Israel, aiming to avoid further damage to its troubled ties with Cairo, said on Monday it saw the Egyptian termination of a deal to supply Israel with natural gas as part of a business rather than a diplomatic dispute.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli radio stations the cancellation of the deal was “not a good sign,” but added “We want to understand this as a trade dispute. I think that to turn a business dispute into a diplomatic dispute would be a mistake.”

“Israel is interested in maintaining the peace treaty and we think this is also a supreme interest of Egypt,” he said.

The Egyptian company EGAS confirmed on Sunday the termination of the 20-year-old contract, under which Egypt supplied 40 per cent of Israel’s natural gas.

EGAS Chairman Mohamed Shoeib said the decision was not political, telling Egypt’s Hayat TV that “EGAS ended the deal because the other party didn’t fulfil its commitments.”

Egypt was the first of two Arab countries to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994.

Ties have been strained since President Hosni Mubarak, an advocate of the peace deal, was toppled by a popular revolt last year.

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz voiced alarm on Sunday about the economic as well as diplomatic repercussions of the decision to end the contract.

The supply pipeline running through the restive Sinai peninsula has been damaged repeatedly by saboteurs in the past year, causing extensive supply disruptions, and Israel had warned residents to expect electricity outages this summer.

Steinitz also said the Egyptian cancellation had set “a dangerous precedent which casts a shadow on the peace agreements and the peaceful atmosphere between Egypt and Israel.”

Sudanese warplanes carried out air strikes on South Sudan on Monday, killing three people near a southern oil town, residents and military officials said, three days after South Sudan pulled out of a disputed oil field.

A Reuters reporters at the scene, outside the oil town of Bentiu, said he saw a fighter aircraft drop two bombs near a river bridge between Bentiu and the neighbouring town of Rubkona.

“I can see market stalls burning in Rubkona in the background and the body of a small child burning,” he said.

Mac Paul, deputy head of South Sudan’s military intelligence, said two Sudanese MiG-29 planes had dropped four bombs in the area. “This is a serious escalation and violation of the territory of South Sudan. It’s a clear provocation,” Paul said.

Barely had the first U.N. ceasefire monitors set foot on Syrian soil this week than Bashar al-Assad’s enemies were discussing the likelihood of the mission failing and warning of punitive measures against the Syrian president.

The emir of Qatar gave Syria’s flawed truce a three percent chance of holding while U.S. officials, pointing to continued army shelling of rebel strongholds, questioned whether there was any point adding to the handful of international monitors in place.

France said it put no faith in the ceasefire because Assad was not sincere and even U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Syria had yet to show it is committed to peace.

But behind doubts and scepticism over the partial ceasefire and the protracted wrangling to establish a credible monitoring mission, Assad’s critics know they have few other levers to end the violence in Syria.

Still reluctant to consider military force and facing Russian and Chinese opposition to U.N. sanctions on Damascus, they have little diplomatic muscle to back up their noisy rhetoric against the Syrian leader.

The truce, brokered by international mediator Kofi Annan, came into effect last week. Activists say Syria has violated it by shelling Homs and other opposition strongholds and failing to withdraw heavy weapons from cities.

The government says rebels have carried out at least three major bombings and killed dozens of people.

“Although they are pessimistic about the potential for success, there is a growing consensus that the only other way to depose Assad in the short term is military intervention, which most sides are firmly opposed to,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“I am not convinced that U.S. and Europe would be willing to call this mission off and announce failure of the Annan plan entirely without an alternative track.”

A “Friends of Syria” meeting in Paris on Thursday described Annan’s peace plan as a “last hope” to avert full-scale civil war after 13 months of turmoil in which the United Nations says Assad’s forces have killed at least 9,000 people.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the U.N. Security Council to prepare a sanctions resolution tightening pressure on Assad to comply with the ceasefire and agree to an adequate monitoring mission.

But she acknowledged that any proposed sanctions resolution at this stage would probably be blocked by Moscow, which has close military ties with Assad’s government and has vetoed two earlier draft resolutions against Damascus along with China.

“I am sceptical whether there is a viable Plan B in terms of taking this to the Security Council,” said Barnes-Dacey. “Russian opposition is going to be an obstacle to that.”

While the Western and Arab warnings aim to keep pressure on Assad to comply with the ceasefire, the barrage of downbeat statements may simply undermine the mission before it is fully up and running.

