rejection for any attempts to "slander" it. He has repeatedly denied tensions with the military.

Opposition members were not immediately available for comment on the electoral law. But Egypt's opposition said it was not consulted on its drafting and had said before it would boycott the vote.

The opposition, represented by the National Salvation Front, had expressed concerns over gerrymandering by Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. The opposition had also criticized a recent decision by the council to allow the use of religious slogans during the campaigning period.

Members of the council discussed the law over the last month. In televised sessions, they voted over the redrawing of districts, one of the changes the Supreme Court had asked for. Members said security officials, who oversee and secure the voting, had approved much of the redrawing.

Morsi and his supporters view the parliamentary elections as a step toward bringing stability to the country and capping months of turmoil. They accuse the opposition of stirring up unrest to derail the voting.

But the mainly liberal and secular opposition had called for a boycott of the vote, saying Morsi must first find some political consensus and ease the wave of popular anger. Regardless of whether the opposition boycotts or not, the Islamists would likely win a parliamentary majority.

Egypt's has been increasingly mired in highly polarized politics, waves of protests and deadly violence.

Recent sectarian violence since the weekend has left eight people dead, including at least six Coptic Christians.

It was the worst bout of such violence since Morsi was elected in June 2012. Morsi strongly condemned the clashes, but the Coptic Pope was highly critical of the authorities' response to the violence, during which the main Coptic Cathedral in Egypt came under attack.

The violence which started Saturday in Khosoos, a town north of Cairo, left another five dead — including four Christians.

More clashes broke out Sunday at the cathedral after funerals for the Christian victims. An angry mob of Muslims threw firebombs and rocks at the church, leaving two people dead, one of them a Christian.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's estimated 84 million people. They have long complained of discrimination by the state and by some among the majority Muslims. Clashes break out occasionally with Muslims over the building of churches or because of inter-religious love affairs.

Over the two years since Egypt's uprising against longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, the community has grown more concerned about its future as Islamist political forces, long repressed under the previous autocratic regime, grew more assertive. Attacks against Christians have grown bolder and more frequent, particularly in poorer and rural areas.

Also on Sunday, a traditional reconciliation meeting was held in Khosoos between local religious figures from both sides. The session was also attended by security officials and one of the president's aides, Emad Abdel-Ghaffour.

Clashes and disputes between Christians and Muslims are usually addressed through such reconciliation gatherings, mediated by security and religious leaders. Rights group say the informal sessions preclude criminal prosecution for crimes and contribute to a climate of impunity that permits such assaults.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch appealed to Morsi's government to break the "cycle of impunity" in sectarian violence, which it said is "rarely properly investigated and punished."

____

Mariam Rizk in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Hungarian observer in Egypt's Sinai released

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — Armed Bedouin tribesmen briefly abducted a Hungarian member of the multinational observer force in Sinai, releasing him around two hours later after tribal elders intervened, a security official said Thursday.

An official with the force confirmed the kidnapping of the Hungarian who was traveling Thursday in a bus from el-Arish in north Sinai to Cairo, a regular trip members of the force make to the capital.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The security official said the elders secured the release of the force member by mediating between the tribesman and the government. The kidnappers were demanding the release of a member of their tribe arrested earlier on drug-related charges. The official said authorities promised they would review the case of the arrested tribesman, but that they have not released him.

It is rare that members of the 12-nation force stationed in the Sinai are abducted by local tribesmen, although they have attacked the force's buses and headquarters. The largest contingent in the Sinai force is American.

Bedouin tribesmen often briefly hold tourists to pressure the government in negotiations over the release of imprisoned relatives.

The clans in Sinai have long complained of discrimination by the state, and mass arrests in the area after bombings in 2004 and 2005 only further poisoned relations between residents and authorities. Investigations into the bombings have never given a clear explanation of who was behind the attacks.

Following the uprising that forced longtime autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak out of office in 2011, security in the area deteriorated. Police have yet to fully re-assert themselves as armed groups and weapons smugglers operate more freely than in the past.

Egypt's new government has struggled to impose order in the Sinai, whose northern region borders Hamas-ruled Gaza. The peninsula's southern tip has traditionally been a tourist destination known for golden beaches and top-notch diving spots.

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Egypt's pope sharply criticizes president

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Coptic Christian pope delivered an unprecedented direct criticism of the Islamist president Tuesday after a mob attack on the church's main cathedral, saying he had failed to protect the building and warning that the country is collapsing.

The comments by Pope Tawadros II and the cathedral attack itself illustrate a new reality in Egypt, where institutions long seen as above the fray are being dragged into the country's intense polarization and political violence.

Egypt has become increasingly divided between two camps, with President Mohammed Morsi and Islamist allies on one side and an opposition made up of moderate Muslims, Christians and liberals on the other, a schism essentially over the country's political future after decades of dictatorship. Opponents accuse Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of seeking to monopolize power, while Morsi's allies say the opposition is trying to destabilize the country to derail the elected leadership.

Traditionally, a number of state icons were considered untouchable politically — nationalist pillars vital for the state's stability and so too important to be criticized or mired in disputes. But one by one, they have been sucked into the country's divisions, whether under pressure to take sides or outright plunged into controversy.

The military was pulled into politics early on when it took power following the February 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak and ruled for nearly 17 months. The courts became the center of controversy last year, with repeated confrontations between Morsi's administration and members of the judiciary.

