CAIRO - The Cabinet, tasked by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to speedily probe clashes which killed 25 people, ordered the formation of a fact-finding committee to probe the deadly incidents that took place on Sunday outside the State-run TV Building, pledging to issue a unified bill on places of worship within two weeks. The Cabinet has also decided to toughen penalties against discrimination in the Penal Code, as well as issuing another new law to regulate unlicensed places of worship. "A fact-finding panel headed by the Minister of Justice has been formed to immediately probe the Maspero incidents. All measures will be taken against all those proven to have been involved, either directly or by incitement," read a statement by the Cabinet after an extended meeting, which started with a minute's silence out of respect for the victims' souls. Earlier in the day, the SCAF had issued a statement ordering a speedy probe into the clashes which left 25 people dead, mostly Copts, and more than 300 injured, according to Health Ministry figures. The SCAF, which took power when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, held crisis talks with the Cabinet, while stressing it "continues to bear national responsibility to protect the people" until it hands over power to an elected civilian authority. The clashes in the Maspero area and the nearby Tahrir and Abdel-Moneim Riyadh squares started when Copts staged a protest against an attack earlier this month on a church in the southern city of Aswan. Later, violence also flared outside the Coptic Hospital near Ramses Square. Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church led by Pope Shenouda III accused "infiltrators" of triggering the street battle on the Nile waterfront. "The Christian faith denounces violence. Strangers infiltrated the demonstration and committed the crimes for which the Copts have been blamed," the Church said after Pope Shenouda met with 70 of its leaders. "Copts have suffered repeated problems without the aggressors being held accountable," it said in a statement, calling on authorities to "solve the root causes of the problems". Later in the day, after the bodies of 17 Copts were buried, around 10,000 people marched from Saint Mark's Cathedral in el-Abbasiya to the Coptic Hospital, in protest against the deaths. The Coptic protesters, raising crosses and portraits of Jesus Christ, were joined by Muslims raising copies of the Holy Qur'an. The Muslims and Christians shouted slogans to express their unity against any sedition. Christians, who make up about 10 per cent of Egypt's 85 million people, blame the ruling military council that took power after the uprising for being too lenient on those behind a spate of anti-Christian attacks since Mubarak's ousting. A curfew was imposed overnight (early yesterday morning) in parts of Cairo from 2am until 7am. In a late-night address, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appealed to Egyptians "not to give in to sedition" and warned the country “is in danger”. The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayyeb, the Sunni religious leader, called for urgent talks between Muslim and Christian leaders "in a bid to contain the crisis". Christian activists said the Army used armoured vehicles to disperse protesters in Maspero, after other tactics failed. They described seeing corpses that had been crushed by the vehicles.