“It’s unfortunate that some countries have not fully supported the plan,” said one Western diplomat in the region. “If you say it’s got a 3 percent chance, it further decreases the likelihood of success.”

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who along with Qatar has called for arming and funding the anti-Assad rebels, said in Paris that as long as the violence continued, foreign powers should “at the very least … help the Syrians defend themselves”.

But, like other powers caught up in Syria’s crisis which also include neighbouring Turkey, the Gulf states may fail to follow up their strong words with actions, leaving Annan’s ceasefire plan as the only viable option.

“Given the absolute lack of any stomach for U.S. intervention, Turkey’s unwillingness to intervene unless it is under U.S. and European leadership, and the clear signs of posturing from Saudi Arabia but lack of any real follow-up, I don’t see the strategic purpose of collapsing the Annan agreement,” said Shashank Joshi of the military think-tank RUSI.

From Syria’s perspective, Assad may also have a strong interest in ensuring the ceasefire stays in place.

An agreement reached between the United Nations and Syria this week makes specific demands on Syrian rebels as well as the government, effectively assigning joint responsibility for a cessation of the bloodshed.

That marks a diplomatic achievement for authorities in Damascus which have said since the outset of the uprising against Assad that they are battling foreign-backed militants.

The truce also offers a chance for Assad to regroup his army and security forces after weeks of offensives against rebel strongholds in Damascus, Homs, Idlib and Deraa. While inflicting great suffering on targeted populations, these may also have psychologically drained all but his elite units.

“It’s demoralising conducting counter-insurgency operations, shelling urban areas and having troops deploy away from home,” Joshi said. “These place enormous strains on armed forces. And he has very limited numbers of elite units that are available, so there are benefits to his military strategy from the ceasefire.”

But a pause in the bloodshed would also provide an opportunity for Assad’s opponents, allowing armed groups to consolidate and encouraging protesters back on to the streets.

“I think (Assad) has every interest in having the observer mission, but he also has an interest in making sure the mission does not become overly large, overly mobile or overly effective,” Joshi said.

In the Shi’ite villages dotted around the capital, demonstrators hurling petrol bombs have clashed nightly with police during the past week, and security forces responded with teargas, rubber bullets and birdshot.

Black smoke from burning tyres wafted over Budaiya, a village outside the capital that saw mass protests this week.

For those inside the Formula One bubble, far from the scenes of protest, the unrest has had little impact. Teams assembled at Bahrain International Circuit amid the usual security precautions ahead of the race. At hotels where race participants were staying, guests swam and relaxed poolside in the morning. The highway to the circuit was lined with police cars.

The luxury sporting event is the government’s chance to show that life has gone back to normal in the island kingdom after security concerns over anti-government demonstrations forced last year’s race to be delayed, then cancelled.

It appears to have backfired, with nightly TV images of streets ablaze embarrassing Formula One and the global brands that lavish it with sponsorship. Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, is a sponsor of the Williams Formula One team.

The death of 36-year-old protester Salah Abbas Habib – found sprawled on a rooftop on Saturday after overnight clashes – provides more fuel for outrage among a Shi’ite Muslim majority that complains of being marginalised by ruling Sunnis.

His funeral could be held on Sunday if his family recovers his body, setting the stage for riots on race day. Authorities have sometimes held on to bodies for days or weeks.

Bahrain, a close military ally of the United States, is the only one of the Gulf monarchies to have been seriously threatened by Arab Spring protests that brought down the rulers of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen since the start of 2011.

Its government crushed protests last year, swept demonstrators off the streets and bulldozed the traffic circle where they had camped. Thirty-five people, including security forces, died in that crackdown. Since then, Shi’ite areas have remained volatile and clashes have increased in recent months.

“Our initial demands were to elect a new government but after the disgusting abuse we received, all the people are asking for is for the regime to fall,” said protester Ahmed Madani during a march of 7,000 people on the eve of the race.

Some banners held up during the march depicted Formula One drivers as riot police, bashing protesters. The march was followed by clashes in several districts which saw protesters hurl Molotov cocktails and police respond with teargas.

The Bahrain government commissioned an independent inquiry after last year’s crackdown and says it is enacting reforms. Human rights groups say it is moving too slowly.

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, who will attend the Grand prix, said in a statement overnight he wanted “to make clear my personal commitment to reform and reconciliation in our great country. The door is always open for sincere dialogue amongst all our people.”

