Port Said Continues Protests, Kerry Ends Visit to Egypt

Local Editor

Four people were killed and hundreds wounded during clashes between protesters and police in the Suez Canal city of Port Said on Sunday.

This comes as hundreds of people had been demonstrating in the city since the morning over the detention of dozens of prisoners in connection with a soccer riot that killed 70 people last year.
Police used teargas to disperse a crowd that had gathered in front of a local government office. Some 360 people were injured throughout the clashes, medical sources said.

Egypt's armed forces said in a statement on its Facebook page that a military officer was wounded when he was shot in the leg and that one soldier had been killed when he was shot in the neck by "unknown elements".
Amis the tension, US Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped his short visit to Cairo.
Kerry's departure from Cairo was briefly delayed, news agencies said, because hundreds of supporters of the soccer club Al Ahly, known as ultras, blocked the road to the airport in a protest related to a court case about a soccer riot in Port Said last year.

But the motorcade made it to the airport, and Kerry flew to Saudi Arabia, his seventh stop on his nine-nation trip.
Earlier, the US official hinted that Washington would provide $250 million in assistance to Egypt after Egypt's president promised to move ahead with negotiations with the International Monetary Fund over economic reforms.
In a statement issued after his two-hour meeting with President Mohamed Mursi, Kerry said the aid decision reflected Egypt's "extreme needs" and Mursi's assurance that Egypt would reach an agreement with the I.M.F. after more than a year of talks over a $4.8 billion loan package.

The statement issued by Mr. Kerry noted that he and Mursi had discussed the need to ensure the fairness of Egypt's coming elections, but it did not mention any specific political commitments the Egyptian president had made to receive the aid.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled for April. Some opposition groups have said they will boycott the vote because of what they see as an effort by Morse and his Muslim Brotherhood movement to dominate Egyptian politics.

"In all my meetings, I conveyed a simple but serious message: The brave Egyptians who stood vigil in Tahrir Square did not risk their lives to see that opportunity for a brighter future squandered," Kerry said. "I encouraged President Mursi to implement the homegrown reforms that will help his country secure an I.M.F. agreement, put Egypt on the path to establishing a firm economic foundation and allow it to chart its own course. He agreed and said that he plans to move quickly to do so."

Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org