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BREAKING: At least one armed hijacker seized control of an EgyptAir flight from Alexandria to Cairo and ordered it flown to Cyprus Tuesday morning, according to officials from both countries. A Cypriot government official told the Associated Press the hijacked plane landed at the airport in Larnaka, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean island, and that there are suspicions of a bomb on board. A second Cypriot official says there "seems like there's more than one hijacker." He says there have been no demands other than that police vehicles move away from the aircraft. Another Cypriot official said that...

Though climbing the oldest and largest of the three pyramids could result in a three-year jail term, or something far worse if he lost his footing, "I thought the photos would be worth it," Ciesielski says, per the Telegraph. Armed with a GoPro camera, "I just started climbing." He took the first few steps quickly "so nobody would follow me and take me down," he tells Business Insider. It wasn't until he was about halfway up the 455-foot structure that police finally spotted him. Ciesielski kept climbing and reached the top in about eight minutes. Spectacular images on his blog...

CAIRO (AP) — A firebomb attack on a small nightclub in Cairo early Friday killed 16 people and wounded three others, authorities said. Police were looking for two young men who carried out the attack in the Agouza district because they were previously not allowed to enter, state news agency MENA reported. The attack happened at the El Sayad restaurant, which is not officially a nightclub but is among Egypt's small local eateries that skirt taboos around drinking in this predominantly Muslim country by serving food and alcohol throughout the day, then turning into a bar until the early morning...

Restorers have put their work on the famed golden burial mask of King Tutankhamun on display in Cairo, over a year after the beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued back on with epoxy. A German-Egyptian team of experts showed off the mask in a laboratory in the Egyptian Museum, detailing plans for how the epoxy will be scraped off and the beard carefully removed before being reattached by a method to be determined by a joint scientific committee. Christian Eckmann, the lead restoration specialist, said the work should take a month or two, depending on how long it...

The Islamic State claimed Thursday it carried out a massive car bombing that targeted Egyptian security forces in Cairo, calling the operation revenge for the deaths of some of its members earlier this year. The powerful blast — which could be heard across several Cairo districts — has raised fears of stepped up insurgent attacks in the Egyptian capital. Islamists and other militants have waged an increasingly deadly campaign against Egyptian security forces since a military coup ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Among the factions is a group, based in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, that has pledged loyalty to...

The blast could be heard across several neighborhoods in the city, according to residents who posted on Twitter. An assailant parked the vehicle packed with explosives outside a security headquarters in the Cairo-area district of Shubra, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Thursday. He then fled the scene on a motorcycle before the bomb exploded, the statement said. Egyptian insurgents have frequently targeted such security installations in their years-long campaign against the government. The blast on Thursday injured six policemen, the ministry said. Live feed from private Egyptian television channel CBC showed extensive damage to buildings in the district,...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — A dozen Palestinian Muslim men gathered after midnight at an isolated farm house this week to indulge in a new delight. They were going to watch a soap opera about Jews. “Hush, hush. It’s starting!” someone said. The group settled down, sipped fresh lemonade, nibbled sweets, sucked on water pipes and then cranked up the volume for the opening credits of “Haret al-Yahud,” or “The Jewish Quarter.” The steamy Egyptian soap tells a Romeo and Juliet tale of a beautiful daughter of a well-to-do Jewish merchant and a dashing Muslim army commander falling in and out...

The blast happened days after Egypt leading prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed in a car bomb. A huge explosion occurred in front of the Italian consulate in central Cairo on Saturday, wounding two policemen, state news agency MENA said. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear but one security official said it was a car bomb. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. MENA cited a senior security source as saying preliminary investigations indicated that attackers had placed a bomb underneath a car near the consulate and remotely detonated it. MENA earlier cited a security source as saying...

<p>Egyptian security officials say special forces killed nine members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including a former member of parliament, during a raid on a Cairo apartment.</p> <p>Wednesday’s raid came as Islamic militants launched a massive coordinated assault on Egyptian troops in the northern Sinai Peninsula that left at least 53 soldiers dead. It was not immediately clear if the incidents were related.</p>

Exemplar of the Obama administration – a US embassy hire, is ….. a terrorist. This is hardly the first time. Just like the “security force” the Obama administration hired to “protect” the consulate in Benghazi. They were savage jihadists, too. Now imagine this – the Obama administration is importing hundreds of thousands of Muslims –“refugees”– from this war torn region. If this is how the treasonous administration vets security personnel, what hope do Americans have that these “refugees’ have been properly vetted? None. On the contrary … “Security Guard at U.S. Embassy in Egypt Arrested as a Terrorist”, OODA Analyst,...

