'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
It is truly tempting to speculate that at some point in his distinguished academic career, Alexander McCall Smith knew someone like Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, whose name is translated as "hedgehog field."
Tens of thousands of Coptic Christians took to the streets in the Maspero section of Cairo to protest the government's failure to protect them from attacks on their churches. While the protests began peacefully, violence ensued after the Christians were attacked by civilians.
The new pope of Egypt's Orthodox Coptic church was enthroned on Sunday in an elaborate ceremony lasting nearly four hours, attended by the nation's Muslim prime minister and a host of Cabinet ministers and politicians.
A council of Egypt's Coptic Christians voted on Monday in a process that will lead to the selection of a new pope for the ancient church, as the community struggles to assert its identity and rights amid a rising tide of Islamism that has left many Copts fearful for their future.
Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt's Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims, died Saturday. He was 88.
Tens of thousands of Egyptians chanted overnight and early Tuesday against the ruling military council during a massive funeral procession for 17 Christian protesters killed in a Cairo protest.
Egypt's finance minister resigned Tuesday to protest the government's handling of weekend protests that left 26 dead, most of them Coptic Christian demonstrators, an aide to the minister said.
Egypt's Coptic church chided authorities Monday for allowing repeated attacks on Christians with impunity, as the death toll from a night of rioting rose to 26, most of them Christians who were trying to stage a peaceful protest in Cairo over an attack on a church.
Egypt's Coptic church blasted authorities Monday for allowing repeated attacks on Christians with impunity.
Egypt's top security official on Sunday accused an al Qaeda-inspired group in the Gaza Strip of being behind the New Year's Day suicide bombing that killed 21 people outside a Coptic Christian church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
Under a heavy security cordon by police, Egypt's Christians held mournful Christmas Eve Masses on Thursday, weeping and donning black in place of colorful holiday clothes, and fearing another attack like the New Year's suicide bombing of a church that killed 21 people.
Egyptian police are focusing their investigation into the New Year's suicide bombing of a church on a group of Islamic hard-liners inspired by al Qaeda and based in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, where the attack killed 21 people, security officials said Sunday.
Christians clashed with Egyptian police in the northern city of Alexandria on Saturday, furious over an apparent suicide bombing against worshippers leaving a New Year's Mass at a church that killed at least 21 people. It was the worst violence against the country's Christian minority in a decade.
Iraqi Christians on Wednesday called off Christmas festivities across the country as al Qaeda insurgents threatened more attacks on a beleaguered community still terrified from a bloody siege at a Baghdad church two months earlier.
Egyptian police Tuesday beefed up security measures for a Coptic festival being held in the ancient city of Luxor in response to a recent al Qaeda threat to Christians in the Middle East, a security official said.
