Egypt police guard Coptic church - BBC News

3 January 2011

Ranks of riot police are surrounding al-Qiddissin church in Alexandria Hundreds of Egyptian riot police are deployed outside the church in Alexandria where 21 Christians were killed in a New Year's Day bomb attack.
On Sunday, crowds of Christians took to the streets of Alexandria and the capital, Cairo, to denounce the attack.
Several suspects are being questioned over the bombing, which the Egyptian authorities have blamed on foreigners.
The country is on high alert ahead of the Coptic Christmas holiday, which falls on Friday.
Security forces have tightened surveillance at airports and ports to prevent suspects from heading out of Egypt, and set up new checkpoints across the country, press reports said.
Meanwhile, the most senior Muslim cleric in Egypt, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, has accused Pope Benedict XVI of interfering in Egypt's internal affairs, after he called on world leaders to protect Middle East Christians.
Shock and anger
The situation in Alexandria is still very tense, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from the Mediterranean port city.
Ranks of riot police surrounded the church following sporadic clashes overnight between young Coptic men and police forces.
There are also fears of new protests by Copts following a large protest in Cairo on Sunday night outside St Mark's Cathedral - headquarters of Coptic leader Pope Shenouda III.
Forty-five policemen were wounded at that demonstration.
The overall feeling is one of anger and shock at the scale of the attack in Alexandria, our correspondent says.
The bombing killed 21 people and injured another 70 in the early hours of Saturday, while worshippers were leaving midnight mass at al-Qiddissin (The Saints) church to bring in the New Year.
There is a real feeling among Egypt's Coptic community that Christians are not being protected and that they are second-class citizens, our correspondent says.

Al-Qaeda threats Christians accuse the Egyptian government of failing to protect them

The Egyptian government is calling for unity, and the Muslim clergy and the Coptic Church have given a joint press conference in which they declared that the attack must not be allowed to divide the two communities.
But beneath the surface there is deep sectarian tension in Egypt that has been growing for the last 10 to 20 years, and people in the Coptic community are now very afraid, our correspondent says.
Dr Dalia Nabil, who has been treating many of the patients from the blast, told the BBC a lot of Copts were now thinking of leaving Egypt.
"A lot of us think that this is a plan to make Christians go away from Egypt. The planner is al-Qaeda," Dr Nabil said.
"Things are not under control from the government," she added.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which happened in the early hours of Saturday, though analysts say suspicion is likely to fall on Islamist radicals inspired by al-Qaeda.
Christians in the Coptic Orthodox Church make up about 10% of Egypt's population. Most Egyptians are Muslims.
In recent months, some Muslims have accused churches of holding converts to Islam against their will - charges the Church denies.
In October, the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, threatened the Copts of Egypt and called for the alleged converts to be released.
Papal 'interference'
The latest attack has been strongly condemned in Egypt and abroad.
President Hosni Mubarak said it bore the hallmark of "foreign hands" seeking to destabilise Egypt.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict called it a "vile gesture", while US President Barack Obama has described it as a "heinous act".
However, the Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, criticised Pope Benedict's call for world leaders to defend Christians as "unacceptable interference in Egypt's affairs".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday condemned the bombing as "barbaric" while French PM Francois Fillon prayed for the victims at a church in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan, where he was on a private visit, his office said.
Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city with a population of about 4 million, has seen sectarian violence in the past.
In 2006, there were days of clashes between Copts and Muslims after a Copt was stabbed to death during a knife attack on three churches.

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Barcelona's Sagrada Familia finally becomes a church - Reuters

A man places a tape around the surroundings of the Sagrada Familia temple in Barcelona November 5, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Albert Gea

By Nigel Davies

BARCELONA | Sat Nov 6, 2010 7:22am EDT

BARCELONA (Reuters) - For decades tourists have visited the twisting spires of Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia church, but 128 years after construction began Catholic faithful will worship there for the first time on Sunday.

Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass to give his official blessing to the church designed by architect Antoni Gaudi, whose sculptural masterpieces dot the city in the region of Catalonia.

The pope consecrates Sagrada Familia during a visit to northern Spain where on Saturday he joins pilgrims at the shrine to St. James, Spain's patron saint, in Santiago de Compostela.

While work is not scheduled to finish for many more years on the intricate and colorful Sagrada Familia, enough has been done to welcome the pontiff, including installing last minute stained-glass windows.

Jordi Bonet Armengol, chief architect of the cathedral and seventh successor to Gaudi, hopes the pope's visit will provide the boost needed to finish the work.

Under instructions from Gaudi, who died in 1926, construction is funded by private donations and visitors' fees.

