Egypt restricts Ramadan sermons
CAIRO – Egypt will restrict sermons during the holy month of Ramadan to topics of faith and morality, the state’s top official in charge of religious affairs said Sunday in the latest measure by the government to control mosques and limit access of opponents to them.
The announcement is yet another move by authorities to crackdown on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and limiting free speech in the deeply polarized country.
Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa said the decision should ensure sermons during Islam’s holy month of fasting “unite people, not divide them.” He said the religious speech had been “hijacked” for political purposes, in reference to the previous government, led by Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
“The religious speech was politically driven, which affected the moral side,” he told reporters at a news conference on the first day of the observance. “Now we’re in a race against time trying to restore morals.”
Shooting, stabbing overshadow BET Awards
A fatal shooting and a separate stabbing at parties celebrating Sunday’s BET Awards cast a shadow over the event, where top superstars like Lil Wayne, Chris Rock and others were set to mark the best in black entertainment.
One person was killed and five injured in two separate incidents ahead of the show at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, Los Angeles police said. The events were “unauthorized and unaffiliated with the BET Awards,” BET said in a statement.
“The network and all organizers will continue to maintain a safe environment for all planned activities,” the statement said.
The death and four of the injuries followed gunfire early Sunday at a restaurant, Officer Drake Madison said. Separately, a man was stabbed in the stomach Saturday night at a nightclub.
Israeli leader calls for independent Kurdistan
TEL AVIV, Israel – Seizing on the mayhem in Iraq, Israel’s prime minister on Sunday called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan as part of a broader alliance with moderate forces across the region and asserted that Israel would have to maintain a long-term military presence in the West Bank to keep a jihadi juggernaut from powering its way to the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his positions in a policy speech that marked one of the most detailed responses by a world leader to the lightning territorial gains made in recent weeks by Sunni extremists fighting in Iraq, and it underscored how profoundly events can ripple across an increasingly interlocked Middle East.
Netanyahu suggested the territorial gains made this month by the Al Qaida-inspired jihadi group called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (now just Islamic State) could endanger neighboring Jordan, with which Israel has a peace agreement it considers vital to its security. The group has recently captured wide swaths of Iraq including the important cities of Mosul and Tikrit and several border crossings with Syria and, on Sunday, formally declared a caliphate – or an Islam-ruled state – on territory it controls in both countries.
The offensive by the Islamic State’s militants “can be aimed toward Jordan in the shortest time,” Netanyahu warned.
Ukraine president talks to Putin, other leaders
KEIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tried to keep his peace plan to settle the conflict with pro-Russian separatists on track in a four-way phone call Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of France and Germany.
The two-hour conversation came ahead of a Monday deadline that European Union leaders set for Russia and the separatists to take steps to ease the violence, warning that otherwise they were ready “at any time” to impose further punitive measures.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande encouraged the Ukrainian and Russian presidents to work on meeting the EU conditions, Hollande’s office said in a statement. The EU’s demands included the return of three border checkpoints to Ukrainian control, verification of the cease-fire by monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and talks to put Poroshenko’s peace plan in place.
Associated Press
