Inside Story - Are Christians Being Targeted in Egypt?

After 24 worshippers are killed at Egypt's Orthodox Christian Church, what can be done to prevent further bloodshed?

Egypt: Cairo Coptic Cathedral Attacker Identified, 3 People Arrested

Analysis: Significance of Deadly Church Attack in Cairo

Al Jazeera correspondent Jamal El Shayyal discusses the significance of the recent deadly church attack in Egypt, and how it relates to the general security of the country and why there was an angry backlash.

Blast Hits Near Christian Cathedral in Cairo, Leaving 25 Killed & 49 Wounded

At least 25 people, mostly women and children, were killed, and 49 others injured in an explosion near Cairo’s Coptic Christian Cathedral. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast – the deadliest attack on Egypt's religious minority in years.

Twin Bomb Blasts in Istanbul Kill 38, Injure 166 – Video Report

A car bomb followed by a suicide bombing outside a football stadium in Istanbul on Saturday has killed 38 people, mostly police officers, and injured more than 160 others. Officials say the attack was believed to have been orchestrated by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK). Turkey declared a national day of mourning on Sunday

Read the Guardian article here

Aftermath of Bomb Blast inside Cairo’s Coptic Church

A bomb blast at Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo killed at least 25 people and injured dozens more on Sunday. It is one of the deadliest attacks against Egypt’s beleaguered Christian minority in recent memory. Copts, who make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 90 million, faced persecution and discrimination during the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak

Read the Guardian article here

Prophet Cartoon Paper Bomb Target
DAILY EXPRESS: A man hurt in an explosion at a Copenhagen hotel was preparing a letter bomb, police have said.

Officers in Denmark claimed that the bomb was likely to have been intended for a Danish newspaper which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. >>> | Friday, September 17, 2010

Russie : Déraillement: l’attentat confirmé

LE TEMPS: Les enquêteurs russes ont confirmé samedi la thèse de l’attentat terroriste suite au déraillement dans la nuit du train de passagers Nevski Express reliant Moscou à Saint-Pétersbourg, qui a causé la mort d’au moins 26 personnes et peut-être 39 selon un autre bilan, toujours provisoire

«Il est bien question d’un attentat», a déclaré le porte-parole des enquêteurs du parquet fédéral à l’agence Interfax, Vladimir Markine. Cette thèse était déjà privilégiée par les autorités russes. »Le groupe d’enquêteurs du comité d’enquête du procureur de Russie a découvert et saisi les restes d’un engin explosif», a indiqué le comité d’enquête du parquet dans un communiqué.

«Selon les estimations des enquêteurs, les données préliminaires font état de l’explosion d’un engin artisanal d’une puissance équivalente à sept kilos de TNT», a déclaré, selon les agences russes, le chef du FSB Alexandre Bortnikov.

«Selon un bilan préliminaire, pas moins de 26 personnes ont été tuées et plus de 100 blessées», a indiqué le communiqué du parquet, précisant qu’«une hausse du nombre de victimes ne pouvait pas être exclue». Les précédents bilans, tous provisoires, oscillaient entre 25 et 39 morts, selon les sources.

Le PDG des chemins de fer russes, Vladimir Iakounine a remarqué que les circonstances du drame rappelaient un événement similaire trois ans plus tôt. «Le schéma de l’explosion ressemble beaucoup à l’incident qui s’est produit il y a trois ans», a-t-il dit en une apparente allusion à l’attentat à la bombe qui avait fait dérailler le même Nevski Express en août 2007, faisant 60 blessés.

Une enquête criminelle pour terrorisme a été ouverte, selon le parquet. >>> AFP | Samedi 28 Novembre 2009

Terroranschlag auf russischen Nachtexpress: Rettungskräfte gehen von rund 30 Todesopfern aus
NZZ ONLINE: Bei einem Anschlag auf einen voll besetzten Schnellzug im Nordwesten Russlands sind rund 30 Personen in den Tod gerissen worden. Der mit mehr als 600 Reisenden besetzte Zug von Moskau nach St. Petersburg entgleiste nach der Explosion einer Bombe auf den Schienen.