Protests ranging from gays who are against the Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality, to residents complaining about the disruption and cost of the event are expected to greet the pope when he steps out of Gaudi's masterpiece on Sunday.

But devout Catholics said they were excited about the consecration.

"There are all kinds of protests but we live in a democracy and should let believers enjoy this," said Petita Martin, 68, who was disappointed she would not be able to attend the Mass, but planned to greet the pope along the route of his procession on Sunday.

"Sagrada Familia is a jewel and great propaganda for Barcelona," she said.

SHOWING THE POPE AROUND

Bonet eagerly awaits the tour he will give the pope of the ornate church.

"He will bring a message of spirituality and it's a stimulus to finish the work... The building shows that through art we can achieve spirituality that people need so much."

A lot remains to be done to complete the church, including erecting the central 170-meter tower. But Bonet swore it would not take another century -- if visitors continue to be generous.

In the past, the tourist flow was lower and sometimes the church had trouble paying workers, said Bonet.

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Iraqi forces storm church to end standoff; 37 killed - CNN

37 dead in Iraqi hostage situationThe Islamic State of Iraq claims responsibility for the attack57 people were wounded, police officials say8 suspects have been arrestedGunmen attacked stock exchange earlier, killing 2 guards

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi security forces stormed a Catholic church Sunday where gunmen suspected of having ties to al Qaeda were holding worshippers hostage, ending an hours-long standoff, police officials said Sunday.

Thirty-seven people were killed in the operation, including hostages, kidnappers and security workers, they said. At least seven of the victims were hostages, police officials said, while another 57 were wounded.

Eight suspects were arrested.

"All the marks point out that this incident carries the fingerprints of al Qaeda," Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader Obeidi said on state television Sunday.

He said that most of the hostages were killed or wounded when the kidnappers set off explosives inside the church.

The Islamic State of Iraq later claimed responsibility for the attack through a statement posted on a radical Islamic website. The umbrella group includes a number of Sunni extremist organizations and has ties to al Qaeda in Iraq.

"The Mujahideens raided a filthy nest of the nests of polytheism, which has been long taken by the Christians of Iraq as a headquarter for a war against the religion of Islam and they were able by the grace of God and His glory to capture those were gathered in and to take full control of all its entrances," the group said on the website.

An American military spokesman said that as many as 10 hostages died and that between 20 and 30 people were injured in the operation. Seven Iraqi security workers and between five and seven suspected insurgents were also killed, said Lt. Col. Eric Bloom.

Survivors of the ordeal said they were about to begin Sunday night services when the gunmen entered the church, according to Martin Chulov, a journalist for the UK-based Guardian newspaper who was on the scene. About 50 people were inside the church at the time, and a priest ushered them into a back room, Chulov reported survivors said.

The U.S. military spokesman said that as many as 120 people were taken hostage.

At one point, one of the gunmen entered the room and threw an unidentified explosive device inside, causing casualties, Chulov said.

The gunmen seized the hostages after attacking the Baghdad Stock Market in the central part of the Iraqi capital, earlier Sunday, police said. Four armed men entered the nearby Sayidat al-Nejat church after clashing with Iraqi security forces trying to repel the stock market attack.

Iraq's interior ministry told CNN that gunmen attacked the stock market to distract Iraqi security forces who were outside the church to protect it.

The gunmen were demanding that the Iraqi government release a number of detainees and prisoners inside Iraqi prisons, saying the Christian hostages would be freed in return, according to the police officials. Iraq's defense minister later said on state television that the kidnappers had demanded the release of a number of prisoners in both Iraq and Egypt.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the area surrounding the church, the officials said, and buildings were evacuated of civilians as a precautionary measure. At least 13 hostages, including two children, managed to escape ahead of the security operation, police said.

The Iraqi authorities ordered the attackers to release the hostages and to turn themselves in, warning that they would storm the church if they do not comply. A few hours passed quietly as military units took up positions outside the church, including several American units, said Chulov.

"Then all hell broke loose," he said. A firefight erupted and Chulov said he heard three to four large explosions. Later, he saw about 20 ambulances race away from the scene.

The American military spokesman minimized the role U.S. troops played in the operation.

"The U.S. only provided UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) support with video imagery. As always we have advisers with the ISF (Iraqi security forces) command teams," said Bloom.

While the U.S. combat mission in Iraq officially ended earlier this year, some 50,000 American troops are expected to remain in the country until the end of 2011 to train, assist and advise Iraqi troops.

Two guards were killed and four others were wounded in the earlier attack on the stock market, according to the police officials.

The attackers also remotely detonated two car bombs outside the stock exchange, they said.

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