Now, not only the Coptic Church but also the country's most eminent Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, are getting caught up in the turmoil.

Tawadros' remarks Tuesday in a telephone interview with the private ONTV network were his first direct criticism of Morsi since he was enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of Egypt's Orthodox Coptic Christians. Christians make up an estimated 10 percent of Egypt's 90 million people.

Tawadros said Morsi had promised him in a telephone conversation to do everything to protect the St Mark Cathedral, which also serves as the papal seat.

"But in reality he did not," Tawadros said. When asked to explain, he said: It "comes under the category of negligence and poor assessment of events." He did not make clear whether he was accusing Morsi himself of negligence or whether he was addressing the president's government.

In violence Sunday, an angry mob of Muslims threw firebombs and rocks at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo, leaving two people dead. One of the two was identified as a Christian.

The attack followed a funeral service for four Christians killed in sectarian clashes in a town north of Cairo, which also left a Muslim dead, the deadliest sectarian violence since Morsi came to office as Egypt's first freely elected president.

Tawadros warned, "This is a society that is collapsing. Society is collapsing every day."

"The church has been a national symbol for 2,000 years," he said. "It has not been subjected to anything like this even during the darkest ages ... There has been no positive and clear action from the state, but there is a God. The church does not ask for anyone's protection, only from God."

Morsi strongly condemned the recent violence and said that he considered any attack on the cathedral to be an attack on him personally. He also ordered an investigation into the violence and revived a state body called the National Council for Justice and Equality mandated to promote equality between Egyptians regardless of their religious and ethnic background.

On Tuesday, four of his top aides visited the cathedral to offer their condolences for the victims of the violence.

A presidential statement issued late Tuesday reasserted Morsi's commitment to protect the Coptic church and to bring to justice those behind the violence. It described the president's order to revive the council as a "serious initial step."

Also in an earlier statement, the office of Morsi's assistant for foreign relations underlined that the presidency rejects violence "in all forms and under any pretext" and that "all Egyptians are citizens who should enjoy all rights and are equal before the law." It said the presidency has ordered authorities to "to exert their utmost efforts to contain the situation and protect the lives and property of citizens."

Speaking to reporters in Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell urged Morsi to make good on his promise of a full investigation and to make public the findings.

"The failure to prosecute perpetrators of sectarian crimes has contributed to an environment of impunity in Egypt, and so we are concerned," he said.

Still, Tawadros was critical of the promises of investigation and the revival of the justice and equality body. "Enough already of formations, committees and groups and whatever else," he said. "We want action not words and, let me say this, there are many names and committees but there is no action on the ground."

Long before the weekend's deadly sectarian violence, Tawadros has gone on record saying he was unhappy with the Islamist-backed constitution that was rushed to passage in a referendum in December.

But his criticism Tuesday was a powerful departure from the church's longstanding policy of avoiding confrontations with the government of the day. Pointedly, Tawadros added his praise of the sheik of Al-Azhar — another institution struggling to stay immune from the country's political battles — saying the sheik was the first to call him and express support amid Sunday's violence.

Al-Azhar, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning, was hit by the turmoil last week. Students from Al-Azhar University stormed the office of the sheik of Al-Azhar, Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, angry over a case of food poisoning in the university that sickened dozens. El-Tayeb was forced to remove the university's president.

Some Al-Azhar clerics and opponents of Islamists charged that the Muslim Brotherhood was behind the protests, trying to embarrass el-Tayeb. Some in Al-Azhar, which is touted as a center for religious moderation, believe the Brotherhood or more hardline Islamists want to replace el-Tayeb to install one of their own in the post.

In an interview with ONTV this week, an aide to el-Tayeb, Mahmoud Azab, suggested the protest seemed "politicized," adding, "We hope that is not the case... We hope that the path of Al-Azhar toward unifying the Egyptian people will not be obstructed" — though he later issued a statement insisting his comments were not directed at any group.

In a statement Saturday, the Brotherhood denied any role in the protest, blaming "counter-revolution forces who control certain media outlets" for spreading the idea to create tensions between the group and el-Tayeb.

"Our relationship is good, and our respect for the institution of Al-Azhar and its imam is immense," it said.

But the questions swirling around so many institutions at once have fueled the sense of instability among many Egyptians, on top of the country's mounting economic woes and the struggle to end lawlessness on the streets that has been pervasive since Mubarak's fall.

Some of Morsi's opponents have called on the military to step back in to a direct role in politics. The generals have said nothing publicly on such calls, but its leaders have made it clear on several occasions they were the ultimate guarantors of the nation's stability and would not hesitate to intervene if things go out of control.

Morsi's tussles with the judiciary — including a recent court order annulling his installation of a new top prosecutor late last year — have deeply divided the country. Opponents accuse Morsi of trying to undermine the courts, a claim the presidency denies, while Morsi supporters often depict some in the judiciary as counter-revolutionaries trying to stop his agenda.

In its statement Saturday, the Brotherhood blasted what it called "libel, slander and misinformation" that it said were aimed at causing divisions between the group and the military or judiciary.

"We have great faith in the wisdom of Egypt's national and religious institutions, and that they cannot be fooled by counter-revolutionary conspiracies that plot against the homeland and the people who have known the Brotherhood for decades," it said.

