Muslim Brotherhood members sentenced to death

An Egyptian court has sentenced 529 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death on charges including murder, in a sharp escalation of a crackdown on the movement.
Family members stood outside the courthouse screaming after the verdict - the biggest mass death sentence handed out in Egypt's modern history, defence lawyers said.
Turmoil has deepened since the army overthrew Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, in July.
Human rights groups said Monday's verdict suggested the authorities intended to tighten their squeeze on the opposition, according to the Reuters news agency. State television reported the sentences without comment.
A government spokesman and other government officials did not immediately respond to calls.
Most of the defendants at Monday's hearing were detained and charged with carrying out attacks during clashes which erupted in the southern province of Minya after the forced dispersal of two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo on August 14.
"The court has decided to sentence to death 529 defendants, and 16 were acquitted," defence lawyer Ahmed al-Sharif told Reuters.

U.N. decries growing 'anti-Syrian' hostility in Egypt

GENEVA | Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:30am EDT
(Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have arbitrarily arrested and detained Syrian refugees as sentiment against them grows, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.
The climate of hostility has increased since the Egyptian army seized power this month, human rights groups say. More than 90,000 Syrians are believed to have come to Egypt to escape the civil war, now in its third year.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said Syrians had been accused of taking part in protests supporting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who was toppled by the army on July 3.
The UNHCR had requested access to 85 detained Syrians and assurances that they will not be returned to Syria, she told a news briefing.
"There were a few who were arrested for alleged violent acts during protests. We're not sure what the charges are for the others," she said.
Mursi last month announced he was cutting off diplomatic ties with Syria, and some of his Sunni Muslim followers had talked of waging holy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Shi'ite Muslim Iran and the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah militia.
The new army-backed administration in Cairo has distanced itself from Mursi's position.
But Egyptian media and television have made "disturbing" statements against Syrians, Fleming said.
"We're obviously very concerned when big public communications machines like television are behind some of this rhetoric that is very xenophobic," she said.
The hostile environment has led to surge in the number of Syrians already in Egypt approaching UNHCR to register as refugees, she said. The government estimates that there are up to 300,000 Syrians currently residing in the country, she added.
The Egyptian government has introduced entry requirements for Syrians, requiring that visas and security clearance be issued prior to travel to Egypt, the agency said.
Flights carrying Syrians have been turned back from airports in Egypt to Damascus and Latakia in Syria, she said. Some 476 Syrians had been deported or denied entrance to Egypt since the new measures were put in place on July 8.
"UNHCR has appealed to the government to consider at least allowing women, children and the elderly to enter the country without the visa restrictions," Fleming said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Egypt's new visa rules for Syrians.

Egypt's new visa rules for Syrians imposed after the army's removal of President Mohamed Morsi are only a temporary security measure and will not erode Egyptian support for the Syrian revolution, state media said on Monday.
Last week, Egypt introduced visa requirements for Syrians after local media and some officials accused Syrian Islamists of joining deadly clashes between Morsi's supporters and the military that ousted him earlier this month.
Egypt has since turned back several flights from Syria carrying hundreds of passengers and deported Syrians who arrived via other countries at Cairo airport, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled the conflict pitting President Bashar al-Assad's armed forces against insurgents trying to overthrow him. The bloodshed, which began in March 2011, has killed an estimated 100,000 people and driven 1.7 millions abroad.

        Reuters news agency.