Staff of two teams witnessed petrol bomb-throwing incidents and some members of the Force India team left Bahrain. But most of the travelling Formula One entourage have had no interaction with the violence taking place mainly outside the capital.

Some teams have expressed frustration at the attention on politics. Red Bull’s world champion Sebastian Vettel, who starts at pole position, said shortly after arrival on Thursday that he thought much of what was being reported was hype.

He looked forward to getting in the car and dealing with the “stuff that really matters – tyre temperatures, cars”.

Phil Mitchell of Britain, who lives and works in Bahrain and had come to watch the event, said he was “just looking forward to a really good race today”. “There is definitely more security. But not marked. I think it’s just a precautionary measure.”

Bahrain’s government is thought to have paid $40 million to host the event, a symbol of pride for the ruling family since it brought the first Grand Prix to the region in 2004. When it was last held in 2010, the race drew more than 100,000 visitors and generated $500 million in spending.

While motor sports journalists were invited to cover it, reporters from Reuters and some other news organisations who normally write about Middle East politics were denied visas. Hackers brought down the F1 website intermittently on Friday and defaced another site, f1-racers.net, to support what they described as the Bahraini people’s struggle against oppression.

The hunger strike of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, one of 14 men jailed for leading last year’s uprising, is further inflaming anger on the street. His health has entered a critical stage after more than 70 days. His family says he stopped taking water on Friday, raising fears for his life.

Bahrain’s state news agency said in a statement that Khawaja was in “good health and stable and receiving full medical attention,” citing Attorney General Abdelrahman al-Sayed, after a visit by a public prosecutor.

Khawaja also met on Sunday with the ambassador from Denmark, where he also holds citizenship, and which has asked for Khawaja to be released into their care, the agency said.

Dozens of workers filled the inner halls of Egypt’s State Council building on Tuesday, marking the second day of their open-ended sit-in after clashes broke out between military police forces and a number of workers on Monday.

A court hearing was held on Monday to examine the appeal presented to the State Council by the government of the former prime minister Essam Sharaf and a number of investors, to reverse the renationalisation of four factories.

The factories were renationalised in September last year in a decision that was hailed as a landmark victory by workers who lost their jobs as a result of the companies’ original privatisation.

The workers from Shibin El-Kom, Nile Cotton Ginning, Omar Effendi and Tanta Flax and Oil staged a sit-in with some of their families after several workers were beaten by the military police and denied entry to the court room.

Earlier in the day, the judge called on the army to interfere to bring order to the court room.

The workers also announced their reason for protesting is to oppose the unjust manner in which the government is dealing with them, in addition to the arbitrary manner in which the case is being filed against them.

Labour lawyer and presidential hopeful Khaled Ali, who is defending the workers and presented his arguments on Monday, joined the workers at their sit-in.

Over the past year and a half, much debate has taken place regarding Egypt’s Family Law. Whereas some, mostly Islamists, have argued that certain articles must be changed or removed, many, women and men, have taken the streets demanding that rights be added, not stripped away.

For instance, Law 1 of 2000, otherwise known as the Khulaa Law, acts as an alternative route for women whose husbands refuse to grant them divorce. MP Mohamed El-Omda of the Wafd Party, who is also the head of People’s Assembly Constitutional Affairs Committee, suggested with a coalition of other MPs that the law must be canceled. He and Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) MPS also suggested that the National Council for Women be disbanded and that a National Council for the Family be activated instead.

Through the Khulaa Law, courts grant women a divorce as long as they return the dowry paid by her husband prior to the marriage. Opponents argue that the process of the law is against Islamic Sharia law and that it also increases divorce among married couples.

However, Nehad Abul-Komsan, chairwoman of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights, said in a TV interview that divorce rates resulting from resort to Khulaa Law represents only three per cent of all divorce cases.

Azza Kamel, co-founder of Egyptian Women for Change (EWC), believes that those appealing for abrogation of the Khulaa Law are ignorant of Sharia law, in addition to the issues women face in asking for their rights.

“Some argue that women now receive all their rights, which is nonsense. We still demand major changes in Egypt’s Personal Status Law to acquire women rights,” Kamel said. She added: “If any of those MPs tried to visit the Family Court in Egypt they might realise how women suffer for years regarding divorce issues.”

Nabil Helmy, international law professor and member of the National Council for Human Rights, said that “according to Islamic Sharia, Khulaa Law is totally legal and acceptable.” Thus, it should not be eliminated. However, if the majority of the People’s Assembly (PA) members decided that it should, then they can do so through the PA’s Legislative Committee.

