Haaretz Egypt detained nearly 10,000 people in 2014, official says Egyptian security forces have detained nearly 10,000 suspected militants, rioters and others wanted in violent attacks over the past 12 months in a crackdown a senior interior ministry official said Saturday targets those attempting to curtail Egypt's development. The paper noted that comments by Major General Abdel-Fattah Osman, an aide to the interior minister for media affairs, to the official news agency MENA are a rare account of the number of people authorities have arrested amid a widening crackdown that has included Islamists, as well as secular critics of the government. It doesn't however account for the total number of people believed to have been put behind bars since the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013. Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.632878 Arutz Sheva US Unfreezes Egypt Ties, Egypt Eyes Qatar Reconciliation On two different fronts Egypt made military and political gains on Saturday, with news that America unfroze a previous deal delivering ten Apache attack helicopters and sending an ambassador to Cairo, and that Egypt's ties with its traditional rival Qatar were advanced. The delivery of the Apaches was announced Saturday by security sources, after the US back in April unfroze military deals with the Nile state. The freeze was initiated after the ouster of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi last July 3 and the subsequent crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood members. That decision in April to unfreeze military deals also had an element of competition to it, as Egypt in February sealed a $2 billion arms deal with Russia. Russia in November said Egypt offered to buy advanced defense systems, military helicopters, MiG-29 aircraft and anti-tank missiles. The Qatari envoy, Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdelrahman al-Thani, met with Sisi marking the first time an envoy from Qatar met with Sisi since he took power last summer. The head of the Saudi Royal Court, Khalid al-Tuwaijri, was also in attendance. Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/188896#.VJaEFF4AA