___

AP correspondent Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Egypt's revolutionary cleric suspended over sermon

CAIRO (AP) — A Muslim cleric who led prayers for protesters in Tahrir Square during the uprising against ousted President Hosni Mubarak and subsequent protests says he has been suspended by a ministerial decree following a citizen's complaint about his criticism of the current Islamist president.

Sheik Mazhar Shahin told The Associated Press he was informed on Tuesday of the suspension and an investigation into his comments.

An aide to the religious endowments minister, who issued the order, didn't return calls seeking comment. The ministry oversees mosque preachers.

Shahin read to the AP the complaint against him accusing him of acting "like a TV station or opposition paper" and deepening divisions by criticizing President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. In a recent sermon, Shahin warned against Brotherhood control over state institutions.

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Egypt's president in Sudan, hopes for better ties

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Egypt's president is visiting Sudan, his first trip to his country's southern neighbor since he took office nine months ago.

Mohammed Morsi's two-day visit is the longest by an Egyptian president to Sudan in decades. It underlines Egypt's renewed interest in boosting cooperation after what was seen as neglect and deteriorating relations under ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak accused Sudan of harboring suspects in the 1995 assassination attempt against him in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

Morsi was greeted Thursday by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a fellow Islamist.

A large business delegation traveled with Morsi, a sign his government is interested in increased economic cooperation with Sudan. The two countries share a long border, and the Nile River runs through both.

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Egypt's president in Sudan to improve ties

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Egypt's president began a two-day visit to Sudan on Thursday aimed at boosting cooperation after deteriorating relations between the two nations under ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

It was Mohammed Morsi's first trip to Egypt's southern neighbor since he took office nine months ago and the longest by an Egyptian president in decades. Mubarak, Egypt's longtime autocratic leader, who was toppled in a 2011 popular uprising, accused Sudan of harboring those suspected of trying to assassinate him in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa in 1995.

Morsi and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir share an Islamist background, and both countries see the rise of an Islamist to power in Cairo as an opportunity to improve ties. The two nations share a long border and the Nile River that runs through both.

Al-Bashir visited Morsi last year after the Egyptian elections. Now, Morsi is visiting al-Bashir even though the Sudanese president has been named in an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for his role in crimes committed during his rule in the war-torn region of Darfur. Egypt agrees with the African Union, which had dismissed the warrant as endangering Sudan's future and thinks al-Bashir enjoys immunity as a head of state.

A large official and business delegation accompanied Morsi, who faces an Egyptian economy in tatters following two years of unrest and dwindling foreign investment and tourism. Sudan, too, is facing hard economic times, following the separation of the south in 2011 and unresolved disputes with its new neighbor South Sudan over sharing oil wealth and borders.

The International Monetary Fund is urging both countries to adopt harsh austerity measures to meet dwindling government revenues.

"Undoubtedly, the internal and external challenges Egypt and Sudan face, and their aspiration for a better future makes it necessary that we work together to better use the resources and energies available to the two countries," Morsi told a gathering of officials and businessmen in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

He said two land routes linking Sudan and Egypt would soon be inaugurated and new bilateral agricultural and industrial projects were underway.

Hundreds of Sudanese, waving Egyptian and Sudanese flags, lined a road from the airport to greet Morsi. One banner read: "We love you Morsi."

Sudan's foreign minister said Morsi's visit would "remove all impurities" that marked previous bilateral relations.

Both countries have vested interests in keeping intact a 1959 agreement that allocates the bulk of Nile River water to Sudan and Egypt, despite calls for a new agreement supported by nine countries such as Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.

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Since fierce clash, Egypt's crisis takes new turn

CAIRO (AP) — It has come to be known as the "Battle of the Mountain": a ferocious fight between members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and their opponents near the group's Cairo headquarters. In a country that has already seen crisis after crisis, it could mark a dangerous turning point in the political turmoil.

The aftermath of the fighting is raising worries that the confrontation between Islamists,, who dominate power in the country, and their opponents is moving out of anyone's control.

The riot on March 22 revealed a new readiness of some in the anti-Brotherhood opposition to turn to violence, insisting they have no choice but to fight back against a group they accuse of using violence against them for months. The fight featured an unusual vengefulness. Young protesters were seen at one point pelting a Brotherhood member with firebombs and setting him aflame. Others chased anyone with a conservative Muslim beard, while Islamists set up checkpoints searching for protesters. Each side dragged opponents into mosques and beat them.

Since the fight, Islamists enraged by what they saw as aggression against their headquarters have for the past week hiked up calls for wider action against opponents — and the media in particular — accusing them of trying to overthrow Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Those calls may explain moves by the country's top prosecutor the past week: the questioning of a popular television comedian, Bassem Youssef, whose Jon Stewart-style satires of Morsi drive Islamists into knots of anger, the summoning of several other media personalities and the issuing of arrest warrants against five opposition activists on accusations of fomenting violence.

Opposition activists warn the moves are the opening of a campaign of intimidation to silence Morsi's critics. The presidency says the prosecutor is just enforcing the law and that Morsi's office has nothing to do with the moves. Morsi's supporters say they are showing restraint against extreme provocation.

But rhetoric within the Brotherhood has increased in fervor. This week, Brotherhood head Mohammed Badie accused "some politicians" of "trying to generate something like a civil war in the community," in an apparent reference to opposition leaders.

"After all that blood and all the criminality in the street, there must be decisiveness," Gamal Heshmat, a lawmaker with the Brotherhood's political party, said of the recent arrest warrants. "This is a public demand. Now people must prove their innocence."

