The Daily Blog

Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, Former Chairman Of Major Egypt Bank, Arrested On Charges Of Sexually Abusing Hotel Maid.

NEW YORK — The former chairman of one of Egypt’s major banks has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing a maid at a Manhattan hotel, just weeks after the arrest of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on similar allegations.

Police say Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar was arrested at the Pierre Hotel on Monday morning.

The 74-year-old businessman is accused of sexually abusing the maid and holding her against her will inside his hotel room.

Police say the incident happened Sunday night.

Police spokesman Paul Browne says detectives found the complainant to be credible.

Omar is the former chairman of Egypt’s Bank of Alexandria.

Strauss-Kahn quit as the leader of the International Monetary Fund on May 18 after he was charged with sexually assaulting a maid at a different city hotel. He has denied the allegations, but is under house arrest as he awaits trial.

Egypt’s Ex-President Mubarak Detained for Investigation.

CAIRO - Egypt’s prosecutor general announced Wednesday the 15-day detention of the country’s former president, pending inquiries into accusations of corruption and abuse of authority in an unprecedented investigation of a former ruler in the Arab world.

The announcement was the latest in a dramatic series of events surrounding the probes against top former regime officials, and came just hours after former President Hosni Mubarak, 82, was hospitalized with heart problems in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Since Mubarak’s ouster on Feb. 11 on a wave of popular protests, Egyptians have been calling for the investigation of their longtime ruler along with that of many members of his government.

A statement from the prosecutor general’s office announcing Mubarak’s detention was posted on the social networking site Facebook early Wednesday. It said the ongoing investigation was into was into allegations of corruption, the squandering of public funds, and the abuse of authority for personal gain.

“The prosecutor general orders the detention of former President Hosni Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa for 15 days pending investigation after the prosecutor general presented them with the current state of its ongoing investigations,” it read.

Just hours earlier, a separate announcement said the ex-president’s two sons were being questioned and detained. It is believed Mubarak will remain in the hospital for his detention.

Most of the top officials of Mubarak’s regime are now being investigated on allegations of corruption and abuse of authority.

The Facebook page was set up as an outreach from the Justice Ministry to the families of those killed and injured during the 18 days of protests that ousted Mubarak in mid-February.

While the ex-president was in the hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh, where he has been living since being removed from power, his sons were taken for questioning to the nearby courthouse by prosecutors from Cairo.

Late Tuesday, an angry crowd of 2,000 people had gathered outside the hospital, demanding the sons be arrested. Then, in the early hours Wednesday, head of provincial security in the South Sinai told the crowd that Gamal and his businessman brother Alaa would be detained.

“Brothers, whatever you wanted, you have got … 15 days,” said Maj. Gen. Mohammed el-Khatib, as the crowd erupted in cheers.

As a police van with drawn curtains took away the two brothers, the crowd pelted it with water bottles, stones and their flip-flops, a sign of disrespect in the Arab world.

The increasing role of Gamal Mubarak in the government over the last decade and the belief that he might succeed his father helped galvanize Egypt’s protest movement.

About 800 people are estimated to have been killed during the protests as police opened fire and cracked down on the crowds. Authorities are now investigating government officials for their role in ordering the violence.

Gamal is also seen as the architect of Egypt’s privatization program and economic liberalization, which has brought in billions in foreign investment but has also widened the gap between rich and poor.

Many of his close associates were billionaires and held top positions in the ruling party and the government. There are allegations that they used their positions for personal gain.

Immediately after Mubarak’s hospitalization and in a sign that his ailment might not be very serious, however, Justice Minister Mohammed el-Guindi said he was then questioned in his hospital suite for his role in the violence against protesters.

The investigation into corruption charges would be carried out later by the Justice Ministry’s anti-corruption department, he added.

The protest movement that deposed Mubarak had long pushed for him to be brought to justice for what they say are decades of abuse.

The protesters had criticized the army, which took over the country after the president was pushed out, for being too close to the old regime and not swiftly bringing Mubarak to trial.

For four days protesters reoccupied parts of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo and closed it off to traffic. Efforts by the army to evict them Saturday resulted in at least one death and dozens of injuries and raised tensions between the protesters and the country’s military rulers.

The investigations into Mubarak’s sons are expected to mollify the opposition.