Azza Soliman, legal assistant at the Centre for Egyptian Women, said that Khulaa Law is not the main goal, but merely a step towards attaining women’s rights in Egypt. “We have been working on a project for a reformed Personal Status Law for 3 years,” Soliman said.

She also added that Khulaa Law is a necessity for achieving justice regarding divorce issues, and a right for every woman that suffers in order to receive a divorce verdict. “Through Khulaa, it could take only six months for a neglected, suffering woman to be officially divorced,” Soliman explained.

Amendments to several articles of Egypt’s Personal Status Law that were made in last March’s constitutional amendments are under debate as well. The changes made to the Custody Law 25 of 1929 (amended by Law 4 of 2005) gave divorced mothers the right to keep their children until the age of 15, instead of 10 for a son and 12 for a daughter. Changes also allow fathers to have care of their sons/daughters for 48 hours a week instead of only three hours a week.

Last year’s amendments also covered two articles in the Childhood Law, including Article 31, which raises the age of marriage to 18. However, in the past couple of months, some Salafist MPs argued that there should be no minimum age for marriage for both sexes, explaining that in Islamic Sharia, an age for marriage is not specified. They also argue that not defining an age for marriage can help stem the prevalence of vice and eliminate spinsterhood.

Kamel explains that according to international law, a child means every human being below the age of 18 years, meaning that those under 18 aren’t mature enough for marriage or for child bearing. “Most under age girls might suffer miscarriage problems, and even die,” Kamel said. She added that Salafist appeals are attempts to marginalise women, “just like they did in the current Constituent Assembly. where only five women are represented.”

“A license to drive, and to even vote, requires you to be 18 years old or older. Are those things more important than being a parent and forming a family?” Soliman asks, adding that she believes it’s wrong to set the age of marriage below 18, or “12, as some imply.”

In addition, some have called for cancelling the implementation of CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, often described as an international bill of rights for women, since allegedly it contains articles that contradict Islamic Sharia.

The FJP held a conference last March under the title “Women and the Future,” demanding the elimination of National Council for Women, arguing that it is against Sharia law and claiming that it — and also CEDAW — serves a foreign agenda. The conference was held only a few days after the National Council for Women was reformed and headed by Mervat El-Tallawy, in place of Suzanne Mubarak.

“CEDAW has been applied in Egypt since 1981, with the exception of four articles. Articles 9 regarding nationality, Article 2 regarding equality between men and women, Article 16 regarding family rights, and Article 29B regarding complaints,” Soliman explains.

TV host and writer Doria Sharafeddin, spokesperson of the National Council for Women, argues that those who oppose applying CEDAW in Egypt are probably ignorant of the fact that Egypt lodged reservations on certain articles long ago. “Even Saudi Arabia signed it, though it’s a more conservative country than Egypt,” she added.

Sharafeddin believes that CEDAW, and women’s rights in general, should not be linked with the wife of the former president, and former head of the National Council for Women, Suzanne Mubarak, because “the council is a product of women’s struggle for decades. Reforming the council is what should be worked on, not totally eliminating it.”

Sharafeddin also believes that some want to apply Wahabi thinking in Egypt, to marginalise women, even though in the Gulf region women are beginning to play an important role in society.

Egyptian diplomatic sources stated on Monday to Al-Sharq Saudi newspaper that there is no diplomatic crisis between the governments of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. A crisis was seen to be brewing after a series of escalating sentences, notably by Mahmoud Ghozlan, the spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Tensions started when prominent Islamic scholar ‎Youssef El-Qaradawi, a veteran and influential member of Muslim Brotherhood criticised UAE’s deportation of Syrian activists and their families from the Gulf state. He made the comments on his television program Al-Jazeera satellite news channel.

Dhahi Khalfan, the Dubai police chief then issued a warning, suggesting that if El-Qaradawi attacked the UAE or its rulers, Khalfan would request that Interpol issue a warrant to arrest him.

Mahmoud Ghozlan, the spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood, stepped into the fray warning Khalfan in a statement to an Emirati newspaper from arresting El-Qaradawi, saying that if they did arrest him, the whole Islamic world would stand against the UAE.

