Eight international troops including three Poles and three Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan over the last 24 hours, a military source said Thursday.
News of the latest casualties came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy conducted a tribute ceremony in Paris for 10 French troops killed in an ambush near Kabul three days before.

Meanwhile, five NATO occupation troops in Afghanistan were killed in bombings, as the number of US military deaths rose up to 451 according to the US govt.

Carole has more photos:

I also received a video of the protest that took place in Toronto, Canada, on 11 April in solidarity with the Mahalla workers:

And here are letters of solidarity from Canadian labor unions:

April 11, 2008
His Excellency Hosni Mubarak
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdin Palace
Cairo, Egypt
Re: Egyptian Workers at the El Mahalla El Kurba
Dear President Mubarak:
On behalf of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), representing 3.2 million working women and men across Canada, I strongly condemn the recent violent acts against the workers of the El Mahala El Kurba factory in the Nile Delta.
The CLC has been informed that thousands of textile workers at El Mahalla El Kurba went on strike for increased wages to compensate for continually rising inflation. We were shocked to learn that, to disperse protesters, the police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd. Many people were injured and hundreds acquired breathing problems resulting from gas inhalation.
We urge the Egyptian government to ensure an immediate stop to all attacks on workers and involved citizens, and immediately release all political prisoners who have been detained for their labor and political activism.
We note that, in the last few years, Egypt has witnessed many workers’ protests and strikes, in a number of industries, particularly in the spinning and weaving sectors. Your governmnet has cracked down on political opposition, jailed journalists and editors, closed human rights organization and imprisoned hundreds of political activists.
The CLC urges you to take direct action against these violations of basic human and trade union rights – namely the right to organize, freedom of expression, freedom of opinion and freedom to publish information.
We are also calling for the immediate enforcement of the Administrative Court judgement annulling all unfair decisions to close the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) headquarters and allow its legal right to register.
I look forward to your immediate and decisive action in these matters.
Very sincerely,
Kenneth V. Georgetti
President
Canadian Labour Congress

From the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE):
April 22, 2008
His Excellency Hosni Mubarak
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdin Palace
Cairo, Egypt
Your Excellency:
We write to express grave concern about the recent acts of violence against textile workers in El Mahalla, an industrial town in the Nile Delta. We are told that several workers have been killed and that more than 250 workers were arrested after the April 6 strike at the factory, one of the largest in the Middle East.
We are aware that thousands of textile workers, on strike for better wages to cope with continually rising inflation, have faced rubber bullets and tear gas. We understand that many workers were injured as the police resorted to this violent response.
In recent years, we are aware that your government has cracked down on political opposition, jailing journalists and other critics, shutting down human rights groups and detaining political activists.
We join with many others in urging you to stop the attacks on citizens and workers, particularly those at El Mahalla, and to release political prisoners detained because of their labor and political activism.
We further urge you to guarantee citizens’ democratic rights to gather, strike and protest the failure of the government to guarantee a safe and dignified living, fair wages and suitable working conditions. Also of concern is the closure of the Center for Trade Union and Workers services headquarters. We urge you to reverse that decision.
We endorse the call for a public investigation into the El Mahalla events with a view to bringing to justice those who ordered shots to be fired on strikers. Clearly, these recent incidents of violence suggest the need to insure the economic stability, social justice and protection of citizens’ rights to security, equality and dignified living.
Yours truly,
Paul Moist
National President
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
Claude Généreux
National Secretary-Treasurer
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
cc:
Ambassador Dr. Mahmoud El-Saeed, Egyptian Embassy, Ottawa
Egyptian Consulate, Montreal
The Council of Ministers
Karam Saber, Executive Manager, Land Center for Human Rights
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Maxime Bernier, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister
Canadian Embassy, Cairo
Ken Georgetti, President, Canadian Labour Congress
National Executive Board members, Canadian Union of Public Employees