On Sunday, Mubarak defended himself in a prerecorded message saying he had not abused his authority, and investigators were welcome to check over his assets.

It was his first address to the people in the two months since he stepped down. Shortly after, the prosecutor general issued a summons for Mubarak to appear for questioning.

Obama Now Backs Gradual Transition in Egypt as Crisis Continues.

With the sands shifting in the crisis in Egypt, the Obama administration on Saturday gave its support to a gradual transition in government to prepare for new elections in September.

The decision to support efforts by Egypt’s vice president, Gen. Omar Suleiman, to forge a compromise with opposition groups was announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a conference of European leaders in Munich, the New York Times reported.

Clinton’s statement was a departure from President Obama’s demands as recently as Friday afternoon calling on the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to make immediate changes and consider whether he should leave office soon in the face of the 12-day-long popular uprising and violent clashes in his country.

“This takes some time,” Clinton said, explaining that it was important to support Suleiman as he tries to engage opposition groups to end the street protests. “There are certain things that have to be done in order to prepare.”The White House said the president made a number of calls to foreign leaders Saturday. He discussed his concern about the targeting of journalists and human rights groups, and reaffirmed that the government of Egypt has a responsibility to protect the rights of its people and to release immediately those who have been unjustly detained. The president emphasized the importance of an orderly, peaceful transition.

Clinton’s statement suggested that Washington was not insisting that Mubarak leave office first. According to the Times, she said that Mubarak, having announced that he would not seek reelection in September, has in effect taken himself out of the political picture.

The U.S. government’s call for gradual change was supported by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu and other countries represented at the conference.

It appeared that the U.S. and its allies have decided that the best and safest way out of the crisis in Egypt — a tinderbox that threatens to incite unrest in other Middle Eastern nations — is a gradual change in government led by Suleiman. He is a key figure in Egypt’s establishment and has backing from the military.Vice President Biden spoke by phone Saturday with Suleiman and stressed “the need for a concrete reform agenda, a clear timeline, and immediate steps that demonstrate to the public and the opposition that the Egyptian government is committed to reform,” the White House said.

The United States, and the other like-minded governments, are seeking a transition to democratic pluralism that would keep the Muslim Brotherhood from becoming a dominant political force in the post-Mubarak era, according to Carl Bernstein, writing in The Daily Beast Saturday.Obama and Hillary Clinton “have been working toward a solution that would permit him [Mubarak] to stay for a brief period as a powerless, de facto head of state,” Bernstein wrote. “He would remain as such until new mechanisms, and perhaps a new Egyptian constitution, are in place.”

Bernstein said a transition government under Suleiman could amend the constitution, end the state of emergency under which Murabak has ruled since 1981, and propose reforms including rights to assembly, free speech, religious freedom, presidential term limits, and the rules for the next presidential election, set for September.

Meantime, in Cairo, it was not clear whether a gradual transition would satisfy the pro-democracy protest movement which has demanded Mubarak’s overthrow and the creation of a reformist government.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters held forth at Tahrir Square, but with foggy and drizzly weather the crowd seemed smaller than in past days.

Other major developments underlined the combustible situation in Cairo.

An assassination attempt on General Suleiman earlier this week was reported by Fox News and other media outlets but denied by the Egyptian government. Still, Fox News said a motorcade accompanying Suleiman was attacked but the general was not harmed.

In Munich, Secretary of State Clinton took note of the unconfirmed assassination attempt and, separately, an explosion at a gas pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula.

She said it “certainly brings into sharp relief the challenges we are facing as we navigate through this period.”

In possible fallout from the uprising, it was reported by Al Arabiya television and other news media that Mubarak had resigned as head of the national ruling party and that other party leaders had also quit on Saturday, including Mubarak’s son, Gamal. But late Saturday, Al Arabiya retracted the report that President Mubarak had left the party leadership. However, MSNBC confirmed that other party leaders, including Gamal Mubarak, had indeed resigned. The Associated Press also said ruling party leaders had relinquished their posts.

As the uprising ebbs and flows in Cairo, a consensus appears to be building among diplomats, heads of state and other experts that Mubarak should not be pushed out immediately and that gradual change and orderly elections are the best course for moving away from the upheaval that imperils the heart of the Arab world and the security of Israel.

