Hamas man dies in custody

I have been searching Google for reports about the death in Egypt of Yousef Abu Zuhri, the brother of a Hamas spokesman. It's covered in Russia, China, Britain, Israel and several Arab countries, but so far the only major American news organisation to mention it seems to be Fox News. 

Zhuhri, 38, was arrested by the Egyptian authorities in April and died on Monday while still in custody. The Egyptian governmentsays he died of natural causes – "a drop in blood circulation" resulting from liver and heart disease. Hamas says he died from weeks of torture.

The Egyptian Chronicles blog notes that Al-Aqsa channel's broadcast in Egypt was suddenly cut off just as it was announcing the torture allegations.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 14 October 2009.