Egypt: Mursi threatens to enact dictatorial powers

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi threatened on Sunday to take unspecified steps to "protect this nation" after violent demonstrations against his Muslim Brotherhood, using vague but severe language that the opposition said heralded a crackdown.

In remarks following clashes outside the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters on Friday, Mursi warned that "necessary measures" would be taken against any politicians shown to be involved in what he described as violence and rioting.

"If I am forced to do what is required to protect this nation, then I will do it. And I fear that I might be on the verge of doing it," Mursi said in a statement. He did not elaborate.

Mursi has faced increasing anger since the Brotherhood propelled him to power in a June election, and several spates of protest have turned into violent riots.

Mursi's opponents accuse him and the Brotherhood of seeking to dominate the post-Hosni Mubarak era and resorting to undemocratic police powers two years after autocrat Mubarak was brought down by popular protests. [...]

"They are very scary comments," said Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the National Salvation Front (NSF), an alliance of non-Islamist parties formed late last year to oppose Mursi.

"I can see language that is heading towards taking some suppressive measures," he added.

Dozens of people were hurt on Friday when several thousand supporters and opponents of the Brotherhood fought near the Islamist group's headquarters.

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Afghanistan's Karzai heads to Qatar to discuss peace with Taliban; Obama likes

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will travel to Qatar within days to discuss peace negotiations with the Taliban, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, as efforts intensify to find a negotiated solution to the twelve year war.

Karzai's trip to Qatar would represent the first time the Afghan president has discussed the Taliban peace process in Qatar, and comes after years of stalled discussions with the United States, Pakistan and the Taliban.

The announcement was made only hours after another thorny issue in the U.S.-Afghan relationship -- the transfer to Afghan control of the last group of prisoners at the Bagram military complex held by U.S. forces - appeared to be resolved. The Pentagon announced on Saturday that a deal had been clinched.

Karzai's Qatar trip was announced by Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai.

"President Karzai will discuss the peace process and the opening of a (Taliban) office for the purposes of conducting negotiations with Afghanistan," he said.

Karzai was expected to travel to Qatar within a week, a senior Afghan official speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters.

The United States has said it would support setting up an office in the Gulf state where peace talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan could take place.

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Six killed as Islamists battle Malian army

GAO, Mali (Reuters) - Fierce fighting between Islamist rebels and Malian and French forces raged for a second day in the northern Malian town of Gao on Sunday, residents said.

The rebels attacked the north's largest town just days after French President Francois Hollande said Mali's sovereignty had almost been restored. It was the third major offensive there by Islamists since the town was retaken by a French-led military operation in late January.

"This time there are a lot of them and they are very determined," said a military official in Gao, who asked not to be identified. "We are trying to surround them. A lot of them have been killed and others are heading back to their homes, to melt back into the population."

France has deployed some 4,000 troops to Mali, alongside a regional African force, in a nine-week operation that has driven Islamists into desert hideaways and mountains near the Algerian border.

Gao is a former stronghold of the MUJWA Islamist group which controlled the town for around 10 months, imposing a violent form of sharia, Islamic law.

A Reuters witness saw four Islamist fighters - two carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, one a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and another wearing what appeared to be an explosive belt - running across a dusty street as fighting continued elsewhere in the town.

Intense shooting had been reported for around two hours on Saturday evening after a group of Islamists slipped past military checkpoints to enter the town. Calm returned during the night but the combat resumed early on Sunday morning, residents said.

Apartheid state? Israeli Arab wins second season of Israel's 'The Voice'

(Haaretz) Lina Makhoul, an Israeli-Arab of Christian parentage, is the winner of the second season of the Israeli franchise of "The Voice." The 19-year-old from Acre bested her three competitors in the final and will receive a record contract and a scholarship to attend music school.

On stage during the special on Saturday night, Makhoul said she had been the victim of racism by the general public during the season's filming, but that she had also received many warm reactions. "But the majority rules, right?" she said to the thousands of audience members, who responded with cheers and applause.

