Egyptian leader frees inmates
CAIRO: Egyptian President Abd el-fattah el-sisi, has pardoned 502 prisoners before the Eid-ulfitr holiday, including prominent businessman Hesham Talaat Moustafa.
Moustafa had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for hiring a hitman to kill Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim in 2008. He was pardoned on health concerns.
Among the released from prison were 25 women and “a large number of youth jailed for protesting and gathering”, according to the state news agency Mena. – Reuters
Mecca mosque bomber stopped
DUBAI: Saudi security forces foiled a suicide attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca on Friday, cornering the would-be attacker in an apartment, where he blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said.
It said three cells had planned the attack on worshippers and security forces at the mosque as the holy month of Ramadan nears its climax.
The trapped would-be bomber exchanged fire with security forces, then set off explosives. The building collapsed, injuring six foreigners and five security force members. – Reuters
Quatar reviews Arab boycott
DOHA: Qatar is reviewing a list of demands by four Arab states to boycott the Gulf country, but said the list was not reasonable or actionable.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which imposed a boycott on Qatar, issued an ultimatum to Doha to close Al Jazeera, curb ties with Iran, shut a Turkish military base and pay reparations among other demands.
US Secretary of state Rex Tillerson called on Saudi Arabia to produce a list that was “reasonable and actionable.” “This list does not satisfy that criteria,” a statement said. – Reuters
UK woodland research a gas
LONDON: Researchers at a British University have embarked on a decade-long experiment that will pump a forest full of carbon dioxide to measure how it copes with rising levels of the gas – a key driver of climate change.
The Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment experiment at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Forest Research will expose a fencedoff section of mature woodland – in Norbury Park in Staffordshire, in England’s West Midlands – to levels of carbon dioxide experts predict will be prevalent in 2050. – Reuters