Jordan vows to avenge pilot’s brutal execution

Twenty-two people killed outside Cairo football stadium

By Ahmed Maher and Mahmoud Mourad

CAIRO (Reuters) – Twenty-two people were killed outside an Egyptian football stadium on Sunday when security forces barred fans from entering, the public prosecutor’s office said.

Most of the dead were suffocated when the crowd stampeded after police used tear gas to clear the fans trying to force their way into a league match between two Cairo clubs, Zamalek and Enppi, doctors and witnesses said.

A health ministry spokesman told Reuters by phone the final toll was 19 dead and 20 injured. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers between the health ministry and the public prosecutor’s office was not immediately clear.

Football matches are often a flashpoint for violence in Egypt where 72 fans were killed at a match in Port Said in February 2012. Since then Egypt has curbed the number of people allowed to attend, and supporters have often tried to storm stadiums they are banned from entering.

Outside the Cairo hospital treating the injured, scores of youths wearing Zamalek T-shirts appeared shocked as families arrived to see if their relatives were safe.

One mother cried and shouted when she found the name of her son on a list of the dead posted by hospital staff.

“I’d told him: leave football matches,” she said.

Relations between security forces and fan groups known as Ultras have been tense since the 2011 popular uprising that ended the rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, in which the Ultras played a key role.

“Huge numbers of Zamalek club fans came to Air Defense Stadium to attend the match … and tried to storm the stadium gates by force, which prompted the troops to prevent them from continuing the assault,” the interior ministry said.

The public prosecution ordered the arrest of the leaders of the Zamalek supporters group, Ultras White Knights, after Sunday’s incident, official media reported.

On their Facebook page, the Ultras White Knights described the 22 dead as “martyrs” and accused security forces of a “massacre”.

Despite the violence, the match went ahead and ended with a 1-1 draw.

The Egyptian Football Federation said it had reversed an earlier decision to allow fans to return to the stadiums by the start of the second half of the season. The original decision had been taken only a few days ago.

Shortly after that, the Cabinet said in a statement that the national league championship would be postponed indefinitely.

(This version of the story corrects the Egyptian Football Federation decision)

(Additional reporting by Mostafa Hashem, Ali Abdelati and Mohamed Abdellah; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Eric Walsh)

IRAN: Senior clerics say women can’t sing

NCRI – Two senior clerics in Qom announced that women cannot sing in Iran.

Nouri Hamedani and Makarem Shirazi in their lectures in Qom protested an album that had songs of a female singer, state-run news agency website Tabnak reported on February 4.

The state TV and radio in Iran never broadcast songs of female singers, but at times CDs with female singers are semi-covertly sold in the market.

Last week an album was produced that had both male and female singers.

Nouri Hamedani said in his lecture: There is no problem with women talking, but “women singing cannot become common and we will stop it”. He continued: it is “religiously forbidden” for women to sing or play musical instruments in front of men.

“Any film, festival, book or music that is in contrast with revolutionary values will be stopped,” he reminded.

Makarem Shirazi, another senior mullah also showed his opposition to women singers in his lecture as a matter that “causes popular discontent”.

Turkey: 50 detained en route to anti-government protests

Jordan says UAE sending jets to support raids on IS

(Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates is sending a squadron of F16 jet fighters to Jordan to conduct air strikes against Islamic State alongside Jordanian planes, an army source in Amman said.

Jordan launched bombing raids against the jihadist group's positions in Syria and Iraq on Thursday in response to its brutal killing of a captured Jordanian pilot, military action that it continued on Saturday.

The UAE, meanwhile, has suspended flights as part of the U.S.-led coalition conducting air strikes against Islamic State in view of concerns about search and rescue capabilities after the pilot was downed.

UAE fighters would now join raids from inside Jordan, the source said.

"This is a big boost and will be helping our (Gulf) brothers shorten their flying distances and intensify strikes against the militants,” the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

UAE state news agency WAM said the Gulf country had ordered a squadron of F16s to support the Jordanian armed forces in what it said was it's "effective participation" in the military campaign against IS.

But it did not specify whether the aircraft would be carrying out air strikes from Jordan.