The final was made up of two rounds: The first included singing by the four contenders: Rudy Beinsin, Dana Tzelakh, Ofir Ben Shitrit, and Makhoul, as well as a round of duets with the contenders' mentors, who were, respectively, Shlomi Brakha and Yuval Banay, Sarit Hadad, Aviv Geffen, and Shlomi Shabat. At the end of the round, two contestants were eliminated.

In round two Makhoul and Ben Shitrit faced off for the prize. Makhoul preformed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" while Ben Shitrit sang Ishfiut Zmanit's "Hakaitz Haakharon" ("The Last Summer").

"Thank you for listening, believing, taking part, and putting the music first," Makhoul thanked the viewers after her victory was announced.

USA Today: US under Obama is less popular in the Middle East than at the end of the George W. Bush administration

Posters showing President Obama in the West Bank city of Ramallah are vandalized Friday.
He's on his first trip to Israel as the U.S. president.(Photo: Majdi Mohammed, AP)

(USA Today) President Obama's first journey to Israel as president comes amid earth-shattering change in Middle East, much of it for the worse. The Arab Spring, which once raised hopes of freedom and dignity, has diverged onto the dark path of Islamist authoritarian rule. In Syria, tens of thousands of people have died in a bitter civil war that might have recently seen its first use of chemical weapons. And Iran continues its march toward nuclear weapons capability, heedless of international condemnation. Obama's effort to seek peace between Palestinians and Israelis is in tatters.

That's why the White House has been lowering expectations for Obama's trip to Israel all this week. He will announce no new peace plan, grand design or major foreign policy initiative. His advisers are calling the trip a "listening tour." That is what you call a state visit when you have little to say.

Failed beginning

Despite downgrading the trip, many see Obama's arrival as the sequel to his 2009 visit to Cairo, where he announced a "new beginning" with the Muslim world. Four years later, that doesn't auger well for renewed efforts in Israel and the West Bank. According to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, confidence in Obama in Muslim countries dropped from 33% to 24% in his first term. Approval of Obama's policies declined even further, from 34% to 15%. And support for the United States in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Pakistan is lower today than it was in 2008 in the closing year of George W. Bush's administration. That collapse of support has not happened elsewhere.

In his Cairo speech, Obama pledged a relationship between America and Muslims around the world "based on mutual interest and mutual respect." But in 2013, interests are diverging, and respect is in short supply.

Of all the strained relationships in the Middle East, the partnership with Israel is the most important and potentially the most easily repaired. Obama is not popular in the country. A poll released last week showed he had a scant 10% approval rating in Israel, with an additional 32% saying they respect but don't like him. But the president is making significant symbolic gestures to heal the breach, such as visiting the grave site of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. It's being interpreted as showing support for the Jewish people's historic connection to the land of Israel, something Obama avoided in his first term.

Unpopular in Palestine

If Israelis don't like Obama, Palestinians are even less favorable.Washington's perceived failure to take a harder line with Israel over the final status of Jerusalem, and U.S. opposition to President Mahmoud Abbas' successful campaign for higher Palestinian status in the United Nations, have engendered a deep sense of frustration. Passions spilled over in Bethlehem this week, when young Palestinians defaced a billboard with Obama's image and burned pictures of him in the streets. Obama's symbolic nods to Israel's history are likely to raise Palestinian ire even further.

The hope that Obama will say the right things in Thursday's speech at Jerusalem's convention center is negated by doubts he will follow through. The president has to assure Israelis and Palestinians that he is still engaged if the peace process has any chance of moving forward. In part, this means convincing them that he still matters.

Iraq's Maliki resists Kerry's call to halt flow of Iranian arms to Syria

BAGHDAD – Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Sunday to stop Iran from flying arms across Iraqi territory to the beleaguered Syrian regime, but found him unwilling to give ground.

In a visit to Baghdad that was not announced in advance, Kerry told Maliki that the almost daily flights have become a lifeline for Syrian President Bashar Assad that is undermining the efforts of the United States and allies to negotiate the departure of Assad and an end to the 2-year-old war. And Kerry warned that many in the United States are wondering how, after Americans “have tried so hard to be helpful” in rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq, the country could stand in its way.

“The overflights from Iran are, in fact, helping to sustain Assad,” Kerry told reporters after the meeting, which he described as “spirited.”