For opponents of Morsi, the battle was a sign that anger at the Brotherhood is spreading beyond its circles to the broader public, nine months into the administration of Brotherhood veteran Morsi.

Ziad el-Oleimi, a former lawmaker and revolutionary activist who lives in the neighborhood where the clashes took place, said local residents were behind the worst beatings of Brotherhood members, rather than the protesters who led the day's march on the group's headquarters.

Previous Brotherhood aggression "is starting to provoke people," said el-Oleimi, who was a leading figure in the 2011 protests that toppled Morsi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. "This time was a game changer. They had anticipated they would beat up the protesters, the opposition, and teach them a lesson. This is not what happened." Locals had already filed appeals to local authorities demanding that the Brotherhood office be removed from their neighborhood.

The fury growing for months was on display in the March 22 clashes in Moqattam, a district located on a rocky plateau overlooking Cairo, where the Brotherhood's headquarters is located.

Both sides came ready for a fight. Opponents had called for a march on the Brotherhood headquarters to "restore dignity" after an incident a week earlier, when Brotherhood members beat up activists who were spray-painting graffiti outside the building, as well as journalists filming the incident, slapping one woman to the ground.

The Brotherhood brought in several thousand supporters, vowing to defend the building, referring to it as "our home."

The mayhem erupted the minute the two sides faced off, and each accuses the other of throwing the first stone. The heaviest fighting was in a square several kilometers (miles) away from the Brotherhood headquarters, which was guarded by lines of police. Rains of stones and gunshots were exchanged, while "popular committees" formed by residents to protect their neighborhood joined in, swinging poles and machetes.

All day and into the night, the two sides battered each other with everything from knives and iron bars to homemade pistols, leaving 200 injured.

Bearded Brotherhood members dragged dozens of activists into the Bilal bin Ramah Mosque, where they beat them and flogged them with whips, several of those who were held told The Associated Press.

Christian activist Amir Ayad recalled how, while he was being beaten, he'd hear Brotherhood supporters coming into the mosque greeted by their comrades who told them, "Go warm up on that Christian dog inside." Ayad — who was left with a fractured skull and broken ribs — said Brotherhood members forced him to pose for photograph, wielding a knife they pushed into his hands to use as evidence that he was thug.

Opponents, meanwhile, snatched a number of Brotherhood members and took them into the Al-Hamad Mosque. A reporter for the Brotherhood's party newspaper, Mustafa el-Khatib, told the AP he was seized and carried by his arms and legs into the mosque and beaten.

"You sheep, we'll show you," his tormentors shouted, using a term many protesters use against Islamists they see as blindly following their leaders, el-Khatib told the AP. He had deep cuts in his head and bruises all over his body.

Many in the anti-Morsi camp said they were bringing their protests to the real power in the country — the Brotherhood. The 85-year-old fundamentalist group forms the backbone of Morsi's leadership, though the presidency and the group both deny the Brotherhood has any role in his decisions.

"We came to say that Morsi is not a president. It is Badie and (Khairat) el-Shater," said Fatma Khalifa, a 30-year-old protester, referring to the Brotherhood's top two figures. "Morsi is just an envoy."

They were also fired with anger over previous Islamist violence against them. In December, Morsi backers attacked a sit-in protest outside the presidential palace in Cairo, leading to hours of clashes between the two sides that left 10 dead. During that fighting, Islamists set up an impromptu detention center, seizing and beating protesters.

Morsi supporters have attacked other, smaller protests, including one in October when they stormed a stage set up by protesters in Tahrir Square downtown, smashing loudspeakers, because of slogans they saw as insulting the president. The result again was clashes that left 100 injured. January and February saw heavy fighting between police and protesters around the country that killed dozens, and opponents blame Morsi, saying he pushed police to put down the protests.

Brotherhood members, in turn, point to arson attacks on several of their party offices around the country over the past months and say waves of protests have undermined their governing of the nation. They have progressively become more direct in blaming opposition politicians — moving from urging them to denounce the violence to accusing some of using unrest to topple the elected president.

In a finger-wagging speech after the Moqattam battle, Morsi warned opponents he would take measures to "protect this nation." He also accused the media of inciting violence, and the Brotherhood echoed that with a statement accusing "hostile" media of "fabricating lies against" the group.

Mourad Ali, a media adviser for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, acknowledged the rising anger among Morsi's supporters. "I know young Islamists are charged up, and anger at the crimes in Moqattam has reached the top," he wrote on his Facebook page. He called for the "revenge (to) be legal and creative," urging members to collect evidence against those behind the violence.

Among Morsi opponents, there is a fear of a campaign against them, but also a sense that they showed they can fight back.

Wael Abdel-Fattah, a cultural columnist at Al-Tahrir newspaper and a sharp critic of the Islamists, said Moqattam shattered the myth of an "invincible" Brotherhood and showed no one has a monopoly on force.

"The violence started when the means for political protesting were shut," he said. He spoke of "a new kind of balance in violence," adding, "This balance can either create a new political awareness or push toward more violence, where everyone knows they will pay the price."

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Muslims attack Christians in Egypt's south

ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) — Hundreds of Muslim villagers in Egypt's south have attacked Christian-owned stores in search of a girl whose family claims was abducted.

The villagers assaulted the stores Tuesday and surrounded two churches in the city of al-Wasta in Bani Suef province in Egypt's south. Security forces guarded the churches. No casualties were reported.

