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Egypt faces a long and difficult battle with militants, the country's president has said, in his first remarks since a deadly attack in the Sinai region.

In the Year 1789, the timeline's starting point, homosexuality was illegal in 126 countries. View changing laws over time * with the exception of the Chechen Republic. Note: Where possible, former colonies have been referenced by their current name. Source: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rightsand the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association For more information on the data behind the map and timeline, see our full notes on the data. For more information on gay rights, visit the UN's Free and Equal campaign website. Share this story Follow @LaNUBlog & @Hon_KingSIMEO on Twitter for Updates

Millions of people continue to live in places that outlaw same-sex relationships and prosecute people for being gay. In five countries and in parts of two others, homosexuality is still punishable with the death penalty, while a further 70 imprison citizens because of their sexual orientation. Even where homosexuality is legal, many countries treat those in same-sex relationships differently, such as having an unequal age of consent or a ban on marriage. In Russia, host of the Sochi Winter Olympics, a law banning the promotion of "non- traditional" sexualityto under-18s was introduced last year. So, where is it illegal to be gay? Which countries allow same-sex marriages? Explore the map of UN member states below to find out.Countries are coloured and categorised by their most anti-gay or pro-equality laws. iFrame Notes on the data:The map shows an overview of the legal status of gay people living in UN member states. They are coloured by their most anti-gay or pro-equality...

The Egyptian authorities have arrested seven men accused of appearing in a video apparently showing a gay wedding. The video, showing a group of men celebrating on a Nile river boat, was widely shared on social media.

Abuja - A leading Egyptian football club has launched an investigation into one of its players, after he showed support for ousted Islamist President, Mohammed Morsi. Egypt's soccer federation said it would ban the player, Ahmed Abdel Zaher, from competing until an investigation is completed. After scoring a goal, Zaher displayed the four-finger Muslim Brotherhood signal that symbolises a raid by security forces, on a pro-Morsi protest camp in Cairo in August that killed hundreds of Islamists. The army overthrew Morsi on July 3 and installed an interim government. It has since launched a security crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters. About 2,000 members have so far been arrested, including Morsi and other senior leaders. Security forces have killed hundreds of Morsi supporters. Many Egyptians turned against the Brotherhood, after Morsi’s troubled year in office and now support the man who overthrew him, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In October, an Egyptia...

Abuja - The Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) has given the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) a two-week deadline to provide it with information on how funds appropriated to it in the 2013 Budget were spent. This is part of efforts to ensure transparency in the corporation. “We would like to know how many aircrafts the Corporation has and how many is on hire, how many belongs to them and how much is being spent on the hiring of the aircraft. We would like to have these details,” said Chairman of the Committee, Senator Magnus Abe. The committee also insisted that the NNPC should tender all necessary details into the crude swap agreement currently in place, as well as information on petroleum products. The group managing director of the NNPC, Andrew Yakubu had in a letter to the National Assembly Liaison Office, requested for sufficient time from the committee so as to submit the needed information. Reacting to the request by NNPC, Abe said, “I agree with NNPC ...

Cairo - Egypt is bracing for deposed president Mohammed Morsi to go on trial on Monday, when he is expected to make his first public appearance since the military ousted him in July. Morsi's supporters, hammered by a bloody and far-reaching police campaign since the Islamist president's overthrow and arrest, are determined not to allow the day to pass quietly. "This is not just a trial of an elected president, it's a trial of the people's will," said Imam Yousef, a protest leader in the pro-Morsi Anti-Coup Alliance. The coalition, led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, has called for peaceful protests as the trial convenes at a police academy adjacent to Cairo's Tora prison, where much of the Brotherhood's leadership is jailed. Police say they are ready to deal with any outbreak of violence. "There is a security plan to secure the court and [Morsi's] transport to the court room," a police general told AFP. The security official said...

Three people, including a girl aged eight, died when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a wedding party outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo. LaNUBlog.com latestarticlesbyiykemandela.blogspot.com At least nine others were wounded in the attack in Giza, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Egypt's Coptic Christian community has been targeted by some Islamists who accuse the Church of backing the army's overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in July. The unidentified attackers fired indiscriminately as people left the church. Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church *.6-11 million members in Egypt *.About 1 million members outside the country *.Copts believe their Church dates back to about 50 AD *.Led by the Pope of Alexandria, Tawadros II *.Services take place partly in ancient Coptic language (based on language used at the time of the Pharaohs) BBC Religion: Coptic Orthodox Church A man and a girl were killed outside the church and a ...