But Maliki repeated Iraq’s view that there is no definitive proof that the cargoes are arms, rather than humanitarian aid, as the Iranians contend. Kerry was left to say that he will gather more information to prove his point.

The overflights have become an increasingly important issue for the Obama administration, which believes that they have reinforced Assad’s desire to stand and fight even as his military fortunes crumble. Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other U.S. officials have unsuccessfully pressed the Iraqis to halt the flights, or at least begin ground inspections of the Iranian cargo.

“The number of flights shows that they can’t possibly be humanitarian flights,” a senior administration official, who declined to be identified citing the diplomatic sensitivity of the subject, told reporters.

But the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, which worries that it could be next if Sunni rebel fighters sweep Assad from power, has conducted only two inspections since last year in response to American pressure. They say both of them revealed only humanitarian aid.

Some in Congress are outraged. At a House hearing last week, lawmakers told the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, that the United States should slap Iraq with unspecified “consequences” for acting as an arms conduit for the Iranians.

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Shots fired from Syria into Israel; Israel responds with missile file destroying Syrian outpost

(Times of Israel) IDF soldiers on Sunday morning fired a Tammuz missile at a Syrian army position in Tel Fares, from which shots were fired both that day and the previous day across the border into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The missile destroyed the Syrian post and reportedly wounded two gunmen there.

A military spokesman said the soldiers responded with “accurate fire toward the Syrian post from which they were fired upon.” He could not say whether regular Syrian forces or rebels fired. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

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It looks like Syrian rebels may have been the ones who used chemical weapons

These are the guys who the West has been falling all over itself to support as the people who should be running Syria.

(Telegraph) Whatever happened last week in the town of Khan al-Assal, west of Aleppo, it achieved something extraordinary in the Syrian civil war: unity among Washington, Moscow and Damascus.

All welcomed the rapid decision by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, to investigate an alleged chemical attack that reportedly killed 26, including Syrian soldiers.

Unusually, the request for that investigation came from the Syrian regime, which claimed that Islamic jihadist rebels launched a chemical weapons attack. Since then, precious little evidence in any way has come from the area despite an awful lot of diplomatic noise around the world.

However a senior source close to the Syrian Army has given Channel 4 News the first clear account of what he claims is believed to have occurred on Tuesday. He is a trusted and hitherto reliable source who does not wish to be identified.

The Syrian military is said to believe that a home-made locally-manufactured rocket was fired, containing a form of chlorine known as CL17, easily available as a swimming pool cleaner. They claim that the warhead contained a quantity of the gas, dissolved in saline solution.

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Canada Obama’s personal Palestine?

(CFP) Memo to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Looks like Barack Hussein Obama’s got it in for you.

Why else would the American president invoke Canada as the standing example to liken the American-Canadian relationship as the closest one to Israeli-Palestinian relations at today’s press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas?

That means Obama, who has only visited state-visited this country once, sees Canada as his personal Palestine!

“In his effort to convince the local populations, who have been in a decades-old (and some might even say millennia-old) conflict, Obama invoked perhaps the most peaceful neighbors on the planet, that is the U.S. and Canada.” (The Blaze, March 21, 2013).

“We can’t afford to have our kids in bed sleeping and suddenly a rocket comes through the roof, but my argument is even though both sides may have areas of strong disagreement, may be engaging in activities the other side considers to be a breach of good faith, we have to push through those things to try to get an agreement,” Obama said.

Rockets coming through the roof in America from The Land of the Maple Leaf?

Mr. Obama needs to step out of his Reality TV world into the real one.

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Dark Knight killer James Holmes 'is now a Muslim who prays five times a day'

Naturally.

(Daily Mail) James Holmes, the gunman behind the Dark Knight massacre in Colorado last July, has reportedly turned Muslim and prays five times a day.

The killer showed off a lengthy, thick beard during a court appearance earlier this month, and a prison source has claimed it is a symbol of his new-found faith.

The source said Holmes has turned to Islam as a way of justifying his horrific murder spree in an Aurora, Colorado cinema on July 20 which left 12 people dead and 58 people wounded.

'He has brainwashed himself into believing he was on his own personal jihad and that his victims were infidels,' a prison source told the National Enquirer.