Ghozlan’s comments generated an angry reaction from Emirati officials towards the Muslim Brotherhood. UAE minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Bi Zayed Al-Nahyan attacked the Brotherhood, for instance saying on the micro-blogging website Twitter, that “Egypt does not deserve than this kind of thinking” and demanding an official explanation for Ghozlan’s comments. Meanwhile Khalfan continued to slam the Brotherhood accusing them of being a “danger to the Gulf’s security” and “American agents.”

According to AFP UAE’s foreign affairs minister Anwar Karkash demanded an explanation his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr at the most recent meeting of Arab ministers of foreign affairs at the Arab League last Saturday.

Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council also condemned Ghozlan’s comments.

The Brotherhood responded by issuing an official statement on Monday stating that they are prepared to hold talks with the UAE in order to clear any misunderstanding. According to the statement, the comments attributed to Ghozlan were fabricated and exaggerated in order to create tensions at a critical time.

The unnamed Egyptian diplomatic sources who spoke to Al-Sharq added that there were diplomatic efforts to end the tensions between the Muslim Brotherhood and the UAE as soon as possible so that relations do not deteriorate.

More than half a million Egyptian government employees on temporary contracts will soon receive the minimum wage already given to permanent workers, a public administration official has said.

Safwat El-Nahass, head of the Central Agency for Organisation and Administration (CAOA), the government body charged with organising public administration, last week pledged to extend payments of the new minimum wage to all government employees.

He did not give a timeframe for the full implementation of the wage.

“The minimum wage should ultimately be given to contract employees also. This will cost LE5 billion per year,” Al-Nahas said.

In June last year, Egypt’s interim government responded to long-standing demands for labour activists and agreed to grant public sector employees a monthly minimum wage of LE700.

The wage went into effect at the start of August, the beginning of the 2011-2012 financial year, but only permanent government workers benefitted.

The minimum wage is now granted to all new permanent employees regardless of previous work experience or educational attainment, El-Nahas explained, speaking at a conference on the minimum wage at the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) in Cairo.

All workers receive at least LE700 on paper but deductions are made for pensions, insurance and tax meaning take-home pay is significantly less.

Egyptian workers in both public and private sectors have long demanded a revision for the country’s minimum wage.

Workers’ demands were given strength in 2010 by a court ruling in favour of a lawsuit filed by a labour activist demanding the minimum wage be raised for the first time since 1984.

Egypt has an estimated 500,000 government employees on temporary contracts but some can be considered luckier than others.

Around 225,000 have temporary roles in positions called for by Egypt’s central administration.

According to the law, they have the right to to receive a permanent contract if their temporary contract is renewed for three consecutive years. This law, however, has reportedly not been obeyed.

The least lucky, on the other hand, are those who were granted temporary jobs on different contracts.

“This happened after the government suspended recruitment in public administration. Amendments were introduced to the public administration law, promulgated in 1984, because it did not include temporary recruitment,” explained El-Nahas.

The salaries for these workers comes not from the part of the government budget allocated to wages, but from other non-employement related areas.

Some take their wages from funds dedicated to training, or even for maintenance or spare parts.

“They were recruited by local authorities outside the rules of public administration. This money should not have been used for this purpose from the beginning, but the employees themselves didn’t understand that and it is not their mistake,” El-Nahas explained.

This category includes some employees that were hired with renewable temporary contracts valid for 10 or more years, sometimes earning just LE100 per month, El-Nahas admitted.

This is the case for the more than 30,000 employees of the information centres of the Egyptian Cabinet.

Another example El-Nahas gives is of supply teachers for state schools, who are paid for each class they teach. In this case, however, the employees were never formerly recruited nor given the rights of other teachers, who themselves complain of low wages.

Egypt’s public sector wage structures are riven with inconsistencies, including large imbalances in salaries between different governmental bodies.

To compensate for low basic salaries, Egypt’s public administration has grafted on a complex system of bonuses — 55 kinds of so-called ‘primes’ — many of them worth just a few pounds per month.

The system was reportedly designed to reduce the sums paid by the employer, in this case, the state for insurance.

“Those imbalances won’t be fixed separately from the reform of the social insurance law and healthcare laws. The first imposes a maximum limit for insurance and the second gives a kind of revenue employees benefit from when needed,” El-Nahas said.

The large gap between salaries and pensions is another anomaly, according to El-Nahas.

In Egypt, a person’s pensions can be just 10 per cent of his final salary before retirement; the worldwide average, meanwhile, is around 80 per cent.
Ahmed Darwish, the former minister of state for administrative development, believes minimum wages should be further revised to reflect education levels.