Egyptian police have fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of students staging an anti-military protest at Cairo's al-Azhar University, reports say. Students had blocked the main road leading to the campus and threw rocks as security forces drew near. Clashes at the country's top Islamic institution erupted when students tried to take their protest off the campus. Supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi have staged regular anti-army protests since he was ousted on 3 July. There were no immediate reports of casualties at the al-Azhar protest. The campus is close to Rabaa Square where Islamists set up a huge protest camp that security forces raided in August, leaving hundreds dead and sparking days of unrest. A Reuters witness said some of the students were trying to reach the square, when they were cut off by the security forces. There were also reports of scuffles at a demonstration at Cairo University between supporters and opponents of Mr Morsi. Hundreds of people...

Customs agents have seized one million fake anti-anxiety pills in transit at Zurich airport, Swiss officials say. The four-crate shipment was on its way from China to Egypt, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products said. The tablets are counterfeit versions of Xanax - a drug manufactured by Pfizer to treat severe anxiety or panic disorder. Tests showed the drugs contained no active ingredients, but would be very difficult to recognise as fakes. The counterfeit drugs were packed into four crates which weighed over 400kg, said the agency, also known as Swissmedic. "Analyses in the Swissmedic laboratory revealed that the drugs, which are prescribed to treat symptoms of acute anxiety, contained no active ingredients whatsoever," Swissmedic said in a statement, adding that they were being destroyed. "According to experts, the drugs would be unrecognisable as counterfeits at first glance." Developing countries such as Egypt are considered a major market for the mu...

An American found hanged in his police cell in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya on Sunday was believed to have committed suicide, Egyptian security officials said. They said the body of James Henry, 55, who told authorities he was a retired officer, was found at noon at Ismailiya Awal police station. Henry had been detained in August for violating a curfew imposed because of the latest wave of political unrest sweeping Egypt. He was stopped on the road between El-Arish and Rafah in North Sinai and told authorities he was on his way to the Gaza Strip. Officials told AFP that a US embassy delegation had visited Henry in his cell last week. His death comes a day after he was told authorities were extending his preventative detention by a further 30 days.

Long known for its pyramids and ancient civilisation, Egypt is the largest Arab country and has played a central role in Middle Eastern politics in modern times. In the 1950s President Gamal Abdul Nasser pioneered Arab nationalism and the non-aligned movement, while his successor Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel and turned back to the West. The protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 put Egypt at the crossroads once again, as they led to an Islamist Muslim Brotherhood breakthrough at subsequently annulled parliamentary polls and a narrow win for the Brotherhood candidate in the presidential election of 2012. Egypt's ancient past and the fact that it was one of the first Middle Eastern countries to open up to the West following Napoleon's invasion have given it a claim to be the intellectual and cultural leader in the region. The head of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque is one of the highest authorities in Sunni Islam. A popular uprising in early 2011 forced Presid...

Cairo - Egypt may instal security cameras at tourist sites to deter militants from targeting visitors, the Interior Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday, just hours after suspected Islamists mounted another fatal attack on police. There's a security plan in place in tourist areas that will maintain stability in these areas and there is complete coordination,’’ said the spokesman, Hany Abdel Latif. "We expected all these problems because we are at war against terrorism,’’ he said without elaborating. Al Qaeda-inspired militants have targeted police and soldiers almost daily in the Sinai Peninsula since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in early July. The attacks are the most sustained since an Islamist insurgency that was crushed by then President Hosni Mubarak in the 1990s, when militants killed tourists, government officials and policemen. A total of 1,200 people died on both sides. Gunmen killed a police officer and wounded another in the Suez Canal city ...

Cairo - Egypt's interim government has revoked the permit for a non-governmental organisation set up by the Muslim Brotherhood. Tuesday's move by the Cabinet is the latest in its push to dismantle the Brotherhood, from which ousted president Mohammed Morsi hails. It follows a 23 September court ruling that banned the Brotherhood and its affiliates, and ordered its assets confiscated. The Brotherhood's NGO was registered in March, while Morsi was still in power. It was set up as one of the two main legal faces of the Islamist group, which was outlawed for most of its 85-year existence. Morsi was ousted in a popularly-backed military coup on 3 July. Since then, hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and the group's top figures have been arrested. Morsi is being held incommunicado at a secret location.