He now prays five times a day, sticks to a strict Muslim diet and spends hours each day studying the Qur'an, the source said.

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Video: Hamas Women Officers Shoot at Photos of Israeli Leaders at a Graduation Ceremony

Suicide bomber blows himself up in Damascus mosque killing 42 including senior Syrian imam; 84 wounded

Or, a normal, somewhat slow day in Mohammedland.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - An explosion at a mosque in the Syrian capital on Thursday killed at least 42 people, including a senior pro-government Muslim cleric, and wounded 84, the Syrian health ministry said.

State television and anti-government activists earlier had reported 15 dead. The television said a "terrorist suicide blast" hit the Iman Mosque in central Damascus, and Mohammed al-Buti, imam of the ancient Ummayyad Mosque, was among the dead.

"The death toll from the suicide bombing of the Iman Mosque in Damascus is 42 martyrs and 84 wounded," the health ministry said later in a statement.

While attacks in the capital during Syria's two-year-long rebellion have become almost commonplace, an attack on a mosque was deeply shocking to both sides in the conflict.

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NY Times: Obama Jump-Started Arab Spring

It is now possible to trace precisely what Obama knew and when he knew it, and it proves that installing the Muslim Brotherhood into power was a conscious and deliberate strategy developed by Obama before the "Arab Spring" began.

(RadicalIslam.org)“We have to confront violent extremism in all of its forms.… America is not — and never will be — at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security — because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as president to protect the American people.” --President Barack Obama, Cairo, June 2009.

“The United States is now experiencing the beginning of its end, and is heading towards its demise….Resistance is the only solution. [Today the United States] is withdrawing from Iraq, defeated and wounded, and it is also on the verge of withdrawing from Afghanistan. [All] its warplanes, missiles and modern military technology were defeated by the will of the peoples, as long as [these peoples] insisted on resistance.” --Muslim Brotherhood leader Muhammad al-Badi, Cairo, September 2010.

What did the president know and when did he know it? That's a question made classical by the Watergate scandal. Now it is possible to trace precisely what Obama knew and when he knew it. And it proves that the installment of the Muslim Brotherhood into power was a conscious and deliberate strategy of the Obama Administration developed before the "Arab Spring" began.

In February 2011 the New York Times ran an extremely complimentary article on President Obama by Mark Landler, who some observers say is the biggest apologist for Obama on the newspaper. That’s quite an achievement. Landler praised Obama for having tremendous foresight, in effect, predicting the “Arab Spring.” According to Landler,

“President Obama ordered his advisers last August [2010] to produce a secret report on unrest in the Arab world, which concluded that without sweeping political changes, countries from Bahrain to Yemen were ripe for popular revolt, administration officials said Wednesday."

Which advisors? The then counter-terrorism advisor and now designated CIA chief, John Brennan? National Security Council senior staffer Samantha Power? If it was done by Obama's own staff, rather than State and Defense, it's likely that these people or at least one of them was the key author.

So should U.S. policy help allies avoid such sweeping change by standing firm or by helping them make adjustments? No, explained the report, it should get on the side of history and wield a broom to do the sweeping. The article continued:

“Mr. Obama’s order, known as a Presidential Study Directive, identified likely flashpoints, most notably Egypt, and solicited proposals for how the administration could push for political change in countries with autocratic rulers who are also valuable allies of the United States, [emphasis added] these officials said.

“The 18-page classified report, they said, grapples with a problem that has bedeviled the White House’s approach toward Egypt and other countries in recent days: how to balance American strategic interests and the desire to avert broader instability against the democratic demands of the protesters.”

As I noted, the article was quite explicitly complimentary (and that’s an understatement) about how Obama knew what was likely to happen and was well prepared for it.

But that’s precisely the problem. It wasn't trying to deal with change but was pushing for it; it wasn't asserting U.S. interests but balancing them off against other factors. In the process, U.S. interests were forgotten.

If Landler was right, then Obama did have a sense of what was going to happen and prepared for it. It cannot be said that he was caught unawares. This view would suggest, then, that he thought American strategic interests could be protected and broader instability avoided by overthrowing U.S. allies as fast as possible and by showing the oppositions that he was on their side.