A U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the UAE would resume missions in the coalition air campaign in the next few days. The official did not provide further details.

The U.S. military declined comment, referring queries to the UAE.

Jordan's King Abdullah has vowed to avenge pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh's killing and ordered his commanders to prepare for a stepped-up military role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.

Many Jordanians fear being dragged into a conflict that could trigger a backlash by hardline militants inside the kingdom.

Jordanian military experts say the ability of the kingdom to sustain its air strikes would soon come under strain given the 40 mid-life F16 jets the air force has at its disposal.

Jordan's monarch has been lobbying Washington, the kingdom's main backer to provide it with more spare parts, night vision equipment and other weapons to help it expand its operations.

Jordan carried out air strikes for the third day running on Saturday, mainly targeting the jihadist group's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, a security source said.

Two security sources close to the military speaking on condition of anonymity said the kingdom had conducted at least 60 raids over the past three days, mainly on targets in Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria but also in Iraq.

Parents of U.S. Woman Said Killed in IS Captivity Believe She Is Still Alive

WASHINGTON – The parents of the young American woman Kayla Mueller, a captive of the Islamic State, or IS, believe their daughter is still alive and have ask to speak directly with the jihadist group.

In a letter published Saturday in local media, Carl and Marsha Mueller referred to the IS announcement on Friday saying that the volunteer worker, 26, was killed in a Jordanian airstrike, though no proof was offered.

“This leaves us concerned, yet, we are still hopeful that Kayla is alive,” the parents said.

The young woman, an Arizona native, was kidnapped in August 2013, and since then the Mueller family has made no public statements so as not to undermine the possible release of the humanitarian aid worker.

The parents said they had previously communicated with the kidnappers, whom they begged to contact them again.

“You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest. As your guest her safety and well-being remains your responsibility,” they wrote.

“Kayla’s mother and I have been doing everything we can to get her released safely. At this time we ask you, who are holding Kayla, to contact us privately,” their message said.

The U.S. State Department said Friday that attempts are being made to find out if the jihadists’ announcement that Mueller was killed in a Jordanian airstrike was true, but that it could not “confirm those reports in any way.”

The IS blamed the Jordanian airforce for the death of the U.S. aid worker just hours after Jordan announced its reprisals against the jihadists for the cruel burning to death of a Jordanian pilot.

Jordan’s Interior Minister Hussein Majali said the IS blaming Mueller’s death on his country’s air force was just another “PR stunt.”

Mueller, a member of the NGO Support to Life, was working with Spanish volunteers of the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders in the border area between Turkey and Syria when she was kidnapped in 2013.

Mexico Court Orders “Queen of the Pacific” Released from Prison

MEXICO CITY – A court in the western Mexican state of Jalisco has ordered the immediate release of Sandra Avila Beltran, known as the “Queen of the Pacific,” who, according to press reports Saturday, could leave prison in the coming hours.

In the ruling, the court revoked the 54-year-old Avila’s five-year sentence for money laundering.

Avila and then-boyfriend Juan Diego Espinosa, a Colombian national known as “El Tigre,” were arrested on Sept. 28, 2007, for allegedly smuggling several tons of cocaine into the Mexican Pacific port of Manzanillo.

She was acquitted in Mexico on drug and racketeering charges in late 2010, but was extradited to the United States on Aug. 9, 2012.

Avila pleaded guilty in that country to being an accessory after the fact to drug trafficking.

But the sentence handed down in July 2013 by the judge in Miami – 70 months – was equal to the amount of time Avila had already spent behind bars following after her arrest in Mexico.

That left her technically free, although the Queen of the Pacific was deported back to Mexico a month later and convicted of money laundering.

Avila is the niece of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, alias “El Padrino” (The Godfather), who is serving a long prison sentence in Mexico; and grand-niece of Juan Jose Quintero Payan, a co-founder of the Juarez cartel who was sentenced in the United States to 18 years in prison on drug-trafficking charges.

The first public mention of the Queen of the Pacific came in a 2004 “narcocorrido,” or drug ballad, by Los Tucanes de Tijuana.

Mexican media have likened Avila to the main character in Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte’s novel “La Reina del Sur” (The Queen of the South), which was subsequently turned into a hit television miniseries.