Egyptian president has issued Terroris

CAIRO –The Egyptian president has issued a law that broadens the state’s definition of terrorism to include anyone who threatens public order “by any means,” and gives authorities powers to draw up lists of alleged terrorists with little judicial recourse.

Under the new law, prosecutors can name someone a terrorist, freezing their assets, and barring them from public life or travel, with only simple approval from a panel of judges, and without a trial.

The listing is valid for three years and can be renewed.

The legislation was signed in the form of a decree by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last week and was distributed to reporters Tuesday.

It is part of the government’s stepped-up campaign against an expanding insurgency by militant groups, including one that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The authorities have also waged a sweeping crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, as well as young activists and groups that fuelled the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Internationally, Egypt has pushed allies for closer cooperation to combat terrorism in the region, particularly in neighboring Libya.

Rights activists criticized the law, saying it only serves to expand Egypt’s existing arsenal of legislation that empowers authorities against political opponents.

“In the absence of accountability and monitoring, we will never know whom this law is applied to,” said Mohammed Zaree, Egypt program manager at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

“The absence of accountability and monitoring only leaves authorities above the law.”

The new Egyptian law defines a terrorist group as any entity that calls “by any means, inside or outside the country, for harming individuals, terrorizing them or putting their lives, freedoms, rights or security in danger.”

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Taliban and Islamic State Bus attack

KARACHI, Pakistan – Gunmen stormed a bus in southern Pakistan and ordered its Shiite Muslim passengers to bow their heads before shooting them, killing at least 45 people in the latest attack targeting religious minority, officials said.

Who carried out the attack in the port city of Karachi wasn’t immediately clear, as a Pakistani Taliban splinter group and an Islamic State affiliate both claimed the attack. However, some Taliban fighters have pledged their allegiance in recent months to the extremist group that now holds a third of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate.

“These are the people who are extremists, who are terrorists,” provincial police chief Ghulam Haider Jamali said of the assailants. “These are the same people who have been doing terrorism before.”

The bus was in a relatively deserted area on the outskirts of the city en route to an Ismaili Shiite community center when six gunmen boarded it, Jamali said. Investigator Khadim Hussain said the attackers ordered the passengers to bow their heads and not look up before opening fire at close range.

Shell casings at the scene suggested the gunmen used both pistols and machine guns in their attack before fleeing on three motorcycles, police said. Jamali said the attackers killed 45 people, including 16 women, and wounded 13.

Qadir Baluch, a security guard at a nearby building, said he heard the gunshots and saw at least one of the militants wearing a police uniform.

The attack riddled the bus with bullet holes, but its wounded driver still could drive it to a nearby hospital, said Mohammad Imran, a guard there. Imran said when he got on the bus later he saw blood still seeping across its seats and floor. Blood stained Imran’s own hands and uniform.

“I hardly saw any survivor,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear who carried out the attack. Pamphlets found nearby the site of the attack claimed an Islamic State affiliate carried it out, calling it revenge for the killing of their fellow fighters in Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, police officer Najeeb Khan said.

Khan said the pamphlet read: “We swear that we will keep on making you and your families mourn in tears of blood.”

Meanwhile, a man describing himself as a spokesman for a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban called Jundullah, or Army of God, claimed responsibility for the attack in a call to The Associated Press. The man, who identifies himself as Ahmad Marwat and has conveyed similar claims in the past, said “infidels were the target.”

The Taliban and other Sunni militant groups long have had a presence in Karachi. Sunni extremists view Shiites as apostates and have targeted them in the past, though attacks on the Ismaili branch have been rare.

Wednesday’s attack was the deadliest in Pakistan since December, when Taliban militants killed 150 people.

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Fears rise as fate of pilot remains in ISIS hands

AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan renewed an offer Sunday to swap an al-Qaida prisoner for a fighter pilot held captive by the Islamic State group, a day after a video purportedly showed the militants beheading a Japanese hostage.

The fates of the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto previously had been linked. The video of the beheading made no mention of the pilot, raising fears for the lieutenant’s life.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II condemned the killing as “criminal act” and “stressed the need for concert- ed international efforts to fight terrorism and extremism,” the official news agency Petra said. It said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke to the king by phone.

The Islamic State group last week demanded the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, an al-Qaida prisoner who faces death by hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in 2005.

Jordan offered last week to release her for the pilot, but the militants didn’t say at the time if they were considering such a deal. An audio message last week, purportedly from the Islamic State group, only said the pilot would be killed if al-Rishawi was not released Thursday.

The deadline passed after Jordan said it cannot free her without proof the pilot is alive. Late Saturday, the video purportedly showing Goto’s beheading was released.

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told The Associated Press on Sunday that “we are still ready to hand over” al-Rishawi in return for the pilot.

Earlier, the state-run Petra news agency quoted him as saying Jordan is working to confirm the pilot “is still alive and ensure his release and re-turn to Jordan.”

Al-Momani also said his country spared no effort to free Goto.

Relatives of the pilot, meanwhile, said they want the government to be more open with them about efforts to free him.

“We want the government to tell us the truth,” said Yassin Rawashda, an uncle of the pilot. He said the family is not demanding a full briefing, but wants to hear if release efforts are headed “in a positive direc- tion or not.”

The pilot’s father, Safi al-Kaseasbeh, said he is worried, but still is putting his faith in the government.

“Of course, I’m concerned,” he said by telephone. “This is my son. I’m always concerned about him and any development makes me more concerned.”

Jordan is reportedly conducting indirect, behind-the-scenes negotiations through tribal leaders in neighboring Iraq.

The beheading of Japan’s Kenji Goto have raised concerns for the pilot’s safety.

Al-Kaseasbeh was captured in December when his F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group. The militants control about a third of both Syria and neighboring Iraq in a self-declared caliphate.

Jordan, a staunch Western ally, is part of a U.S.-led military coalition that has carried out airstrikes against Islamic State group targets since September.

King Abdullah II says the campaign against the extremists is a battle over values, but participation in the airstrikes is not popular among Jordanians. The hostage crisis has prompted more vocal criticism of the government position.

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