Judge indicates he will limit government evidence against Al-Hussayen By BOB FICK , Associated Press, 04/22/2004 ______ A federal judge told prosecutors Thursday he would likely limit the e-mail evidence they can introduce against the University of Idaho graduate student they have accused of using his computer skills to foster terrorism. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge withheld ruling on any specific e-mails sent to Sami Omar Al-Hussayen by others in the e-mail group devoted to Chechen Muslims until an attempt is actually made to offer them as evidence. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Deitch argued the e-mail's sent to Al-Hussayen...

The Saudi man arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force yesterday in Idaho has ties to close associates of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and to four Arab men charged at the same time with channeling funds to Iraq. Sami Omar Al-Hussayen – a University of Idaho doctoral candidate supported by the Saudi government – was a terrorist bagman, according to a federal criminal justice source quoted by a Seattle newspaper. Saudi student Sami Omar al-Hussayen "He's in touch with people who could pick up the phone, call [bin Laden], and he would take the call," the source told the...

A U.S. citizen detained in Egypt for violating curfew in August was found dead Sunday in his jail cell, the second foreigner to die in detention in recent weeks. ... Security officials identified the man as James Henry, 66, a retired U.S. Army officer who arrived in Cairo from the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain on Aug. 25. Henry was detained by army troops in the turbulent region of northern Sinai three days later while making his way to the border crossing with Gaza in the town of Rafah

For those left unsatisfied with the media’s uncritical and shallow coverage of the recently released Benghazi report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I wanted to pass along this just-published article, 10 major takeaways from the House Benghazi report that the media is completely ignoring, based on a careful read of the actual text of the report and appended documents. The media’s unwillingness to actually study the report given the political value of the “headline” takeaways, not to mention its uncharacteristic lack of skepticism at an investigation conducted by a committee led by Republicans almost completely absolving the...

<p>"CAIRO — The Canadian Embassy in Cairo has closed over security concerns, a day after the British Embassy suspended its services over safety worries.</p> <p>The Canadian Embassy announced its closure through a message on its main telephone number Monday. An Egyptian security official told The Associated Press that Canadians asked for all roads around the embassy shut down and more security.</p>

Arab news sources reported Wednesday that Egypt has agreed to open the crossing between it and Gaza at Rafah, on the condition that the Gazan side be supervised by the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas, and not by Hamas. Hamas has reportedly agreed to this, mostly because the it is now a part of the PA government, since joining Abbas's Fatah in a unity coalition. Abbas is supposed to serve as the link between Egypt and Israel regarding Gaza, according to the reports. It was also agreed that a conference would be held next month in Norway, to collect funds...

Spanish historians claim they’ve discovered the 2,000-year-old Holy Chalice, the biblical cup that Jesus Christ used during the Last Supper. Margarita Torres, a medieval history lecturer at León University and Jose Ortiza del Rio, an art historian, penned a new book claiming that years of research has led them to conclude that Christ’s chalice is somehow inside a medieval goblet that has been on display in Spain for 1,000 years, Daily Mail reported. Residing inside the Basilica of San Isidoro, a church in Spain that is located on the site of an ancient Roman temple, the goblet — known as...

Just in time for Easter, from The New York Daily News: Two historians claim the search for the Holy Grail is over.The famous cup used by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper was identified in a book written by Margarita Torres Jose Manuel Ortega del Rio, titled “Kings of the Grail” and published last week, as the jewel-encrusted goblet on display at the San Isidro Basilica in the northwestern Spanish city of Leon.News of the discovery caused masses of people to flock to the historic church to view the precious chalice – forcing the operators of the museum to pull...

Spanish historians say they have discovered what Monty Python could not – the Holy Grail, the legendary cup Jesus supposedly drank from at the Last Supper. The Spaniards – Margarita Torres and José Ortega del Río – believe the 2,000-year-old vessel is in a church in León in northern Spain. The pair spent three years studying the history of the chalice and last week published a book, “The Kings of the Grail,” making their case. The onyx chalice, they explained, was concealed within another antique vessel known as the Chalice of Doña Urruca, which is located in León’s basilica of...

Arab foreign ministers on Sunday rejected Israel’s demands that the Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state, saying such a move would undermine the rights of Palestinian refugees. In a resolution released at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo, the foreign ministers called the issue of Palestinian refugees an integral part of a comprehensive and just peace. It blamed Israel for the floundering of peace negotiations. The Arab statement offers strong backing to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who said publicly last week he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state despite facing strong international pressure. Abbas did...