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The numbing death toll in Egypt’s streets

Over 500 die in clashes between police and pro-Morsi groups.

Khalil Hamra/AP

When you went to sleep last night, 278 people were reported dead in Egypt after violent clashes between riot police and supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi. When you woke up this morning, the death toll had jumped to 525. Egypt is once again on our country’s front pages (see below for every story this morning), and once again its people are bleeding, screaming and dying as photographers capture the chaos. As the fledgling interim government declared a state of emergency, an end to the violence and uncertainty that’s defined Egypt’s summer is nowhere in sight.

Elsewhere today, five separate car bombs in Baghdad killed at least 28 people and wounded over 100, reports The Guardian. Among the carnage was one blast that erupted only a few hundred metres outside of the highly fortified green zone. Earlier this week, BBC News reported that 16 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a cafe in Balad, which lies north of Baghdad.

This week’s incidents are part of a sustained wave of death in Iraq. During the holy month of Ramadan, BBC News estimates that 670 people have died at the hands of attacks—mostly in Baghdad—that see Sunni militants attack Shia Muslims. The numbers are numbing: 525 dead in a matter of hours in Egypt; 670 dead in a month in Iraq, in addition to thousands since spring; untold thousands dead in Syria since its civil war broke out.

What’s left but to simply hope the numbers stop rising?


What’s above the fold this morning?

The Globe and Mail leads with violence in Egypt that the newspaper says left at least 278 people dead, but which had grown to 525 by this morning. The National Post fronts the same violence, which has left more than 3,000 injured in Egypt. The Toronto Star goes above the fold with Egypt’s state of emergency and suspension of citizens’ rights. The Ottawa Citizen leads with the fights in Egypt that broke out when police cleared out pro-Mohamed Morsi camps. iPolitics fronts the irrationality of the tax-hating fringe. CBC.ca leads with the rising death toll in Egypt. CTV News leads with the same rising death toll. National Newswatch showcases a Postmedia story that says Prime Minister Stephen Harper can regain his momentum if he can come up with something to distract attention from the Senate expenses scandal.


Stories that will be (mostly) missed

1. Immigration. Air force mechanic Deepak Sharma, 33, who has fought overseas, has tried unsuccessfully to secure visas for his Indian parents to visit Canada to see their sick grandchild. 2. Wireless. Verizon may step away from potential attempts to acquire both Wind Mobile and Mobilicity as it focuses on forming a bid to acquire valuable spectrum in an upcoming auction.
3. Alcohol. New figures released by the Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles suggest that about one in five British Columbians who challenge a roadside ban successfully overturn the penalty. 4. Justice. A judge in the Northwest Territories declared a mistrial when the court couldn’t find enough French jurors, a problem not faced by the territory’s justice system since the 1990s.
5. Somalia. Humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders has pulled all of its resources out of Somalia amidst a wave of attacks on its aid workers—some apparently helped by official authorities. 6. Nigeria. Military officials say they’ve killed Momodu Bama, the second-in-command of radical Islamist group Boko Haram, which has been blamed for thousands of deaths in the country.

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