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ByHamzaHendawi The Associated Press CAIRO A string of sexual assaults on women during celebrations of Egypt's pres- idential inauguration — in- cluding a mass attack on a 19-year-old student who was stripped in Cairo's Tahrir Square — prompted outrage Monday as a video emerged purportedly show- ing the teenager, bloodied and naked, surrounded by dozens of men. Seven men were arrested in connection with the as- sault and police were in- vestigating 27 other com- plaints of sexual harass- ment against women during Sunday's rallies by tens of thousands of peo- ple celebrating Abdel-Fat- tah el-Sissi's inauguration late into the night, security officials said. Sexual violence has in- creasingly plagued large gatherings during the past three years of turmoil fol- lowing the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and women's groups complained Mon- day that tough new laws have not done enough. Twenty-nine women's rights groups released a joint statement accusing the government of failing do enough to address the spiraling outbreak of mob attacks on women. The groups said they had doc- umented more than 250 cases of "mass sexual rape and mass sexual assaults" from November 2012 to January 2014. "Combatting that phe- nomena requires a compre- hensive national strategy," said the statement signed by the women's groups. Last week, authorities issued a decree declaring sexual harassment a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. The decree amended Egypt's current laws on abuse, which did not criminalize sexual ha- rassment and only vaguely referred to such offenses as "indecent assault." Sexual harassment has been one of Egypt's endur- ing social ills, embedded in the country's patriarchal conservative culture, where women are seen as inferior to men. Movies often por- tray women as sex objects, leaving them vulnerable to men who feel empowered by the absence of a strong legal deterrent. Sexual assaults have in- creased dramatically in fe- rocity and in number in the three years since Mubarak's ouster, with Tahrir square, birthplace of the 2011 upris- ing, the site of multiple sex- ual attacks on women amid the large crowds. In the latest incident, video footage posted on social media purportedly shows the student com- pletely naked amid a crowd of men, parts of her body bloodied as policemen struggled to escort her out of Tahrir. The video ap- peared authentic and was consistent with AP report- ing of the incident. Seven men were arrested in connection with the at- tack on the student, who was hospitalized, said the officials. They did not elab- orate on her condition and spoke on condition of ano- nymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Interior Ministry, in charge of police, iden- tified the seven suspects and gave their ages as be- tween 15 and 49. It said they were arrested for "harass- ing several girls" but made no mention of the student. A policeman was injured while the seven were be- ing arrested, the ministry added. Authorities investigat- ing other reports of sex- ual assaults were exam- ining a dozen videos from security cameras or from bystanders who filmed the incidents on their mobile phones, the officials said. EGYPT Se xu al a ss au lt o n student sparks outrage By Josh Lederman The Associated Press WASHINGTON Aiming to alleviate the burden of stu- dent loan debt, President Barack Obama expanded a program Monday that lets borrowers pay no more than 10 percent of their in- come every month, and threw his support behind more sweeping Senate leg- islation targeting the issue. Flanked by student loan borrowers at the White House, Obama said the ris- ing costs of college have left America's middle class feel- ing trapped. He put his pen to a presidential memoran- dum that he said could help an additional 5 million bor- rowers lower their monthly payments. "I'm only here because this country gave me a chance through education," Obama said. "We are here to- day because we believe that in America, no hard-work- ing young person should be priced out of a higher edu- cation." An existing repayment plan Obama announced in 2010 lets borrowers pay no more than 10 percent of their monthly income in pay- ments, but is only available for those who started bor- rowing after October 2007. Obama's memo expands that program by making opening it to those who borrowed anytime in the past. Obama also announced he is directing the govern- ment to renegotiate con- tracts with federal student loan servicers to encourage them to make it easier for borrowers to avoid default- ing on their loans. And he asked Treasury and Educa- tion departments to work with major tax preparers, in- cluding H&R Block and the makers of TurboTax, to in- crease awareness about tu- ition tax credits and flexible repayment options available to borrowers. "It's going to make prog- ress,butnotenough,"Obama said. "We need more." To that end, Obama used the East Room appearance to endorse legislation that would let college graduates with heavy debts refinance their loans. The bill's chief advocate, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, joined a half-dozen other Democratic lawmakers as Obama urged Congress to pass the bill. EDUCATION Obama expands student loan payment relief JACQUELYNMARTIN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS President Barack Obama shakes hands a er signing a Presidential Memorandum on reducing the burden of student loan debt on Monday in the East Room of the White House in Washington. By Pete Yost The Associated Press WASHINGTON After years of delays, four former guards from the security firm Blackwater Worldwide are facing trial in the kill- ings of 14 Iraqi civilians and the wounding of 18 others in bloodshed that inflamed anti-American sentiment around the globe. Whether the shootings were self-defense or an unprovoked attack, the carnage of Sept. 16, 2007 was seen by critics of the George W. Bush admin- istration as an illustra- tion of a war gone horri- bly wrong. A trial in the nearly 7-year-old case is sched- uled to begin with jury se- lection on Wednesday, bar- ring last-minute legal devel- opments. Prosecutors plan to call dozens of Iraqis to testify in what the Justice Department says is likely to be the largest group of for- eign witnesses ever to travel to the U.S. to participate in a criminal trial. The violence at the Nisoor Square traffic cir- cle in downtown Baghdad was the darkest episode of contractor violence during the war in Iraq, becoming one more diplomatic disas- ter in a war that had many. Iraqi officials, who wanted the guards tried in a local court, were outraged. In the trial, defense lawyers will focus on the guards' state of mind in a city that was a battle- ground. Car bombs and insur- gents were daily perils for the Blackwater teams. As part of its work with the State Department, Black- water had a team of 15 in- telligence analysts who pro- duced daily threat updates, colored maps of a city rid- dled with bomb blasts. "The core disputed is- sue in this prosecution is self-defense — whether the defendants believed that deadly force was neces- sary to defend themselves and their teammates from an insurgent attack, and whether that belief was ob- jectively reasonable," law- yers for the guards said in court filings. Reasonableness shouldn't be judged on "hindsight analysis in a courtroom seven years and thousands of miles removed from the event," the lawyers argue in the filings. COURT Seven years later, Blackwater guards go on trial Landscape/Fence Steve's Tractor &LandscapeService •FenceBuilding•Landscaping • Trenching • Rototilling • Disking • Mowing • Ridging • Post Hole Digging • Blade Work • Sprinkler Installation • Concrete Work Cont. 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