From the International Solidarity Committee, Ontario Division, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE):
Statement of Solidarity with Egyptian Workers
10 April 2008
CUPE Ontario International Solidarity Committee Condemns Attacks on Striking Egyptian Workers
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario International Solidarity Committee strongly condemns the latest round of repression by the Egyptian government against workers and protesters in El-Mahalla, an industrial town in the Nile Delta.
Eyewitness statements from workers, human rights, and solidarity organizations in Egypt indicate that thousands of workers and their families have been targeted by government troops in the area. At least two protesters have been killed by security forces, over 300 workers arrested, and the area placed under siege.
The repression follows a courageous call for a one-day general strike, originating in El-Mahalla, and supported widely by workers, human rights groups, and political organizations across the country. El Mahalla Factory is one of the largest textile factories in the Middle East.
CUPE stands firmly with our Egyptian brothers and sisters in their fight against neo-liberalism and state repression. We call on the Egyptian government to immediately release all those arrested in the last few days, particularly children. The Egyptian government must immediately cease the practice of torture in detention and bring to justice all those involved in human rights abuses. Furthermore, we call on the government to respect the right to strike and organize, and for workers at El Mahalla to be granted a livable wage and decent working conditions.
CUPE International Solidarity Committee urges its members to send messages of protest to Egyptian officials in Canada as well as emails of support to the striking workers (see below). We note the call by workers for further strike action on May 4th and will continue to stand in solidarity with all workers in the region.

And I received the following message from Sweden:

We in the SAC, Swedens Workers Central Organization, protest strongly and with anger against the violence that the aggressive agents of the police used on the protesting workers. The Egyptian workers need to be treated with the fullest respect, as they deserve, since they create everything.
When they struggle for what is just and fair, their demands should be listened to and fulfilled. Using brute, fatal force and lethal weapons against those who feed and dress a world is unacceptable! These simple demands should be met.
– all activists should be released immediately
– the right to strike left untouched
– the right to demonstrate should be left untouched
– no more violence against the workers of Egypt
– justice for the injured workers and the family of the murdered boy
– the demands of the workers should be met
The International committé of the SAC
Per Lundin

The court building was under tight siege by Mubarak’s Central Security Forces, as the trial of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders was in process, on the ground floor. The troops restricted access of families and the group’s supporters into the building, as the verdict was expected to out. And it was a rotten verdict. The judge rejected the appeal of Khairat el-Shatter and his colleagues to lift the govt’s freeze on their funds.

Khaled Salam, the editor of Ikhwan Web reminds us that the judge in that MB case, is the same Judge who sent Dr. Ayman Nour and Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim to prison.

And more news are trickling from the Tora gulag on the appalling prison conditions the Brothers are kept under:

The Muslim Brotherhood detainees in the southern Cairo prison of Tura (28 detainees) are facing harsh and poor treatment by prison administration which succumbs to the pressures of the State Security Police Service. Detainees are kept in their prison cells for 23 hours every day and get only one hour break outdoors. At least six individuals are kept in 2×3 meters prison cells. Moreover, detainees were prevented from performing the Friday Prayer during the last two weeks
As for the unsanitary conditions that these political detainees face, their cells lack toilets. Available toilets are shared by other inmates and have no doors!

On Wednesday, a small group of journalists and detainees’ relatives held a vigil in front of the Press Syndicate, denouncing the trial of civilians in military courts, and demanding the release of MB journalist Ahmad Ezzedin.

On the previous day (Tuesday), tens of doctors held a silent protest in front of Dar el-Hekma (Doctor’s Syndicate) in downtown Cairo, demanding the release of 22 of their colleagues, who were detained in Mubarak’s ongoing crackdown on the Brotherhood.

A Canadian federal court judge ruled on Monday not to deport a man accused of being a national security threat to his native Egypt for he could be tortured there.
Judge Andrew MacKay made the ruling despite acknowledging that Mahmoud Jaballah made a series of questionable phone calls from Toronto to what were most likely terrorist cells around the world, on the day that the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed.
“A reasonable observer would find grounds to believe that he was, or is, a member of a terrorist group,” MacKay stated in his ruling.
Jaballah has been detained since 2001 under one of the Canadian federal government’s controversial security certificates, which allow authorities to detain terrorism suspects indefinitely without charge.
If Canada wants to deport Jaballah, it must find a country free of torture that will take him, the judge ruled.
The Canadian government has been arguing that, the 44-year-old father of six, is a threat to national security, for the past seven years.
He was first arrested in 1999 on allegations that he was linked to the Egyptian group Al-Jihad, which has worked in cohorts with Al-Qaeda. Months later, these accusations were trashed, but he was again arrested in 2001, and this time, held under a security certificate, after the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) said there was fresh evidence linking him to the group.
The government has also accused Jaballah of fighting alongside Muslim extremists, in wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Jaballah’s legal team have refused these accusations, claiming that the information CSIS had received was unreliable.
A federal court judge, earlier this year, upheld a decision not to grant Jaballah asylum, as a person in need of protection from torture.