Al Monitor US relations with Egypt: one problem at a time President Barack Obama's recent decision to end the halt on sending military equipment to Egypt, resulting in the release of aircraft, missiles and tank kits, took many by surprise. On the one hand, Egypt has fallen, tremendously, in terms of being a priority for the Washington Beltway in general and the Obama administration in particular. Part of this is due to fatigue, after seeing what appeared to have been a majority of Egyptians turn against the Muslim Brotherhood when it was in power. Another part of it is the shifting geopolitical realities in the region, where Egypt is, correctly, identified as being in a more stable state than Syria, Iraq or Libya. Alignments against the Islamic State (IS) also play a role, as do the broader genuine security considerations that the Egyptian state has; while Washington might think Egypt's tactics in the Sinai Peninsula and elsewhere are counterproductive, the Obama administration does not think Cairo's security concerns are unfounded. Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/04/egypt-us-relations-military-aid-beltway-freeze-yemen-saudi.html##ixzz3XSLZd9xE The Times of Israel Egypt to destroy torched building of Mubarak's party Egypt's government on Wednesday ordered the army's corps of engineers to demolish the headquarters of ousted President Hosni Mubarak's now-defunct party, a towering structure on the Nile which was torched by protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his rule. The government decided to demolish the National Democratic Party's headquarters nearly a year ago, but the fate of the site — prime real-estate alongside the city's central Tahrir Square — has been a source of contention. Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-to-destroy-torched-building-of-mubaraks-party/ The New York Times Bomb Kills 3 Military Academy Students in Egypt Three students at a military academy were killed by a roadside bomb in the Nile Delta town of Kafr el Sheikh on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the latest in a series of attacks by militant groups against members of Egypt's security services. The students, who were 20 to 23 years old, had been waiting for a bus to take them to their academy, which is in Cairo, said Gen. Abdel Rahman Sharah, a security official in Kafr el Sheikh. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/world/middleeast/bomb-kills-3-military-academy-students-in-egypt.html?_r=0 Press TV Egypt jails top Morsi aide over abuse of power A criminal court in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Wednesday handed the three-year sentence to Refaa el-Tahtawi on charges of power abuse. Tahtawi, who served as chief of staff during Morsi's tenure, was convicted of hiring people that were banned from public services. According to the court ruling, Tahtawi had given a job to a man who was sentenced to 15 years in jail in the 1990s. The man, who himself received a one-year sentence on Wednesday for accepting the post, had been convicted of working for a terrorist group and setting fire to several video clubs in Cairo in those years. Read more: http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/04/15/406447/Egypt-court-jails-top-Morsi-aide