The college-aged girl disappeared around one month ago. The crowd accused local Christian of kidnapping her.

Bani Suef's prosecutor, Hamdi Farouk, said there was no reason to believe Christians were involved in her disappearance.

Security chief Ibrahim Hudeib said the girl left her house with her gold and passport in hand and may have fled with a local Muslim boy.

Past clashes have been sparked by rumors of conversion, Muslim-Christian love affairs and the construction of churches.

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Egypt's Brotherhood blasts UN women's document

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood sharply criticized an anticipated U.N. document on combatting violence against women, saying on Wednesday that it was "deceitful," clashed with Islamic principles and undermined family values.

The text or details of the document have not been published yet, but it may be issued at the end of a meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women this week in New York. Negotiations have been bogged down in debate.

According to the Brotherhood, which has emerged as the most powerful political faction in Egypt since the 2011 uprising, the draft under discussion advocates sexual freedoms for women and the right to abortion "under the guise of sexual and reproductive rights."

In its strongly worded statement, the Brotherhood also decried the document's defense of homosexual rights, which are not recognized in Islam, and the equating between children born in and out of wedlock.

It said the title of the document addressing violence is "deceitful."

"It contains articles that clash with Islamic principles and its basics mentioned in the Quran (Islam's holy book) and in Islamic traditions," the Brotherhood statement said. "It eliminates Islamic values, and seeks to destroy the family ... which would lead to social disintegration."

The Brotherhood, which won Egypt's presidency and controls parliament, called on other Muslim nations, women's groups and Islamic organizations to reject the document. It called it an infringement on the thought, culture and uniqueness of Islamic societies.

The Brotherhood urged women's rights groups not to be "lured by phony calls for civilized behavior and by misleading and destructive processes."

Libya's supreme religious cleric also raised similar concerns, rejecting the document for violating Islamic teachings.

In particular, he rejected equality between men and women in matters of inheritance, which Islamic jurisprudence does not accept, and criticized wording on sexual freedoms and rights of children born out of wedlock.

The Commission meeting, which opened on March 4, focused on combatting violence against women. Cabinet ministers and ambassadors as well as representatives of civil society from 193 U.N. member states are attending.

The head of the U.N. women's agency, Michelle Bachelet, said she hoped the meeting would produce a document that becomes a tool to improve the fight against violence against women.

She called for more robust action and commitments to ensure the protection of the rights of women and girls to live in dignity, free of violence and discrimination.

The debate over the document is still ongoing in New York, particularly over reproductive and sexual health and rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual rights.

U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations are private, said Egypt proposed an amendment saying that each country is sovereign and can implement the document in accordance with its own laws and customs, a clause the West strongly opposes.

Such a document was unattainable a decade ago when the commission took up the issue, because governments were unable to reach agreement. Differences over sex education, a woman's right to reproductive health, and demands for an exception for traditional, cultural and religious practices stymied an accord.

The Brotherhood's statement appeared to reflect those persistent differences, saying that religious traditions and values are threatened by such a universal document.

Debates on women's issues in Egypt, and in the Muslim world at large, are traditionally buried in debates over Islamic laws and whether their interpretations are compatible with demands for more personal freedoms.

With the rise of Islamic fundamentalist groups to power in the region following the past two years of protests against autocratic rulers, many women rights groups fear a regression in women's freedoms with a stricter interpretation of Islamic laws.

Already, Egypt's speech at the opening of the commission meeting has set off a storm in the women's rights community.

The speech was delivered on March 4 by Pakinam el-Sharqawi, an aide to President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood. In her speech, el-Sharqawi praised Egypt's new constitution as protective of women's rights, to the dismay of members of the delegation who have been sharply critical of the charter.

Her speech caused some in the delegation to walk out.

Leading women's rights activist Nehad Abu el-Qumsan called it "shocking."

Opposition activists say Egypt's new charter has an Islamist slant, undermines women's rights and denies them equality while ignoring their political rights.

Rights groups also worry that the new charter has granted religious authorities the right to review laws to ensure they are in line with Islamic laws, which they say may further undermine their rights.

Violence against women has also been on the rise in Egypt, particularly during political protests. Some suspect the attacks are an organized campaign to curb women's participation in public life after they played an integral role during the protests against former autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.

The issue has been a source of contention between the Islamist-led government and opposition activists, who accuse authorities of not doing enough to address the issue.

In her speech, el-Sharqawi said violence against women should be combatted based on "balance between the values shared by humanity, and the cultural and social particularities of countries and peoples."

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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations.

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Egypt's fuel crisis adds to its economic woes

CAIRO (AP) — At 5:00 am, Egyptian truck driver Allam Mahmoud hurried to a Cairo gas station and joined an already long, snaking line. He says he hopes that by the end of the day, he can get his tank filled with diesel.

For several months, Egyptians have been hit by shortages of diesel, the main fuel that truckers, bus drivers, farmers, bakers and a range of industries rely on to keep their engines running. The diesel crisis is now not only adding to the country's economic problems, it's feeding the turmoil on the streets.

"Haven't seen a crisis like this before," the 46-year-old Mahmoud said, still waiting at noon Monday for a chance to fill up. "People are asleep in their homes and we are here waiting to refuel."

Now for many the long waits at gas stations are becoming unbearable.