Cairo -Suspected militants killed nine people in attacks in Egypt on Monday, a day after clashes between Islamists and police left dozens dead and dashed hopes of restored calm after president Mohamed Morsi's ouster. In south Sinai, a car bomb explosion outside provincial police headquarters killed three policemen, the interior ministry said, and gunmen shot dead six soldiers near the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya. The attacks came a day after Islamists, hoping to galvanise their flagging protest movement, clashed with police as they tried to march on a Cairo square steeped in symbolism. Assailants firing rocket-propelled grenades on Monday also damaged a satellite communication dish in Cairo that routes international calls, police said. Before dawn on Monday, unidentified gunmen also exchanged fire with soldiers near the Giza pyramids for nearly half an hour, with no casualties reported, a security official said. At least 51 people were killed the previous day in clashes, most...

Al-Qaeda has evolved as prominent figures are killed - including, of course, its leader Osama Bin Laden in 2011 - and the geographical focus of militant activity shifts. Here we profile some of the most prominent names: Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman al-Zawahiri, an eye surgeon who helped found the Egyptian militant group Islamic Jihad, was named as the new leader of al-Qaeda on 16 June 2011, a few weeks after Osama Bin Laden's death. In a statement, al-Qaeda vowed to continue its jihad under the new leadership against "crusader America and its servant Israel, and whoever supports them". Zawahiri was already the group's chief ideologue and was believed by some experts to have been the "operational brains" behind the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. Zawahiri was number two - behind only Bin Laden - in the 22 "most wanted terrorists" list announced by the US government in 2001 and continues to have a $25m (£16m) bounty on his head. One of his wiv...

At least 50 people have been killed and scores hurt in Egypt in clashes between police and supporters of the deposed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. More than 200 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested in Cairo, where most of the deaths were reported. Supporters of Mr Morsi marched in several cities, as the military-backed government marked the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Morsi supporters say he was deposed in a military coup in July. 'Critical time' Hundreds of people had gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to celebrate the anniversary. Jets and Apache helicopters flew overhead in formation, as part of a grand display of military hardware by the government. The crowd cheered the flypasts, a number of people carrying portraits of defence chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Some want him to stand as Egypt's next president. But the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Cairo says supporters of Mr Morsi also took to the streets in their thousa...

Cairo - Defying a crackdown, thousands of supporters of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood marched through a Cairo suburb on Friday toward the site of their former protest camp that was crushed by security forces in August, a Reuters witness said. Soldiers and policemen boosted their presence around Rabaa al-Adaweya mosque, the larger of the Brotherhood's two former Cairo sit-ins, as the march approached, the state news agency reported. Egypt has been gripped by political and economic turmoil since army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Islamist Mohamed Mursi, the country's first freely elected president, on 3 July after mass protests against his rule. Hundreds of people were killed when the security forces broke up the Brotherhood sit-ins in August. Friday's protesters loudly chanted slogans calling for Sisi's downfall, and waved Egyptian flags. The Brotherhood is facing one of the toughest crackdowns in its 85-year history. Hundreds of supporters have been ...

Clashes have erupted between supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi, opponents and security forces in the capital, Cairo, and Alexandria. The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Cairo said there had been heavy gunfire and explosions in the city centre. State TV reported further clashes in the northern Sharqiya district and to the east in Giza, as well as in the northern port city of Alexandria. Hundreds have been killed since the military deposed Mr Morsi in July. Our correspondent says the protesters in the capital's Agouza district were chanting "Rabaa, Rabaa", a reference to the square next the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque where a sit-in was cleared by force in August. Thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood have also been detained in the past two months. Several senior figures, including Mr Morsi and the movement's general guide Mohammed Badie, are being held on charges such as incitement to violence and murder. The authorities portray the ...

Clashes have erupted between supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi, opponents and security forces in the capital, Cairo, and Alexandria. The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Cairo said there had been heavy gunfire and explosions in the city centre. State TV reported further clashes in the northern Sharqiya district and to the east in Giza, as well as in the northern port city of Alexandria. Hundreds have been killed since the military deposed Mr Morsi in July. Our correspondent says the protesters in the capital's Agouza district were chanting "Rabaa, Rabaa", a reference to the square next the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque where a sit-in was cleared by force in August. Thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood have also been detained in the past two months. Several senior figures, including Mr Morsi and the movement's general guide Mohammed Badie, are being held on charges such as incitement to violence and murder. The authorities portray the ...