THE END OF EGYPT

Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, now closed. Ahmed Gomaa, AP Photo

1. The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza is now closed.

Security officials say that "army engineers are making preparations to destroy or shut an elaborate underground tunnel network linking Sinai and Gaza."

The network "is used to smuggle weapons, people and basic goods to circumvent border restrictions imposed against the Hamas-controlled territory by Israel and Egypt."

Gunmen attack police station in Egypt's Sinai‎

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/08/09/4151014/gunmen-attack-police-station-in.html#storylink=cpy

2. On 9 Aug 2012 a power cut extended throughout Egypt‎

Lasting for two hours, it affected the underground Metro, hospitals and even the Cairo Stock Exchange.

The blackouts have harmed industry and business; factories experienced substantial losses.

Power cuts have hit Egypt since the start of the fasting month of Ramadan.

There are shortages in gas and diesel.

The frequency and duration of cuts is increasing.



President Mohamed Morsi said: "There are cuts in electrical power and in water in some places. I apologise..."

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/49539/Business/Economy/Egypt-diesel-crisis-threatens-tourism-in-Red-Sea-c.aspx

There have been violent protests over water shortages (mainly farmers over irrigation)

http://www.ooskanews.com/daily-water-briefing/egypt-water-shortage-protests-are-widespread-and-violent_23549



3. Cairo police are alarmed at the growing illegal arms trade‎

In parts of Egypt, "fear and crime walks these streets and the rule of law is paper-thin, or non-existent."

"After the Arab revolutions we noticed large quantities of weapons coming over our borders from Libya and our other neighbours. But now we are starting to capture medium-range missiles, which we haven’t seen in Egypt before," says General Bilal Labib.


1956. Sinai waits to be invaded yet again.

4. Gunmen attack police station in Egypt's Sinai‎

On 9 August 2012, gunmen sprayed a police station in Egypt's Sinai with bullets - the latest in a series of attacks against security forces.

"Large swathes of northern Sinai have plunged into lawlessness following the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last year, with a massive flow of arms smuggled from Libya finding their way into the hands of disgruntled Bedouins.

"The lawlessness is coupled with the rise of al-Qaida-inspired militant groups (CIA-Mossad groups) that are waging a campaign of violence in the peninsula."

Cairo kids in the good old days of Mubarak - by Shek Graham

5. Egypt is close to economic collapse.

Foreign currency reserves are disappearing - down to $5.8 billion in July 2012.

"The trade deficit is $36 billion; they make $5 billion a year from the canal, and they might get $7 billion in net tourist receipts and a couple of bn in remittances -- I make the financing requirement north of $20 billion a year."

(THE CALL: The Egyptian Mess) 

Joel Carillet. In August 2010, Egyptian security forces seized a ship loaded with explosives coming from Israel and arrested its owner in Port Said. (Egypt seizes explosives on ship coming from Israel - People's.)

6. On 9 August 2012, three independent Egyptian newspapers ran white spaces after the Brotherhood-dominated upper house of parliament named new directors and editors-in-chief for state-owned newspapers, many of them nominees close to the Islamists.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/49505-egypt-dailies-replace-editorials-with-white-spaces-in-protest

7. In early August 2012, on the outskirts of Cairo, an Islamic pogrom left 16 Copts injured, numerous Coptic homes and businesses torched and the only church in the village vandalised.

Christian vulnerability grows in Egypt