Posts Tagged North Africa

Obama urged to make economy a bigger, bolder topic

In this Aug. 11, 2009, file photo Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod, left, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, right, leave with President Barack Obama, not shown, from the White House in Washington. Obama allies and former top aides are worried he has lost his voice on his central theme of economic opportunity, silenced by a trio of recent troubles. Axelrod and Gibbs are pressing Obama's current aides to let the president stake out a big vision once again, not only to put a focus on his second term but to move away from the controversies engulfing the White House.  (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Five months into President Barack Obama’s second term, allies and former top aides worry that his overarching goal of economic opportunity has been diminished, partly drowned out by controversies seized upon by Republicans in an effort to weaken him.

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20 flights without bags after Egypt airport strike

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian officials say baggage handlers in Cairo’s airport have gone on strike to protest a colleague’s death, leaving passengers on 20 international flights from Europe and Arab countries waiting several hours for luggage.

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Egyptians targeted with blasphemy charges

Abdel-Nour, the father of  24-year-old school teacher Dimyana Abdel-Nour, who is accused of insulting Islam while teaching fourth graders history of religions, speaks on the phone to a live television show about his daughter from his home in southern Egypt's ancient city of Luxor, Egypt, Thursday, May 16, 2013. Freed on Tuesday on a 20,000-pound (nearly 3,000 dollars) bail after nearly a week in detention, Abdel-Nour is due to stand trial later this month. Criminalizing blasphemy was enshrined in the country's new Islamist-backed constitution adopted in December. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Zayed)

CAIRO (AP) — The pale, young Christian woman sat handcuffed in the courtroom, accused of insulting Islam while teaching history of religions to fourth-graders. A team of Islamist lawyers with long beards sang in unison, “All except the Prophet Muhammad.”

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