The leader of Egypt‘s Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, told a protest rally on Friday that he was ready to reach an understanding with the armed forces – but only after the movement‘s Mohamed Mursi was reinstated as president.

#itstheinternetstupid

A systematic, brutal witch-hunt has already started against senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party.

In Friday‘s phone call, armed forces commander General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi informed the king of the latest developments and „reassured him of the stability of the situation“, SPA said.

Accordingly, and as mandated by the relevant AU instruments, Council
decides to suspend the participation of Egypt in the AU’s activities until the restoration of
constitutional order;

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Speaking to the New York Times, the prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei gave some caveats and guarantees, but broadly deferred to the military: „They are taking some precautionary measures to avoid violence; well, this is something that I guess they have to do as a security measure,“ he said.

The spokesman said soldiers were using only blank rounds and teargas.

Al Jazeera‘s Matthew Cassel, reporting from near the military barracks, said several dozen people were also injured by shotgun pellets fired by the army.

„One protester broke away from the rally to stick a pro-Morsi poster on the barbed-wire around the barracks. He was shot in the head with birdshot,“ he said.

It added that he appointed Mohammed Ahmed Farid as the new head of intelligence, replacing Mohammed Raafat Shehata al-Tohami – appointed by Mursi.

Egypt’s lower house was dissolved by military-led authorities shortly before Mursi was elected a year ago leaving only the upper house, called the Shura Council, active.

Constanze Kurz, Informatikerin, Sprecherin des CCC und Freundin des Hauses, rantet in ihrer lesenswerten Kolumne in der FAZ über “die Dreistigkeit der Nachrichtendienste und die Unfähigkeit der Politik, diese zu kontrollieren”

The talks, due to begin in Washington on Monday, will now be restricted to issues of data privacy and the NSA‘s Prism programme following a tense 24 hours of negotiations in Brussels between national EU ambassadors. Britain, supported only by Sweden, vetoed plans to launch two „working groups“ on the espionage debacle with the Americans.

Aref further condemned the brutal police state which has resumed repressive practices, arresting leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down Islamist TV channels, and storming the offices of TV satellite channel ‚Al-Jazeera Live Egypt‘ – practices which drag Egypt back to the era of tyranny, dictatorship and corruption, which Egyptians suffered for decades in the era of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

At least three demonstrators were shot dead by Egyptian security forces on Friday outside the Republican Guard barracks in Cairo where deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi is being held, security sources said.

Mahmoud, who served under Mubarak’s regime, was removed from office following a constitutional declaration made by former president Morsi in Novemeber.

A Mubarak-appointed prosecutor general, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, returned to his office after a court ruling pushed out the man appointed by Mr. Morsi to replace him.

Egyptian troops were „on alert“ in the Sinai Peninsula, a military spokesman said on Friday, but he denied a report by the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper that a state of emergency had been declared in Suez and South Sinai provinces.

Egypt‘s army announced a state of emergency in the provinces of South Sinai and Suez on Friday after Islamist gunmen attacked an airport in the Sinai town of El Arish, state newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

The National Salvation Front, which endorsed the army‘s removal of Mursi and a plan it issued for holding new elections, said people must protect what it called the „June 30 Revolution“ – referring Sunday‘s mass rallies that prompted the army move.

The Egyptian army have set up roadblocks around a series of sensitive sites in Cairo, and other cities, as pro-Morsi demonstrators gather for a ‚day of rejection‘

„As mandated by the relevant AU instruments, the African Union Peace and Security Council decides to suspend the participation of Egypt in AU activities until the restoration of constitutional order,“ said Admore Kambudzi, secretary of the council.

“Who does that prime minister, Rajoy, think he is? He thinks South Americans are still his slaves?” asked Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who said he would reconsider his country’s relations with the “vile” Popular Party government, but “not with the people of Spain.”

Spanish foreign minister declines to say where information came from that NSA whistleblower was on Bolivian leader‘s flight

Washingtons schmutzige Interventionen gegen Snowden und Morales geben der Welt eine weitere Chance, Washington zur Verantwortung zu ziehen, ehe Washingtons Überheblichkeit und Arroganz die Welt vor die Wahl zwischen Akzeptanz der Hegemonie Washingtons und Drittem Weltkrieg zwingen.

(12.Mai) Vor unseren Augen spielt sich eine vom paneuropäischen Parteien-Kartell des Bundestages mit- und vorgetragene abscheuliche Farce ab. Alldiweil, mit dem Applaus des Publikums, da hapert es irgendwie. Denn das soll bezahlen. Und nicht zu knapp.

Beleuchten wir also wieder einmal eine sowohl ausgesucht plumpe wie abscheuliche Schmierenkomödie von Staatsschauspielern, die schließlich auch von irgendwas leben müssen.

– violating Americans’ constitutional protections;
– overstepping the limits of Executive power at the expense of Congressional authority, especially the Senate’s advice and consent to the ratification of treaties;
– disregarding the mutual respect of sovereignty among nations;
(..)
– setting up a global financial fishbowl, with personal financial information “shared” among governments worldwide;

Treasury is making promises to foreign governments it can’t keep. (..)
“I have shared my concerns with my fellow members of the House Financial Services Committee,” writes Congressman Posey. “Given the evidence above, it is difficult to conceive of any circumstance that would justify imposing such an expensive and counterproductive domestic mandate.”

Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien, Spanien, das Vereinigte Königreich
und die Vereinigten Staaten verpflichten sich, (..)

b) mit anderen FATCA-Partnern, der OECD und gegebenenfalls der
EU zusammenzuarbeiten, um FATCA mittelfristig zu einem allgemeinen
Modell für den automatischen Informationsaustausch zu machen,
einschließlich der Ausarbeitung standardisierter Melde- und
Sorgfaltspflichten.

In April, the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy announced that they would develop and pilot a new, multilateral tax information exchange agreement, to remove the hiding places for those seeking to evade taxes. Many other EU countries have since indicated they will sign up.
The G5 pilot will be based on the model intergovernmental agreements they signed with the US under its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

The German Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, has adopted the draft intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between Germany and the US, aimed at improving the automatic exchange of information between the tax authorities of both partner states.

The bill provides the legal basis for transposition of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) provisions into German law.

Since the passage of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in 2010, rumors have been swirling around financial institutions regarding its implementation. There was talk about the US requiring all foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to disclose the names of its US account holders to the IRS; about how a FFI’s non-participation in the FATCA program would turn it into a pariah in the financial community because no financial institution in the world will want to do business with a non-FATCA compliant FFI.

A US congressman has highlighted a potential problem in the complex arrangements under which financial institutions in foreign countries are being persuaded to provide financial information to the American tax authorities, to comply with FATCA.

The Ambassadors of France and Portugal to Bolivia have been summoned to La Paz, the seat of Bolivia’s government, after those European countries refused to let an aircraft carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales pass through them, based on “unfounded suspicions” that wanted US whistleblower Edward Snowdon was on board.

• Police break-up pro-Morsi rally in Zagazig
• Muslim Brotherhood calls for protests after Friday prayers