Das Zugunglück im Nordwesten Russlands mit mindestens 26 Toten geht nach Einschätzung der Ermittler auf einen Anschlag mit Sprengstoff zurück. Das meldete die Nachrichtenagentur Interfax am Samstag unter Berufung auf die Generalstaatsanwaltschaft. Der voll besetzte Newski Express war am Freitagabend zwischen Moskau und St. Petersburg unterwegs, als er nach Angaben des Inlandgeheimdienstes FSB durch die Explosion eines Sprengssatzes zum Entgleisen gebracht wurde.

Der selbst gebaute Sprengkörper habe eine Wucht von sieben Kilogramm TNT gehabt. Weitere Details nannte FSB-Chef Alexander Bortnikow bei einem Treffen mit Präsident Dmitri Medwedew nicht. Der Ermittlungsausschuss der Generalstaatsanwaltschaft erklärte, am Tatort in der Nähe der Ortschaft Uglowka seien «Teile eines Sprengsatzes gefunden und entfernt» worden. Nahe der Gleise am Tatort wurde laut Interfax auch ein Krater mit einem Meter Durchmesser entdeckt.

Augenzeugen hätten kurz vor dem Entgleisen der Waggons einen Knall gehört. Die Nachrichtenagentur RIA Nowosti zitierte eine andere Quelle, wonach möglicherweise ein Sprengsatz unter einem der Waggons angebracht war. Vier Wagen entgleist >>> sda/afp/dpa | Samstag, 28. November 2009

Terrorist Bomb Blast Is Blamed for Causing Russian Train Crash That Killed 26
THE TELEGRAPH: Russia's FSB intelligence service said a homemade terrorist bomb caused a packed Moscow-St Petersburg train travelling at 125 mph to derail, killing at least 26 people.

The statement ended speculation that the crash, which also injured nearly 100, may have been a tragic accident. It also raised the spectre of a fresh terror campaign in Russia's major towns and cities after five years of relative calm.

Alexander Bortnikov, the FSB chief, told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that a bomb equivalent to 15 lb of TNT had been planted beneath the busy route. But he did not say who may have been responsible or why anyone would have wanted to carry out such an attack.

Investigators said they had opened a large-scale terrorism investigation as detectives with sniffer dogs combed through wreckage strewn with charred personal effects looking for clues.

Suspicion will inevitably fall on Islamist radicals from Chechnya and Russia's volatile North Caucasus region. They have carried out spectacular attacks in the past which have killed hundreds of people, although nobody had claimed responsibility by late on Saturday.

The attack also will evoke memories of a deadly series of bombings earlier this decade that targeted the Moscow metro, public buses, and passenger airliners. >>> Andrew Osborn in Moscow | Saturday, November 28, 2009

Bomb Blast Rocks Ingushetia – August 17, 2009

Lethal Bomb Hits Hotel in Northwest Pakistan
Wounded men after a bombing on Tuesday outside a five-star hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan. Photo courtesy of The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Militants opened fire on security guards and rushed a small truck packed with explosives through the gates of a five-star hotel in this northwestern city on Friday, detonating a large bomb in the parking lot and killing at least 11 people and wounding 55, Pakistani officials.

The blast, which left a crater six feet deep and 15 feet wide, was powerful enough to be heard for miles, witnesses said. Television images showed parts of the hotel badly damaged by the blast and wounded people, with blood soaked clothes, being helped out of the smoke filled lobby of the hotel, the Pearl Continental, one of the few in the city that cater to Western visitors.

Guests at the time of the attack included United Nations officials and an airline crew, and five women and three foreigners were among the dead, officials said. Two United Nations World Food Program officials were wounded, one critically, a United Nations official in Pakistan said.

The attack was the most spectacular against a Western target in Pakistan since the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in the capital, Islamabad, last September, which left more than 50 dead. >>> By IRFAN ASHRAF and SALMAN MASOOD | Tuesday, June 09, 2009