By the end of the day in Cairo, the demonstrators were still in Tahrir Square and Mubarak remained in the presidential palace.

Around the world, protests were called to support the revolt. In the U.S., demonstrations were planned in California and Louisiana. And hundreds gathered in the cold rain in front of the United Nations in New York City to show solidarity with the Egyptian protesters.

Obama Says Talks Have Begun in Egypt on Government.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Friday that discussions have begun in Egypt on a turnover of the government, and he said he hoped “to see this moment of turmoil turned into a moment of opportunity.” ”The whole world is watching,” Obama said after meeting at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Obama said he was encouraged with the restraint showed Friday and repeated his insistence that the U.S. opposes the use of violence either by the government or the protesters.”This is obviously still a fluid situation, and we’re monitoring it closely,” Obama said.

He said the U.S. wants to send a “strong and clear message” that attacks on journalists, human rights activists and peaceful protesters “are unacceptable.”

He did not directly blame the Mubarak government for the attacks but said the Egyptian government is responsible for protecting its people.Obama did not insist that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak leave immediately. But he talked about “a transition period that begins now.”He said the process must “lead to free and fair elections” but that “details of this transition will be worked by Egyptians.”

Pressed on whether Mubarak should leave office immediately, Obama appealed to the longtime Egyptian leader to consider the greater good o

As Chaos Reigns, Foreigners Advised to Leave Egypt.

CAIRO - Foreign governments stepped up their warnings about travel to Egypt, with several urging their nationals to evacuate as soon as possible, further fueling uncertainty over where the Arab nation is headed after nearly a week of mass protests.

The fears of foreign tourists mirrored those of many Egyptians. Dozens with the means to do so rented jets or hopped aboard their own planes in a mad dash that did little to boost confidence in the future of a country that, until a week ago, had been viewed as a pillar of stability in a restive region. Those leaving included businessmen and celebrities.

The American, Swiss, Turkish and Dutch governments issued advisories encouraging nationals already in the country to leave and telling those who planned trips to Egypt to reconsider. A growing number of governments - including China, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Poland - warned against travel to most parts, if not all of Egypt. Arab nations, including Iraq, either sent in jets to take their citizens home, or offered to do so.

“If I had a visa to anywhere, I’d join them. But that’s not going to happen,” said Mohammed Khaled, a 28-year-old Egyptian doctor. “Right now, I’d settle for a gun, but I can’t even find one of those.”Surging lawlessness on the streets after the much-reviled police essentially melted away has prompted neighbors to form armed patrols. But crowds of men armed with shovels, sticks, clubs, chains, guns and the occasional whips and chains, do little to project an image of stability.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Fox News Sunday that Washington had authorized “voluntary departure, which means that we will assist American citizens to leave Egypt.”

The unrest is sure to affect Egypt’s vital tourism sector, at least in the short-run. Tourism accounts for about 5 to 6 percent of GDP, making it one of the top four sources of foreign revenue for the country.

But the unrest also threatens to unravel an economy that officials had proudly pointed to one of the few to withstand the global financial meltdown.International oil companies and other Western firms began to weigh evacuating their employees’ families - a move that may be mirrored by international schools catering to those workers.

One such company was oil giant BP PLC. Spokesman Robert Wine said the company, which has operated in Egypt for 40 years, is “working on what we need to do, and whether we need to bring the families out.”

But other businessmen weren’t waiting for formal marching orders.”We left behind a country with no order or security whatsoever,” Mehmet Buyukocak, who worked in Egypt for six years, told Turkish news channel NTV upon arriving in Istanbul’s airport. “People do as they wish. … The army does not interfere - they are just watching.”

“Even if Mubarak resigns, it will be chaos taking his place,” he said, adding that there are other Turks who said they will remain in Egypt. “I pray God helps them all.”

Even before the images of roving bands of thugs and neighborhood patrols were etched in their minds, tourists were thronging to Cairo’s international airport as Mubarak faced the gravest challenge in his 30-year rule.

Many came without reservations, only to find a growing number of flights canceled, delayed or suspended. National carrier EgyptAir canceled or delayed 25 flights Sunday because of a crew shortage.

