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page 26 EGYPT Egyptian lawmaker attacked with shoe for dining with Israeli ambassador Egyptian lawmaker Tawfik Okasha was attacked in parliament on Sunday, with one colleague hurling a shoe at him and others demanding he should be suspended after he invited the Israeli ambassador for dinner. Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab […]

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EGYPT

Egyptian lawmaker attacked with shoe for dining with Israeli ambassador

Egyptian lawmaker Tawfik Okasha was attacked in parliament on Sunday, with one colleague hurling a shoe at him and others demanding he should be suspended after he invited the Israeli ambassador for dinner.

Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognize Israel with a United States-sponsored 1979 peace accord, but Egyptian attitudes to the country’s neighbour remain icy.

Okasha, a television presenter and lawmaker known for courting controversy, hosted the Israeli ambassador Haim Koren for dinner at his home in the northeastern Dakahlia province last week. He made the invitation live on his television show.

The move sparked outrage in the media and in Egypt’s parliament, sworn in last month, with several lawmakers demanding Okasha be dismissed from parliament and one colleague, Kamal Ahmed, hurling his shoe during the session in a fit of anger.

Before the opening of Sunday’s session, Okasha said that he had done nothing wrong since Egypt enjoys full diplomatic relations with Israel.

IRAN

Iran election: Reformists win all 30 Tehran seats

Allies of Iran’s reformist President Hassan Rouhani have won a landslide victory in Tehran, in the first parliamentary vote since Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers.

With 90% of the votes counted, the pro-Rouhani List of Hope is set to take all 30 parliamentary seats in the capital.

The leading conservative candidate Gholamali Haddad-Adel is in 31st place.

Millions voted on Friday to elect the 290-seat parliament as well as members of the Assembly of Experts.

The 88-member assembly appoints Iran’s Supreme Leader and might end up choosing a successor to Ayatollah Khamenei, who is 76 and has suffered ill-health.

Early results gave former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate conservative, and Mr Rouhani the most votes for the assembly, which is composed of mostly elder and senior clerics.

SOMALIA

Death toll in Mogadishu blasts rises to 25

Authorities in Somalia say the death toll from two explosions near a Mogadishu hotel late Friday has risen to 25 people.

Duniya Ali Mohamed of Media Hospital said eight of 34 people admitted to the hospital died of serious wounds sustained in the blasts.

Three more bodies were pulled out from houses damaged by the massive car bombs near the SYL hotel.

Nearly 60 others were wounded in the attack, in which gunmen also forced their way onto the hotel grounds and traded fire with security guards.

The hotel is located across the street from Somalia’s presidential palace, Villa Somalia, and is frequented by government officials.

Islamist militant group Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attacks. Security sources say that the militants used more than 200 kilograms of explosives in the first bomb, which struck a checkpoint.

IRAQ

IS bombings at Baghdad market kill 24

At least 24 people have been killed in bombings near a market in eastern Baghdad, Iraqi officials say.

The blasts happened at the Shia district of Sadr City and were caused by two suicide bombers. The so-called Islamic State (IS) group says its militants had carried out the attacks and more would follow.

The mainly Sunni group, which controls large swathes of northern and western Iraq, has attacked numerous Shia targets in the country recently.

Sunday’s blasts, the worst to hit Baghdad in recent months, injured at least 50 people, Iraqi officials said. The area has been reportedly sealed off to prevent further attacks.

Militants have constantly used double bombings to maximise casualties. A second device is detonated at the site as people flee or emergency services arrive.

BURUNDI

Zuma: AU to send monitors to Burundi

The African Union will send 100 human rights monitors and 100 military monitors to Burundi, South Africa’s president said after a trip to the tiny nation that is facing its worst crisis since a civil war ended a decade ago.

Jacob Zuma, delivering a statement by a delegation of African leaders that he led, did not say when the monitors would arrive in Burundi, where more than 400 people have been killed since April. Zuma left Burundi after his remarks.

The violence has rattled a region with a history of ethnic conflict. Burundi’s civil war, which ended in 2005, largely pitted two ethnic groups against each other. Neighboring Rwanda was torn apart by genocide in 1994.

“We believe strongly that the solution to Burundi’s political problems can be attained only through inclusive and peaceful dialogue,” Zuma said in the statement, which also expressed “concerns” about the level of violence and killings.

UNITED STATES

Clinton win over Sanders in S/Carolina cements front-runner status

Hillary Clinton easily won the U.S. Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina on Saturday, cementing her status as front-runner in her party’s race and delivering a key defeat to Bernie Sanders ahead of the crucial Super Tuesday nominating contests.

Clinton won the backing of almost three-fourths of Democrats who went to the polls in the first Southern state to vote during the presidential candidate nominating season.

The result was never really in doubt. The only question was whether Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, could narrow what was nearly a 30-percentage-point deficit in recent opinion polls.

The Sanders campaign quickly released a statement from the candidate congratulating Clinton on her victory.

“Tomorrow, this campaign goes national,” Clinton told cheering supporters at a primary evening rally here.

SYRIA

Syria’s truce largely holding for second day

Fighting in Syria appeared to have mostly stopped on Sunday, the second day of a U.S.-Russian deal on a cessation of hostilities which seemed to be holding despite accusations of violations and air strikes in Aleppo province.

The agreement is the first of its kind to be attempted in four years and, if it holds, would be the most successful truce of the war.

Under the accord accepted by President Bashar al-Assad’s government and many of his foes, fighting should cease so aid can reach civilians and talks can open to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people and made 11 million homeless.

The head of the Russian coordination center in Syria Sergei Kuralenko said the plan was holding “in general” but said there had been nine violations of the truce in the past 24 hours.

The opposition accused Russia of carrying out the strikes and said it would complain to the United Nations and countries backing the peace process but said it remained committed to the truce.

TURKEY

Erdogan lambasts court ruling to free journalists

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday he had “no respect” for a decision by Turkey’s top court to release two journalists held on charges of revealing state secrets, triggering accusations he was trampling on the constitution.

The Constitutional Court — one of the few Turkish public institutions not fully under Erdogan’s control — had allowed the release of the Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul after three months in jail.

“I don’t concur with the decision and I have no respect for it,” Erdogan told reporters before leaving on a week-long trip to Africa.

INDIA

Mumbai: Indian man ‘kills 14 members of family’

A 35-year-old Indian man killed 14 members of his own family, including seven children and his parents, before killing himself, police say.

Reports suggest Hasnin Warekar laced his family’s food with sedatives before slitting their throats.

Neighbours from the home in Thane, near Mumbai, were alerted to the attack by the screaming of the man’s sister, who survived the attack. Police say it is still unclear why Warekar carried out the attack.

“He used a big knife. He killed his parents, his sisters and his sisters’ children. He slit their throats” Thane police spokesman, Gajanan Laxman Kabdule, said.

RUSSIA

Russian mine accident leaves 36 dead

A total of 36 people, including five rescue workers, are presumed dead following an explosion at a coal mine in northern Russia, officials say.

Four miners were killed when a methane leak triggered two explosions in the mine near Vorkuta on Thursday.

Rescuers were trying to rescue 26 trapped miners when a new blast occurred, killing five rescue workers and a miner.

The rescue operation has been halted and those missing are presumed dead. The incident is one of the worst Russian mining disasters in recent times.

“The circumstances in the affected part of the mine did not allow anyone to survive,” Russia’s Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said.