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U.S. offers reward for capture of two U.S.-born Muslim terrorists

Omar Shafik Hammami and Jehad Serwan Mostafa

(Reuters) - The U.S. government on Wednesday offered rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the capture or conviction of two U.S. citizens alleged to have become fighters for the Somalia-based Islamic militant group al Shabaab.

In announcements posted on its "Rewards for Justice" website, the State Department identified the two men as Omar Shafik Hammami, alias Abu Mansour al-Amriki, and Jehad Serwan Mostafa, alias Ahmed Gurey or Anwar al-Amriki. Hammami is a former resident of Alabama and Mostafa a former resident of California, it said.

Hammami is alleged to be a particularly notorious American volunteer for al Shabaab who made propaganda videos for the group, including pictures portraying him as a fighter rather than a mere spokesman, a U.S. law enforcement official said.

The State Department said Hammami moved to Somalia in 2006 and a year later began serving as an al Shabaab propagandist, particularly targeting potential English-speaking recruits through writings, videos and rap songs. Federal authorities in Alabama issued a warrant for his arrest in December 2007.

The government website said that at some point, Hammami led a group of al Shabaab foreign fighters under the supervision of Mostafa.

The website described Mostafa as a native of Waukesha, Wisconsin, who had lived in San Diego before moving to Somalia in 2005. He is on the FBI's list of "Most Wanted Terrorists," and in 2009 a warrant for his arrest was issued by federal authorities in San Diego.

Given the long-standing notoriety of the two men, it is unclear why the State Department decided to post reward notices for them now.

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Egypt risking "revolution of the hungry"

40% of the people already live on less than $2 a day and the price of bread just went up. Are they supposed to live on just three pieces of bread rather than just five?

Tensions run high as Egypt trials bread rationing plan.

(Al Arabiya) Egypt ministers on Tuesday announced controversial plans to introduce a smart-card system that limits the amout of subsidized bread citizens can buy.

The government would start rationing “after two months,” Supply Minister Bassem Ouda told Reuters earlier this week.

Besides cutting subsidies, the severe economic crisis has forced the Islamist-led government to introduce rationing.

Tension is already high in Egypt with the shortage of fuel, and economists have warned that restrictions on bread sales could cause a “revolution of the hungry.”

Hundreds of bakers on Tuesday descended on Cairo to protest over the level of subsidy offered by the Egyptian government, which they say covers just two-thirds of the cost, according to Britain-based The Guardian. The case echoes the bread riots of 1977, as well as in 2008 when President Hosni Mubarak faced protests over shortages in supply.

"Rationing might reduce subsidy expenditure, but it will come at the price of increased social tension," warned Moustapha Bassiouny, an economist at Egypt's Signet Institute told The Guardian.

Egypt's foreign reserves have more than halved since 2011. The IMF is refusing to fund Egypt a loan worth $4.8 billion until the country reduces its subsidies.

Got to love North Korea

(Pyongyang) Last week, stung by tough new sanctions imposed by the United Nations over its fission-class nuclear weapons programme, and clearly upset over the support these sanctions have had from its neighbour and recent ally China, North Korea has threatened that it might use its nuclear weapons (presumably attached to ballistic missiles) in a first strike against its enemies, threatening to turn South Korea's capital Seoul and the US capital Washington D.C. into a "sea of fire". On top of that, NK has raised alarm bells in the region by formally ending the "cease fire" which ended the Korean War in 1953, and pulling out of the communications "hot line" between Pyongyang and Seoul which theoretically could prevent a misunderstanding leading to all out war.

This week, in order to show the pocket dictator in North Korea that little boys with little toys are no match for bigger boys with even bigger toys, the US flew a B-52H bomber over South Korea, in which to remind NK that anything they can do, a solitary B-52H can do a lot better (its nuclear weapons capacity includes 12 AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles (ACMS), 20 AGM-86A air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM) and eight bombs).

Naturally, like all bullies, North Korea cried foul play and went sobbing to the media, saying that they had been threatened, but they won't back down and that the will of the North Korean people will prevail. I quote:

The DPRK has made every possible effort to defend the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, exercising its maximum self-restraint. But the premeditated moves of the U.S. bellicose forces to ignite a nuclear war against the DPRK pushed its patience to its limit.