Unable to fly out, the passengers’ ranks swelled with the addition of others arriving in Cairo after a 4 p.m. curfew goes into effect.

An airport that was the pride of the government took on the appearance of a marble-floored refugee camp. Airport officials said some travelers who had been there for several days came down with diarrhea, and were treated by doctors at the facility.

A growing number of Arab countries arranged for additional flights on larger jets to evacuate their citizens, as did a smattering of other nations including Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Iraq, which has endured more than seven years of chaos of its own, offered to fly out any of its citizens who wanted to escape the mayhem. “It will be free of charge,” Transportation Ministry spokesman Aqeel Hadi Kawthar told The Associated Press.Egyptian pop star Amr Diab, whose hits include “Rag’een” or “Returning,” jetted off to London with his family aboard his private plane, said an airport official, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to brief the media.

Several other celebrities and businessmen also left, raising to at least 64 the number of private planes to take off over the past two days.

The impact on the Red Sea resorts, favored by Europeans, was still negligible. Some travel companies said those destinations remained unaffected, even though some governments, such as Poland’s, began expanding their travel advisories to include those areas.

For some prospective visitors, it wasn’t worth the risk.

Tulin Sezer, a 39-year-old math teacher from Berlin, said she and her two friends had just decided to cancel their planned trip to the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

“It just doesn’t feel right to go on vacation in Egypt, if the people who live there are not happy,” Sezer said. “If people are dying, it is weird to go there as a tourist.”

Top Egyptian Official Says Mubarak in Control.

CAIRO — Egypt’s parliament speaker says President Hosni Mubarak remains in control of the country despite chaos engulfing the capital and other cities.

Speaker Fathy Surour says: “Matters are in the safe hands of Hosni Mubarak and he will act and you will see these actions.”

Protesters have seized the streets of Cairo, battling police with stones and firebombs, burning down the ruling party headquarters, and defying a night curfew enforced by a military deployment. It was the peak of unrest posing the most dire threat to Mubarak in his three decades of authoritarian rule.The government’s attempts to suppress demonstrations appeared to be swiftly eroding support from the U.S. - suddenly forced to choose between its most important Arab ally and a democratic uprising demanding his ouster. Washington threatened to reduce a $1.5 billion program of foreign aid if Mubarak escalated the use of force.

The protesters were sure to be emboldened by their success in bringing tens of thousands to the streets in defiance of a ban, a large police force, countless canisters of tear gas, and even a nighttime curfew enforced by the first military deployment of the crisis.

Flames rose in cities across Egypt as police cars burned and protesters set the ruling party headquarters in Cairo ablaze. Hundreds of young men tore televisions, fans and stereo equipment from other buildings of the National Democratic Party neighboring the Egyptian Museum, home of King Tutankhamun’s treasures and one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.Egypt’s national airline halted flights for at least 12 hours and a Cairo Airport official said a number of international airlines had canceled flights to the capital, at least overnight. There were long lines at many supermarkets and employees limited bread sales to 10 rolls per person.

Options appeared to be dwindling for Mubarak, a 82-year-old former air force commander who until this week maintained what looked like rock-solid control of the most populous Arab nation and the cultural heart of the region.

With looting and arson fires rocking the capital, Mubarak seemed faced with the choice between a deadly crack and major concessions to protesters demanding he step down this year and not hand power to his son, Gamal.

The once-unimaginable scenes of anarchy along the Nile played out on television and computer screens from Algiers to Riyadh, two weeks to the day after protesters in Tunisia drove out their autocratic president. Images of the protests in the smaller North African country emboldened Egyptians to launch four straight days of increasingly fearless demonstrations organized over mobile phone, Facebook and Twitter.

The government cut off the Internet and mobile-phone services in Cairo, called the army into the streets and imposed a nationwide night-time curfew. The extreme measures were ignored by tens of thousands of rich, poor and middle-class protesters who united in rage against a regime seen as corrupt, abusive and neglectful of the nearly half of Egypt’s 80 million people who live below the poverty line of $2 a day.

“All these people want to bring down the government. That’s our basic desire,” said protester Wagdy Syed, 30. “They have no morals, no respect, and no good economic sense.”

Mubarak made no public appearance or statement and other senior figures in the regime were also notably absent.