“The actual wage cap does not encourage education — that’s the message it sends,” Darwish said.

According to a study done by his ministry, the minimum wage of an employee hardly able to read and write in 1974 was LE16. Someone with a university degree, on the other hand, was paid LE30 — more than 80 per cent more.

“This ratio decreased with the years because the government focused on increasing the minimum wage to gain popularity. According to a study done a couple of years ago, LE16 is equivalent to almost LE700 now. The minimum wage of a university graduate should be [much higher] to have the same purchasing power as LE30 in 1974,” Darwish explained.

Temporary contracts were introduced to Egypt’s public administration in 2000 in a bid to compensate for labour shortages while keeping the state budget at a manageable level.

In the 1980s, the Mubarak regime suspended recruitment in the public sector, in what marked a change of outlook from the Nasser era when every university graduate was said to have the offer of a state job.

Egypt has around 5.8 million people working for the public administration, a figure that might climb to 6.3 million if temporary workers are finally granted tenure, according to El-Nahas.

Egyptian football pitches have been virtually abandoned since 1 February, when over 70 Ahly fans were killed in Port Said after the final whistle of a league game.

While criminal investigations are still ongoing, the Egyptian Football Association’s elected board, under the presidency of Samir Zaher, had no choice but to resign, leaving a caretaker board, under Anwar Saleh, to make a hard decision.

After weeks of speculations, Saleh revealed that the EFA has decided not to resume the Egyptian Premier League due to security concerns. A friendly tournament will be held instead, leaving thousands involved in the business and millions of fans to do without football in the year of Egypt’s first real democratic presidential election.

The sports industry is one of the many fields that has been negatively affected during the transitional period under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), who took over power when former president Hosni Mubarak stepped down last year.

Ahram Online have chosen some of the reactions, announced through Egyptian media, on the league’s cancelation.

EFA Marketing Manager Amr Wahbi:
“Although the season’s cancelation is necessary, the football business will lose over LE1.2 billion.”

Ahly football director Sayed Abdel-Hafiz:
“It’s good that the season is canceled but we will never stop demanding the martyrs’ rights. We didn’t make a decision regarding the friendly tournament yet but we will, surely, compete in the Africa championship and we will play our home matches in Egypt in front of our fans.”

Zamalek president Mamdouh Abbas:
“I support the league’s cancellation due to the hard times Egypt is enduring. We will keep our players, we will neither sell nor loan out anyone, and we are determined to continue our campaign in the African Champions League.”

Haras El-Hodoud coach Tarek El-Ashry:
“I am not against the league’s cancellation but I want to know: will we, as the current leaders, be considered the league champions? Will we take part in the upcoming edition of the Confederation of African Football Champions League?”

Tala El-Geish coach Farouk Gaafar:
“Who took the decision to cancel the league season? People sitting in cafes could make a better decision. Football is a big business and cancelling the competition will cost clubs, players, media and all the people involved a lot of money.”

Maqassa coach Tarek Yehia:
“No need for the friendly tournament; and I consider Haras El-Hodoud the league champions.”

El-Entag El-Harby coach Mohamed Helmy:
“No football activities should resume before the criminals of the Port Said massacre are punished.”

Smouha president Mohamed Farag Amer:
“The league cancelation is a disappointing decision but we will not oppose it.”

Itthad of Alexandria president Effat El-Sadat:
“The friendly tournament will be important for the players to keep their form, especially the international ones.”

Egyptian hardcore football fans such as Ahly’s Ultras Ahlawy and Zamalek’s Ultras White Knights, who played a key role in defending Tahrir Square during the January revolution, did not devote much attention to the halting of the league. They instead focus on organising protests demanding justice and rights, not only for the football martyrs, but for all of the revolution’s martyrs.

While I was going through the photos from HOMS yesterday ,,, I was shocked ,,, I didn’t know what to think or even what to feel
should I be angry , sad ,, I didn’t know ,,,
Then I saw this photo ,,, I broke in tears
Just think and imagine with me ,,,
we all know how much mothers love their children
how much they protect them and care about them
Think about this lady ,,, what would be in her mind when she saw her kids like that
her kids ,,, the ones that she used to dress up for school
her kids ,,, the ones she dreamed of seeing them growing up
her kids ,,, laying in front of her ,,, dead ,,, slaughtered

how can someone do that ? how can someone carry a knife and simply kill a child

I don’t know what to say to her ,,, I just don’t know