On Sunday, hundreds of drivers of trucks and of minibuses used as public transport blocked most of Cairo's vital roads and bridges, as well as highways across the country in an angry protest over the shortages, forcing some students and government employees to even resort to donkey carts to commute. Frequently tempers flared. In Cairo, striking drivers smashed windows of private cars when commuters complained about the road blockages. In Giza, across the Nile, fist-fights broke out and knives were drawn between protesting drivers and other drivers who refused to join their strike. In the southern city of Assiut, striking and non-striking drivers pelted each other with stones.

The drivers' backlash adds to a wave of unrest across the country, with protesters against the Islamist president frequently clashing with police and some police units themselves launching their own strikes and protests in many areas.

Diesel and most other fuels in Egypt are heavily subsidized, provided in allotments to gas stations to keep the price at the pump low. The government insists there is no shortage of fuel, but blames the long lines at stations on corruption, saying that amid the country's lawlessness, a "mafia" is collaborating with station owners to take their allotments of diesel — called "solar" in Egypt — sell them on the black market. Gas stations are supposed to sell 20-liter jerry cans of diesel for 20 Egyptian pounds (57 cents a gallon), but on the black market it sells for more than double that price.

Oil Minister Osama Kamal said almost all the shortages at gas stations are because of "the absence of oversight agencies and the exploitation by some of the current situation ... to trade solar on the black market," according to the state daily Al-Ahram.

Some of the fuel is also being smuggled. In January and February, the military destroyed 15 tanks of fuel it seized from smugglers by the border with the Gaza Strip, part of a campaign to destroy smuggling tunnels from the Sinai peninsula into the Palestinian territory, ruled by the Hamas militant group, according to a military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. He said fuel smuggling to Gaza has increased dramatically amid Egypt's lawlessness since the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

On Monday, Kamal told Turkey's Anadolu news agency that the government would increase the diesel it supplies to the market each day by 10 percent to 40 million liters (10 million gallons) to try to fill the demand. The fuel would be sold through gas stations owned by the military, from which he insisted it was impossible to divert the supplies to the black market.

The diesel crisis comes as the government is struggling under growing budget deficits and shrinking foreign reserves while it tries to meet its commitments to provide millions of Egyptians with subsidized bread, food and fuel. Potentially explosive public discontent has made President Mohammed Morsi wary of introducing austerity measures to cut back subsidies, a step economists say is unavoidable for reducing deficits and giving assurances to international donors to help the country's battered economy with loans and investment.

Energy subsidies make up the largest chunk of the around $20 billion a year Egypt spends on subsidies, about a third of its budget. Cutting fuel subsidies are believed to be at the top of a government reform plan presented to the International Monetary Fund to secure a much-needed $4.8 billion loan. Talks with the IMF stalled last year when Morsi quickly rescinded tax increases for fear of the public backlash.

To reduce energy subsidies, the government has announced it will start a "smart card" system in May by which vehicles with engines of 1600cc or less — smaller than most SUVs — would be eligible to a certain amount of subsidized fuel, while those with bigger engines will have to buy fuel at market price. The government has already lifted fuel subsidies for industrial companies.

But the London-based consultancy Capital Economics said Monday that Egypt is unlikely to get the loan anytime soon because of IMF reservations over the government's desire to phase in subsidy reforms gradually — apparently to delay the pain of austerity until after parliamentary elections. Parliamentary elections originally set to begin in April have been postponed indefinitely after a court ruled against the law governing the vote.

Since Mubarak's ouster in February 2011, Egypt's unrest has gouged tourism and foreign investment, the most essential sources of foreign currency. In the latest sign of the economic woes, Egypt's annual urban inflation reached 8.2 percent last month, its highest rate since May last year, according to the official Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. Foreign reserves fell to $13.5 billion in February, down about two thirds from two years ago. The currency has fallen in value more than 7 percent against the dollar since late last year.

The government is trying to search for alternative ways to secure revenues. On Monday, the country's interim parliament agreed in principle on a draft law that allows the state to issue Islamic bonds which the government hopes it can raise some $10 billion dollars from bonds, which according to Islamic Shariah don't pay interest.

The country's already stressed agricultural and construction sectors are fearing the impact of diesel shortages.

Alaa Diab, the head of the agriculture committee in Egypt's Businessmen Association, noted that all the motors used in irrigation and harvesting use diesel. Without the fuel, "there will be no wheat, and there will no milling and bread will be affected ... The entire agriculture production is threatened with coming to a halt," he said, according to the state-run Al-Ahram daily.

The Egyptian Union for Construction and Building said in a report that about 64 percent of the 41,500 construction companies registered with the union have gone bankrupt or suspended work. The report, published in Al-Ahram, blamed price hikes in energy and material.

Other sectors at a time other sectors are suffering. The national carrier, EgyptAir, has seen nearly 6 billion pounds ($900 million) in losses, forcing it to reduce the number of flights, Civil Aviation Minister told parliament Monday.

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AP reporter Amir Makar contributed to this report

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Egypt's election commission suspends vote

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's electoral commission says it has suspended parliamentary elections and canceled the dates of the vote after a court ordered a stop to the elections.

The country's electoral committee says in a statement issued late Thursday that the timetable set earlier for the parliamentary vote is no longer valid.

It says the decision was made after Cairo Administrative Court issued a ruling on Tuesday saying the Islamist-dominated transitional parliament had improperly pushed through a law organizing the elections without allowing the Supreme Constitutional Court to review it.