As the U.S. is working hard to provoke a nuclear war, it was entirely just for the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK to have made important decisions including the exercise of its right to make a preemptive nuclear strike at the strongholds of aggressors to protect its supreme interests.

Poor North Korea, the ugly ducking which grew into a winged monkey (of the Wizard of Oz fame). The problem is, the state is just mad enough to start a war.

Yet again, Muslims ignore the rules they demand we abide by

(India) How many times have you heard somebody bitching about how disrespect has been bestowed upon Muslims because of something that transpired at the local mosque? Be it wearing shoes, searching the place with dogs, or even knocking down a mosque no longer in use, then you can be sure that the wrath of Allah will be gained simply because you didn't take into account the feelings of the worldwide Islamic population.

Well, yesterday, 18-year-old Suhail Ahmad Sofi was sat talking to a friend in the grounds of the local mosque when some idiot decided to open up in his direction with a machine gun. Naturally, Suhail wanted non of this and legged it inside the mosque seeking safety. Unfortunately for him, the terrorist followed him inside the mosque and shot him 5 times. Preliminary police investigation reveals that the Pakistani terrorist faction of Lashkar-e-Toibaw was behind the killing.

So where is the outrage? Where are the thousands of people protesting on the streets? You know, those people who become incandescent with rage if you should happen to name a teddy Bear 'Mohammed', if you should happen to publish a cartoon of what you think Mohammed looked like, or even if you should hang a man found guilty of terrorist crimes. But when somebody of the Islamic faith walks into a mosque and shoots dead a child, then there's... nothing.

Soldier’s Warning: Obama Urging Modern-Day 'Munich 1938'

Soldier’s Warning: Obama Urging Modern-Day 'Munich 1938'

(INN) In a short documentary released this week, William “Bill” Langfan, a World War II veteran and witness to the Nazi death camps, warns that U.S. President Barack Obama’s pressuring Israel to retreat to 1948 Armistice lines is another version of the 1938 Munich appeasement of Adolf Hitler.

In the 15-minute-long film, Langfan, who participated in the 1944 Normandy landings and the Battle of the Bulge, remembers reading about the shameful sellout of Czechoslovakia by Britain's Neville Chamberlain as a 16-year-old growing up in New York.

By making it impossible for Czechoslovakia to defend itself and forcing it to relinquish the Sudetenland to Hitler, the West sealed Czechoslovakia’s fate: The Nazis conquered the country the following spring.

Langfan, who has spent decades studying Israel’s security situation, warns that Obama, aided by England France and the European Union, is pressuring Israel to weaken itself by ceding territory to a terrorist Palestinian Authority that remains virulently anti-Semitic and depicts Israelis in terms reminiscent of Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels.

Kerry calls Turkish counterpart, asks for Ankara's help in restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace process; Ankara turns down request

Yet another textbook case of "smart diplomacy". Few around the world seem to respect Obama.

(JPost) US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu this week, asking for Turkey's help in restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported on Saturday.

Turkey turned down the request citing bad relations between Ankara and Jerusalem and saying the responsibility to fix the murky relations between the two countries falls on Israel.

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Kenya's PM, who claims to be Obama's cousin, protests losing election, police respond with tear gas

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga challenged his election loss in court on Saturday, alleging widespread ballot rigging in a fresh test of Kenyan democracy five years after a disputed vote triggered deadly tribal violence.

Shortly before the petition was filed, police outside the Supreme Court fired teargas to disperse a rally of around 100 Odinga backers. They were urged by the outgoing prime minister to stay calm and trust in the law to resolve his complaint.

Odinga's complaint threatens to prolong the period of uncertainty shadowing east Africa's largest economy.

Analysts say a swift, transparent resolution of the row will be critical to restoring Kenya's reputation as a stable democracy. Big Western donors worry about a nation seen as a vital ally in a regional struggle against militant Islam.

Odinga, head of the CORD coalition, refuses to accept the slim first-round election win by Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court over the explosion of bloodshed in 2007 that left more than 1,200 people dead.

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