Egypt's cabinet, under attack, meets for first time (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt's new cabinet met for the first time on Wednesday with security high on its agenda and under attack from the Muslim Brotherhood and others who want it purged of ministers appointed by ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

In preparation for polls that military rulers have promised to hand over power to civilian rule in six months, activists announced the forming of a new political party on Wednesday.

The Brotherhood and other political groups have called for another million-man-march on Friday to fill Cairo's central Tahrir Square, which was the nerve-center for opposition to Mubarak's 30-year iron rule, to call for a new cabinet.

Banned under Mubarak and playing an increasingly active role in Egyptian political life since the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak, the Brotherhood wants the lifting of emergency law, freeing of political prisoners and a purge of the cabinet.

The cabinet will discuss security issues in the post-Mubarak era and the provision of basic foods and subsidies on Wednesday, political sources said. Despite political pressure, there are unlikely to be further changes in the cabinet, they added.

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that is running the Arab world's most populous nation, swore in 10 new ministers on Tuesday, some who had opposed Mubarak, but key portfolios were unchanged.

"The main ministries of defense, justice, interior and foreign remain unchanged, signaling Egypt's politics remain in the hands of Mubarak and his cronies," senior Brotherhood member Essam el-Erian told Reuters, reacting to the new line-up.

In the run-up to presidential and parliamentary elections, a committee is amending the constitution to dismantle the apparatus that propped up Mubarak's rule and political parties are being registered ahead of the polls.

"EGYPT THE FREE"

A former diplomat, Abdallah Alashaal, was quoted by MENA news agency on Wednesday as saying he was setting up a new political party "Egypt the Free" to participate in the polls.

"The establishment of the party comes within the framework and desire to make a real representation of the youth of January 25 revolution during the coming period," Alashaal said.

The Brotherhood and youth groups are anxious that the emergency law, imposed after the assassination of Anwar Sadat by Islamist soldiers from his army in 1981, be lifted but some Cairo residents were not so sure.

"For now, they shouldn't cancel the emergency law because there are thousands and thousands of thugs out there but ultimately, yes, they have to remove it because police were mistreating lot of people through it," Somaya Mohamed, a retiree, told Reuters on Wednesday.

"I don't see anything wrong with the politics of (prime minister) Ahmed Shafiq, he has a white track record," he said, adding: "I think the youth is simply against anything that the president said that's all, they wanted to put an end to him and whatever he said."

Another priority facing the cabinet is getting the nation back to work and to stop the protests and strikes that have damaged an economy that had already been damaged by the turmoil of the revolution which erupted on January 25.

The Egyptian stock market, which closed two days after the uprising started, has announced that it will stay shut until next week.

(Writing by Peter Millership)

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First Pakistan drone attack in weeks kills seven (Reuters)

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike killed at least seven people on Monday in a tribal region along Pakistan's western border, Pakistani officials said, the first such attack in a month as a diplomatic feud strains U.S.-Pakistani ties.

At least four missiles were fired from the unmanned aircraft at a suspected militant training center in Azam Warsak, just west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal agency, intelligence officials in South Waziristan said.

"According to initial reports there were foreigners among the dead," one of the officials said.

A second official said the foreign nationals killed included three people from Turkmenistan and two Arab nationals.

It is the first time since January 23 that intelligence officials have reported a U.S. drone attack, marking a resumption of a campaign that has become the centerpiece of U.S. efforts to halt militants launching attacks on its soldiers in Afghanistan.

Many analysts believe Washington halted the attacks for weeks to avoid further inflaming anti-American fury in Pakistan just as it pressures Islamabad to release Raymond Davis, a U.S. consulate employee imprisoned after shooting two Pakistanis last month in what he said was an attempted robbery.

Others speculate the pause was due to poor weather or an inability to find reliable targets as militants hunt down Pakistanis they believe are feeding intelligence information.

Washington, which provides Pakistan with billions of dollars a year in military and civilian aid, is leaning hard on the government of President Asif Ali Zardari to release Davis on grounds the U.S. national is shielded by diplomatic immunity.

Yet neither can the government afford to unleash popular fury in a case that has galvanized anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. Protesters have burned U.S. flags and demanded the Davis be tried for murder in local courts.

The drone strikes, which are not publically acknowledged by either country, are another delicate situation for the vulnerable Zardari government, battling an insurgency of its own and struggling to hold together a fragile coalition.

The attacks are seen as a risk and a necessity for Pakistan, under pressure its chief ally in the West to do against militants but also facing mounting resentment from Pakistanis who decry the government for bowing to U.S. wishes.

There is also debate over the effectiveness of the strikes. While the drone strikes have killed al Qaeda and Taliban figures, many of senior militants are living in cities like Quetta or Karachi that Pakistan has made off-limits to strikes.

(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony in ISLAMABAD; writing by Missy Ryan; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Sanjeev Miglani)

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FARC set to free first of 5 Colombian hostages

The FARC plan to release two politicians and three soldiers to Colombian former Senator Piedad Cordoba (C) and the Red Cross.Councilman Marcos Baquero was kidnapped in 2009He has been held in the jungle by the FARCHe is the first of five hostages to be released in the upcoming days
(CNN) -- Helicopters early Wednesday were prepared to take off from Villavicencio, Colombia and into the jungle for what would be the first of five hostage releases by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The Marxist rebels were expected to release Marcos Baquero, a councilman from the town of San Jose de Guaviare, who has been held captive for one year and seven months.
Ex-Senator Piedad Cordoba, who helped secure the release, said that everything was ready for the humanitarian mission to begin, she said on her Twitter account.
"A kidnapping is something difficult for the person in the jungle as much as for those who stay at home," Baquero's wife, Olga Lucia Tao Ibarra, told CNN en Español. "The person who is in the jungle is risking his life, but those of us at home, not knowing anything about him, waking up night and day not knowing his whereabouts, that's very hard."
At the time Baquero was kidnapped, he had a two-month old baby. The child is now nearly 2 years old.
The FARC is a leftist guerrilla group that has been at war with the Colombian government since the 1960s.
Four other hostages are expected to be released on Friday and Sunday.
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