The court annulled a decree by Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi calling for the election.

The cancellation of the vote was welcomed by Morsi's opposition which had decided to boycott the vote.

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Egypt's interior minister won't allow 'militias'

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's interior minister on Sunday declared he would not allow vigilantes or militias to take over police duties, while admitting his police force has been strained by daily protests, clashes and criticism.

Minister Mohammed Ibrahim was speaking a day after protesters rampaged through Cairo, furious over the acquittal of seven of nine police officers in a trial over soccer violence that left 74 people dead last year. Some 21 civilians received death sentences in the highly charged trial.

Protesters torched a police club and the soccer federation headquarters Saturday. Hundreds of rioters battled police along the Nile river boulevard in an area packed with hotels and diplomatic missions. Two people were killed. The clashes along the river continued Sunday.

There were also limited protests in Port Said, the Suez Canal city where the soccer stadium riot erupted in February 2012. The city was the scene of bloody clashes with police in the past week. They stopped this weekend after police evacuated their headquarters and the military took over.

The unrest coincides with an unprecedented wave of strikes by police over demands for better working conditions, as well as anger over alleged attempts by President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood to take control of the police force.

Ibrahim acknowledged that his force is under strain, but he insisted he will not allow vigilante groups to take over the duties of the force.

"From the minister to the youngest recruit in the force, we will not accept to have militias in Egypt," Ibrahim said. "That will be only when we are totally dead, finished."

His declaration followed a statement by a hard-line Islamist group that its members would take up policing duties in the southern province of Assiut because of strikes by local security forces. Lawmakers have raised the possibility of legalizing private security companies, granting them the right to arrest and detain.

"There are groups of policemen on strike. I understand them. They are protesting the pressure they are under, the attacks from the media," the minister said. "They work in hard conditions and exert everything they can and are not met with appreciation or thanks."

Egypt's police and internal security forces are widely hated seen as a legacy of the rule of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, when they were notorious for abuses, torture and crackdowns on political opponents, including the Brotherhood.

Ibrahim said the strike is minor and is not affecting the capabilities of the force. Instead, dragging the police into the political dispute between the opposition and the ruling Islamists is exhausting the force, he said.

"I only ask all (political) forces to leave the police out of the political equation and the conflict that is taking place," Ibrahim said.

He said he is talking with the striking policemen, who, he said are demanding better armament.

He dismissed charges that the Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood is dictating his ministry's policies.

"There is no interference by anyone in the work of the ministry. Rest assured," he told reporters.

He said "infiltrators" among the protesters target police with live ammunition, birdshot and firebombs, to draw the force into using violence.

In the country's Islamist-led Shura Council, the upper house of the legislature, members criticized the striking police, accusing them of dereliction of duty and allowing chaos to spread. One called for banning strikes by police, while another accused former regime officials of conspiring to undermine Morsi's rule and hold on power.

"We are facing a very tight conspiracy that aims to destroy any legitimacy," said Hassan Youssef Abdel-Ghaffour of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

Egypt's new constitution granted the Shura council temporary power to legislate following a court order disbanding the more powerful lower house last year.

Since late January, the country has been hit by relentless street protests, mainly directed against Morsi and the Brotherhood. The near-daily demonstrations have turned into clashes with police, and about 80 protesters have been killed since then.

The political turmoil is deepened by a battered economy, as the government struggles with unemployment, poverty and dangerously shrinking foreign currency reserves. On Sunday, drivers of vans used for public transportation around Cairo went on strike because of rising prices of diesel fuel, briefly blocking main roads and causing huge traffic jams.

On Sunday, the U.S. and Egypt signed a $190 million budget support agreement, pledged by U.S. State Secretary John Kerry during his visit last week.

U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson called the grant, the first installment on a planned $450 million in budget support, as "a down payment on Egypt's promising future."

Egypt has also been negotiating with the International monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan, but the talks have been delayed because of the political turmoil.

Patterson said that as Egypt works with the IMF on a program for economic stability, "we will continue to be there, as friends, to support your efforts with additional assistance," according to a statement by the U.S. Embassy.

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Egypt's leader mulls army takeover of restive city

CAIRO (AP) — Officials say the Egyptian president is considering whether to give the military full control of the restive city of Port Said after days of deadly street clashes stoked by excessive force used by riot police.

The officials say Mohammed Morsi met Tuesday with his security chief and top military officers to discuss pulling out the police and putting the military in charge of the Suez Canal city to defuse tensions.

The violence has killed at least three civilians and three policemen and injured hundreds since Sunday.

The military sent reinforcement to Port Said late Monday, after protesters torched a government building and police headquarters there.

The officials from the Egyptian military and the presidential office spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

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Egypt's police protest against Muslim Brotherhood

CAIRO (AP) — Thousands of low-ranking policemen on strike across Egypt on Thursday refused orders to work and protested what they claim is the politicization of the force in favor of the president's Muslim Brotherhood party.

The strike, in its fourth day, is a rare show of defiance by policemen against their superiors. It threatens to unravel a security force already weakened by two years of unrest following the ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

For decades, Egypt's police aggressively targeted the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups that were once outlawed. Policemen say they are now being forced to confront protesters angry with Mubarak's successor, President Mohammed Morsi, and his Brotherhood supporters. They also are angry that they can be tried in military courts and complain that current laws do not protect them when they carry out their duties.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement Thursday that it stands at equal distance from all parties, and that the ministry is being objective in its duties.

