Free Republic

The trigger for the riots was the joint plan by Egypt and Saudi Arabia to build a bridge across the Red Sea, but the riots were not triggered by the bridge plan itself, but by other terms of the same deal that we described in “10-Apr-16 World View — Egypt, Saudi Arabia to build a huge bridge where Moses parted the Red Sea”

The expansion of the Panama Canal, a $5.3 billion project almost two years behind schedule and plagued by cost overruns and contractor disputes, is expected to open by the end of June, according to the agency that operates the waterway. The Panama Canal Authority has resolved problems associated with contractors and seepage from the new locks discovered during testing, said Jose Ramon Arango, senior international trade specialist at the agency that operates the 50-mile (77- kilometer) waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The authority is planning a test of the new locks with a tanker in May...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday called for a coalition to combat terrorism in the Middle East. Opening a meeting with Putin in Moscow, el-Sissi said "the Egyptian people" are hoping for broader ties with Russia in all areas, particularly in fighting terrorism in the Middle East. El-Sissi's Russian visit, his second in the past three months, highlights Moscow's attempts to expand its influence in Egypt at a time when Egyptian-U.S. relations have soured in the aftermath of the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

"Officials say the new waterway will be a symbol of the new Egypt" Few things in Egypt are more iconic, revered and profitable than the Suez Canal. So in a bid to refloat the country's ailing economy, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is building another one. He broke ground on the second Suez Canal last August, at a ceremony full of pomp and patriotism. With fighter jets conducting aerial displays overhead, Egypt's new strongman promised it would be "a channel of prosperity". Tight deadline It was not plain sailing at the start. There was some flooding at the drilling site...

As the well-coordinated, Russian and Militant Muslim giant military pincer maneuver continues to rapidly succeed for control of the Eastern Mediterranean formerly Sovereign Nations, will NATO's Turkey soon have to decide if Obama's failed "Pen and Phone, Whack-a-Mole" Military Exceptionalism, is better or worse than Putin or ISIS? Control of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Suez Canal by Russia's Navy would allow the free flow of Muslim Militant's Oil to the Russian-controlled Ukraine Oil Pipelines to Europe, at a mutually beneficial price to Putin and ISIS, of course.

A container ship in the Suez Canal was the target of a failed "terrorist" attack on Saturday aimed at disrupting traffic through the key waterway, the head of the Suez Canal Authority said. Admiral Mohab Mamish confirmed that "a terrorist" had launched the attack against a Panamanian-flagged ship, adding in a statement that "the attempt failed completely and there was no damage to the ship or the containers it carried". The statement gave no details of the nature of the attempt at 1230 GMT Saturday, but sources said they heard loud explosions from the container ship which had been passing...

As Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi faces mounting opposition amid violent street protests, Israel is casting a wary eye on its southern border where the lawless Sinai Peninsula is becoming a stronghold of jihadist groups linked to al-Qaida. With Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood government preoccupied with battling for survival, the fear is the jihadists will use the turmoil to step up attacks on Israel, endangering Egypt's landmark 1979 peace treaty with it. Egyptian militant sources say there are more than 1,000 armed jihadists, split between several groups linked by varying degrees to al-Qaida, currently operating in the forbidding wasteland of Sinai. Leaders...

Egypt's army has declared a state of emergency in the Suez and South Sinai regions after an armed attack on al-Arish airport, despite relative calm elsewhere in the country on the first weekend since the ousting of Mohammed Morsi as president.

The US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower CVN-69 passed through the Suez Canal on Wednesday, carrying 113,000 tons of cargo en route to the Persian Gulf. Sources told the state-run MENA news service that the aircraft carrier was escorted by four US warships and special Suez Canal Authority tug boats.

Egyptian security forces were able to foil a terror attack on Israeli vessels in the Suez Canal, Cairo's Al-Ahram weekly reported Saturday. According to the report, the Egyptian investigation into the matter concluded that the potential attacks were orchestrated by Iran. Egyptian authorities have two suspects in custody – Saliman Rizek abdel Razek and Salame Ahmed Salame. The two deny any involvement, but according to the report authorities have evidence linking them, via the offer of a 50 million Egyptian pounds payment, to a third suspect – Muhammad Zakri – who they allegedly tried to hire to execute the attack....

Iran had planned to bomb an Israeli ship while it crossed the Suez Canal, the prosecution in Egypt's state security court said, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Saturday.

Iranian warships have entered the Mediterranean Sea for the second time in two years, this time after having docked at the Saudi port of Jedda. The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Iranian navy commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari in reporting Saturday's movement of the ships through the Suez Canal on Saturday. The destroyer Shahid Qandi and the Kharg supply ship were docked in Jedda two days ago, the AFP news agency reported. The last time Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean was in February 2011, when the Kharg supply ship and the Alvand frigate passed through the canal and headed...

Suez, 4 July (AKI) - A court in the Egyptian port of Suez on Monday released 14 defendants on bail who are accused of involvement in killing protesters during the revolt that in February ousted ex-president Hosni Mubarak. The former Suez security chief, nine policemen, one businessman and his three sons were all granted bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (1,679 dollars) each, Egyptian daily Al Masry al Youm reported. The court also postponed the case to 14 September, the daily said. Angry families of the victims forced security agents to evacuate the courtroom for fear of clashes. The suspects face...

(Reuters) - Two U.S. amphibious assault ships have reached the Mediterranean as Washington intensifies military pressure on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to end his decades-long rule, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

Two US warships would be entering Egypt's Suez Canal on Wednesday morning as the threat of military intervention in Libya looms large, an Egyptian official says. Earlier on Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious ship capable of carrying up to 2,000 Marines, and the USS Ponce assault ship will be passing through the Mediterranean shortly, Reuters reported Tuesday. According to top US military officials, the Kearsarge warship will be carrying 400 Marines from the United States and will be joining the USS Enterprise, which is in the Red Sea en route to the Suez...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

Israel was keeping an eye Tuesday on two Iranian Navy warships that crossed the Suez Canal for the first time in over 30 years in a belligerent move that Israel claims is an attempt by the Islamic Republic to project its power throughout the Middle East. The two ships - the Khark which has 250 crew members and can carry three helicopters and the Alvand which is armed with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles – entered the Suez Canal early Tuesday morning and arrived in the Mediterranean Sea by the evening.Israeli defense officials said that the ships did not pose a

CAIRO – Suez Canal officials say two Iranian naval vessels are expected to start their passage through the strategic waterway early Tuesday.

CAIRO — Two Iranian naval vessels have submitted a request to transit the Suez Canal, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said Egyptian authorities have received the request to grant the vessels passage, while a Suez Canal official said the Defense Ministry would process the application. In Tehran, Iran's official English-language Press TV cited an Iranian naval official saying the two warships are to pass through the canal. The official said Tehran was in contact with Egypt about the ships.

(Reuters) - Iranian state TV said on Thursday two Iranian warships are due to pass through the strategic Suez Canal -- an event that would mark the first such passage by the Islamic republic's navy since Iran's 1979 revolution. A similar plan was announced on Wednesday but then canceled.