The ministry, which oversees police in Egypt, relies on low-ranking policemen to protect government buildings, particularly in the face of angry protests in Suez Canal cities and in areas north of Cairo in the Nile Delta region. Hundreds of policemen have been wounded in the past six weeks of unrest in those areas, and several have been killed in the anti-government protests.

In Cairo, dozens of policemen blocked the entrance to one of the city's main police stations and expressed anger at Morsi's policies. Others held a sit-in outside Morsi's house in his hometown of Zagazig, northeast of the capital.

South of the capital, in Assiut and Luxor, policemen protested what they say is new Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim's attempts to use the force to protect the Brotherhood.

Security officials in the Interior Ministry said that the former interior minister refused orders to direct police against anti-Morsi protesters outside the presidential palace in Cairo in December. They say that the Brotherhood was also enraged that police did not protect the group's offices that month from being torched by Egyptians angry with Morsi's handling of the drafting of the constitution.

The strike comes just two days before a court is expected to hand down verdicts to defendants standing trial for a deadly soccer riot that killed 74 people in the canal city of Port Said. Nine security officials are among the 73 people on trial. Earlier, 21 people in the case were handed death sentences, which can be appealed, sparking a wave of violent protests in the city that led to 40 deaths in late January and accusations that police used excessive violence to clamp down on rioters.

Anger is also boiling in the Nile Delta province of Dakahliya, where protesters and policemen accuse the new security director there of ordering heavy-handed tactics to suppress anti-Brotherhood protests. Sami al-Meehy was appointed the province's security chief in recent days, just as anger there was mounting against the Brotherhood and a civil disobedience campaign began. Police there are accused of intentionally running over and killing a protester last weekend.

A similar strike last month by thousands of low-ranking policemen led to work stoppages for five days. They were demanding better firepower, wages and working conditions. The ministry said it agreed to purchase 100,000 new 9mm pistols and improve health care facilities for policemen, ending February's strike.

The police force, once a frightening and powerful underpinning of Mubarak's rule, has been accused by rights activists of carrying out the same brutal tactics under Morsi.

Egypt's uprising, which began two years ago on a day meant to commemorate police, was largely rooted in widespread hatred of security forces under Mubarak. More than 100 policemen have been put on trial for the killings of protesters, and all but two were acquitted.

Allegations of torture at the hands of police persist, and more than 70 people have been killed in nationwide protests since late January. Rights groups allege that police are still operating with impunity.

The latest allegation took place late Wednesday in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla. Hundreds of residents took to the streets to protest the killing of Ibrahim el-Kady, his wife, their daughter and their daughter's fiancé. According to Mahalla activist Samuel Adly, police were chasing a suspect when they fired at the wrong car, killing the four.

Security officials say they are investigating the incident.

The family's son told the satellite channel Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr alleges that policemen were behind the killing. He said he saw men dressed in police uniform firing on his father's car, which was parked outside the family's house.

Lawlessness also has plagued parts of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where two British tourists were freed just hours after their kidnapping on Thursday.

A military intelligence official said the couple was released unharmed after police promised the Bedouin kidnappers that they would release a detained relative who had been arrested and accused of smuggling weapons from Libya to Egypt. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Tourists have been targeted in the past by Bedouin in Sinai wanting to pressure police to free detained relatives. Tourists are typically not held long and released unharmed.

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Associated Press writer Mariam Rizk in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Egypt's main opposition coalition to boycott vote

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's main opposition coalition announced on Tuesday it will boycott upcoming parliamentary elections, a decision likely to deepen the nation's political crisis and worsen an already troubled economy.

The announcement by the liberal and secular National Salvation Front was announced in a televised news conference just hours ahead of the start of a "national dialogue" called for by President Mohammed Morsi to find ways to ensure the "transparency" and "integrity" of the vote.

Leading front member Sameh Ashour, who also heads Egypt's lawyers' union, announced the decision and said the front was also boycotting Tuesday's dialogue.

"We tell Morsi" 'dialogue with yourself. Dialogue with your party'," he said. "The Egyptian people will not accept a dialogue that is imposed."

Called by Morsi last weekend, the elections will start in April and be staggered over a two-month period. Egypt's last legislature was elected in late 2011 and early 2012 but was dissolved by a court ruling in June, leaving the then-ruling military with legislative powers. Morsi took over the powers in August, then passed them in December to the Islamist-dominated upper chamber known as the Shura Council.

The opposition has been calling on Morsi to defuse the nation's political crisis before calling for elections to prevent the country from plunging deeper into chaos. It wants a "neutral" government to replace the one led by Islamist Hesham Kandil, and for steps to be taken to ensure the independence of the judiciary.

The opposition also objects to an election law that was adopted this month by the Shura Council, arguing that it favored the Islamists, particularly Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

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Egypt's Morsi calls parliament elections in April

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi has issued a presidential decree calling for staggered parliamentary elections, starting April 27 and ending in June.

The decree, announced late Thursday, says the vote will take place in four stages and the new parliament will convene on July 6.

Since the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising in 2011, Egyptians have gone through a series of referendums, presidential and parliamentary elections. The first elected parliament was disbanded by a court order last June.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the country's dominant political group.

The call for the balloting comes as Egypt is in deep turmoil, bitterly divided between the fundamentalist Brotherhood and their backers on one side, and secular liberal political parties and youth groups on the other.

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